I ran into one of my new friends on the ship Felipe. He works in reception, he’s from Chile, he has two kids both “masculine” (as he puts it) and has such an easy going attitude it makes me think that I’m a real uptight and depressive fuck. I asked him where he was headed and he told me Tortola’s botanical gardens. He asked me where I was headed and I decided then and there I was going to the Botanical gardens. The gardens were lovely but small. I tried to get pictures of these huge lizards that were blue and black but they moved to fast. I did get a shot of some turtles. I asked Felipe why he was coming here since it seemed an interesting choice. He told me he was a grower of things. He wanted t o get some ideas on how to cultivate plants.

Felipe and I parted ways. I was headed back to the ship to do some writing and to get something to eat. He was going to do more exploring. He lightly chastised my choice though. His feeling was that if we have so much time being that the only work we do on the ship is our shows. Every day we should be filling our days with exploration of the islands and not getting back to the boat until the last possible second. That to have that much time and not fill it with drinking smoking, lying on a beach, or at the very least really seeing the places we were visiting, was just a complete waste. I had to agree with him. Even though it feels like I keep seeing the same places maybe I should spend more time seeing them. I asked what types of things he grew, I won’t say what his answer was but it really made me understand where he was coming from