Nine day continued

Tuesday was Antigua and we went to a huge resort called Jolly Harbor. It was a twenty minute bus ride to get there. The buses here are basically mini-vans and for some reason many of my fellow tourists are surprised when locals hop in as well. Apparently when you’re on vacation the word bus and taxi should mean the same thing. We had intermittent rain through the day, but the beach itself was wonderful. Erica made an astute observation that the countryside of Antigua made her think of the Midwest. I agreed there seemed to be a lot of grassy plains, and hills. The feel of the place didn’t scream tropical. At one point our bus driver stopped to give money to a fruit stand in front of a school. I didn’t know what he was doing and I thought he had stopped the bus just to talk to somebody. I thought it was kind of funny so I took a picture. The woman he was talking to was not pleased. He started shouting obscenities at the van. I thought about it for a while as to why she would be mad, and then I figured to her my snapping a picture was an act of arrogance. As if I was sitting in the van thinking “How adorable! They’re trying to raise money for a school by selling fruit. These people are so precious.” Which I wasn’t I was sitting in the van thinking ‘How adorable! He just stopped the van to talk to someone instead of taking us where we want to go. How funny. These people are just precious.” Its easy to fall into the arrogant tourist trap. Especially when you’re going to a beautiful resort to lie around on a beach, on a Tuesday.

Wendsday Bridgetown Barbados. Barbados for the most part reminds me a lot of Cazumel. Its not as gross but it does seem to have completely surrendered itself to the tourist market. Although I’m sure if I went in with Felipe he would take me to some museum and I’d feel like a dick. Went to the boat yard again. Which is just a nice beach and a crazy bar that the crew tends to go to. Didn’t bring my camera though.

I just took a break from writing and ran into Felipe and he mentioned that they have a national park in Barbados he’s thinking of checking out. Ahhhh Felipe stop putting the mirror up to this ugly American.

Thursday St. Lucia. I’m not a fan. Maybe I’m just not giving it a chance. Its just that whenever I get off the boat at this place the merchants are extremely aggressive about selling trinkets and island tours. Its like Roatan in that way, and I always end up hating myself a little because I become the guy who doesn’t even make eye contact with the people and pretending they just don’t exist.

We then finish things off with two days at sea. By the second sea day I have now spent three days straight on the boat. I tend to have little anxiety attacks by the third day. At which point a long walk around the ship tends to settle them down. I worry about the six days at sea we will spend to get to Europe. Since I will also be making yet another attempt to quit smoking. I see a lot of laps around the boat in my future