JILL’S ARRIVAL DAY!
My goal today was to keep myself occupied until 2:30 when it was time to pick up Jill from the airport. Doesn’t seem like a difficult task but after a week and a half by yourself time starts to go by a little slowly. I gave De Bistro another chance for breakfast and splurged on the bacon omelette. I was very pleased to find that I actually received a bacon omelet! I then headed to the famous Doris’ Fresh Food to get some snacks and was very impressed with her selection – I picked up the fixings for my favorite snack/meal: cheese, crackers and summer sausage. I’m all set.
After spending lots of time just walking around and hanging out, it was finally time to head to the airport, which is clear on the other side of the island. I arrived 20 minutes before her arrival time and parked myself in the waiting area. I was the only person there who didn’t work there, and all the people who worked there hung out together chit chatting. This was the first time I felt like an outsider since I have been here and I didn’t like it. In any event, I finally approached the SVG counter after being there for 45 minutes to ask about the flight. The group that was hanging out in the office (which included a toddler, by the way) looked at me funny and someone came out to see if I had a problem. I asked about the direct flight from Barbados and the woman looked at me like I was a nut and told me there was no such thing, but that there was a plane in the Grenadines somewhere that will eventually arrive. I tried to explain that was impossible and took out the map of the flight routes, pointing to the direct flight from Barbados and she laughed at me and said “oh, no, that’s not right, there is no such thing”. I sat down in frustration and just decided to wait. After 30 more minutes I asked again if they knew where the plane was but apparently the idea of knowing where their planes are is a strange one. I decided to take a drive out of boredom and come back in a bit, keeping my eye out for any planes.
As I drove up the road, I saw my friend Don MacDowell, he and Danette had just arrived back from Martinique about an hour earlier. They welcomed me into their home to use the phone and try to figure out where Jill might be, and as we were enjoying a laugh about my airport experience (as well as their experience that day, which resulted in them having to charter their own plane to get back from Martinique), Don saw a plane fly out of the airport. Danette got on the phone and found out that Jill had finally arrived, but there was some major confusion going on because I never gave Jill any information about where she was staying in Bequia. Even more confused, I rushed back to the airport and was waved over by the immigration officer. Apparently Jill was initally denied immigration because she didn’t have a location here on the island, and I was scolded for the second time in 2 weeks by an immigration officer for not having printouts of all of our plans. Are you kidding me? I could have told them we were staying on the Moon and it would have been fine, they just need something to write down. They don’t have addresses here anyway, I don’t understand how the name of a town or the made up name of a villa will help. Whatever. She then spent some more time in customs because she was behind someone who apparently was bringing in too many cigarettes. But once it was her turn, she had no problem since she had no luggage. Lost by American Airlines before she even made it to Barbados. Great.
Turns out Jill had a nice tour of the Grenadines, having stopped in Union, Canouan and Mustique to pick up and drop off passengers and to get gas. Sounds like the plane is more like the bus, and if you stay on long enough you will eventually get to your destination. Interesting.
We had to go to town to get her a bathing suit and on our way back up the road to Spring in our “glorified go-kart” as Jill calls it, we saw someone standing in the middle of the road. I explained to her that lots of people walk everywhere here and she said “no, that’s not a person”. It was dark, but I did see the 2 eyes glowing and staring at us, and as we approached we realized that it was a bull. Yes, a bull. Standing smack in the middle of the road staring right at us. Thankfully we aren’t driving a red moke. I’m not sure why but I slowed down to pass it and was reminded by Jill that we are in a go-kart and that we needed to get the hell out of there. It never moved and we had a good laugh.
We had a great Christmas Eve Dinner at the Frangi and as usual enjoyed the company of our new island friends at the bar after dinner. When it was time to head home, the moke woudn’t start. Given the luck of the day, we just decided to leave it there and get a ride home. I had forgotten my flashlight and I didn’t want to be telling the story the next day about how the car died as we were going up a hill and it fell off of the bluff, then we were attacked by a bull in the pitch dark. Better to be safe than sorry :)
My goal today was to keep myself occupied until 2:30 when it was time to pick up Jill from the airport. Doesn’t seem like a difficult task but after a week and a half by yourself time starts to go by a little slowly. I gave De Bistro another chance for breakfast and splurged on the bacon omelette. I was very pleased to find that I actually received a bacon omelet! I then headed to the famous Doris’ Fresh Food to get some snacks and was very impressed with her selection – I picked up the fixings for my favorite snack/meal: cheese, crackers and summer sausage. I’m all set.
After spending lots of time just walking around and hanging out, it was finally time to head to the airport, which is clear on the other side of the island. I arrived 20 minutes before her arrival time and parked myself in the waiting area. I was the only person there who didn’t work there, and all the people who worked there hung out together chit chatting. This was the first time I felt like an outsider since I have been here and I didn’t like it. In any event, I finally approached the SVG counter after being there for 45 minutes to ask about the flight. The group that was hanging out in the office (which included a toddler, by the way) looked at me funny and someone came out to see if I had a problem. I asked about the direct flight from Barbados and the woman looked at me like I was a nut and told me there was no such thing, but that there was a plane in the Grenadines somewhere that will eventually arrive. I tried to explain that was impossible and took out the map of the flight routes, pointing to the direct flight from Barbados and she laughed at me and said “oh, no, that’s not right, there is no such thing”. I sat down in frustration and just decided to wait. After 30 more minutes I asked again if they knew where the plane was but apparently the idea of knowing where their planes are is a strange one. I decided to take a drive out of boredom and come back in a bit, keeping my eye out for any planes.
As I drove up the road, I saw my friend Don MacDowell, he and Danette had just arrived back from Martinique about an hour earlier. They welcomed me into their home to use the phone and try to figure out where Jill might be, and as we were enjoying a laugh about my airport experience (as well as their experience that day, which resulted in them having to charter their own plane to get back from Martinique), Don saw a plane fly out of the airport. Danette got on the phone and found out that Jill had finally arrived, but there was some major confusion going on because I never gave Jill any information about where she was staying in Bequia. Even more confused, I rushed back to the airport and was waved over by the immigration officer. Apparently Jill was initally denied immigration because she didn’t have a location here on the island, and I was scolded for the second time in 2 weeks by an immigration officer for not having printouts of all of our plans. Are you kidding me? I could have told them we were staying on the Moon and it would have been fine, they just need something to write down. They don’t have addresses here anyway, I don’t understand how the name of a town or the made up name of a villa will help. Whatever. She then spent some more time in customs because she was behind someone who apparently was bringing in too many cigarettes. But once it was her turn, she had no problem since she had no luggage. Lost by American Airlines before she even made it to Barbados. Great.
Turns out Jill had a nice tour of the Grenadines, having stopped in Union, Canouan and Mustique to pick up and drop off passengers and to get gas. Sounds like the plane is more like the bus, and if you stay on long enough you will eventually get to your destination. Interesting.
We had to go to town to get her a bathing suit and on our way back up the road to Spring in our “glorified go-kart” as Jill calls it, we saw someone standing in the middle of the road. I explained to her that lots of people walk everywhere here and she said “no, that’s not a person”. It was dark, but I did see the 2 eyes glowing and staring at us, and as we approached we realized that it was a bull. Yes, a bull. Standing smack in the middle of the road staring right at us. Thankfully we aren’t driving a red moke. I’m not sure why but I slowed down to pass it and was reminded by Jill that we are in a go-kart and that we needed to get the hell out of there. It never moved and we had a good laugh.
We had a great Christmas Eve Dinner at the Frangi and as usual enjoyed the company of our new island friends at the bar after dinner. When it was time to head home, the moke woudn’t start. Given the luck of the day, we just decided to leave it there and get a ride home. I had forgotten my flashlight and I didn’t want to be telling the story the next day about how the car died as we were going up a hill and it fell off of the bluff, then we were attacked by a bull in the pitch dark. Better to be safe than sorry :)
3 comments:
Y NO SCUBA DIVING;(FROM KEVIN
Y NO SCUBA DIVING;(FROM KEVIN
Y NO SCUBA DIVING;(FROM KEVIN
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