Recently, the horse team (Kristina and I) had an 'open weekend', as it is called here. Really just a mini-holiday or a long weekend. Our open weekend lasted from Saturday the 28th of May till Tuesday the 31st. We decided to go to Union, one of the southernmost of the Grenadines, which are all the islands in this country except the biggest (St. Vincent, where I live). There are around 30 of these smaller islands called Grenadines, and many of them are uninhabited. Not quite your idea of a desert island (with one palm and white sand), but really small nonetheless.
We (A friend from the school named Maria, Kristina, and I) decided to take the slow ferry from Kingstown to Union, which took us approximately four hours. It was nice, and I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out that the ferry was Norwegian! Many of the Norwegian signs had not been removed, and through a little detective work we figured out that the ferry had been in use on the west coast of Norway, maybe in the Bergen area (in the 60's and 70's I would guess). It was very interesting to see signs telling us not to smoke and where to eat in Norwegian. I spent most of the trip lying down reading
The Two Towers, because I was exhausted from our two hour long shopping spree in Kingstown (I hate shopping (when it's not for books), and especially when it's hot).
The next day, after a bad night's sleep in a bedroom that was either full of persistent mosquitoes or far too cold with the air condition on, we got a ride to the island 'next door' with one of Maria's many contacts on Union Island. The ride was fun, but a little scary (and quite bumpy), since we were brought across the sea in a tiny inflatable dinghy. On Palm Island, we met another of Maria's contacts, who showed us around on the island. He worked in the hotel that owned most of the island, and also for some of the rich people who owned private holiday houses. I really identified with him, and to me, the houses we walked past seemed like a totally different dominion, and I felt like I didn't belong there. I was peeking in the back window at a world of long baths in private pools, champagne in the morning, massages and golfing. And I really felt that I had no right to enjoy the paradise for free. We had lunch with another worker, who made a wonderful lunch of lobster and lots of other super-delicious things. We discussed politics and talked about the way of the world. Then we enjoyed the white beach and the warm, clear water, before we headed back to Union Island on the worker transport boat.
We then changed into tourists. We ate a good meal at a restaurant belonging to one of the nicer hotels that evening, and the next day we went on a sailing trip with a big catamaran round to some of the other Grenadines. During that trip, we had unlimited drinks and meals included. The first stop on the trip was Palm Island, and now we saw it from the other side. We were tourists who dropped in for half an hour to swim and enjoy the beach. On another island on the trip, we could have bought T-shirts with texts such as 'Sail More - Work Less'. One of the places we went to that day was Tobago Cays Marine Park. There, I got the opportunity of snorkeling with sea turtles. It was wonderful and magical. I saw big ones, smaller ones, and huge ones. One of the big ones had a 'pilot fish' - a fish (a sucker fish) that had connected itself to the turtle's shell. The turtles were grazing on the seaweed that grew on the sandy bottom, and they looked really peaceful.
I enjoyed the trip very much, and it was especially interesting to see the flipside of the commercial coin. To feel like there is a world where you are clearly on a lower rung of the ladder, and that I didn't belong at all, was an interesting experience to me. It was a bit strange to reverse it and to be able to jump up the ladder the next day, but I feel like I have gained a new perspective on tourism through this trip.
Books read: 23
Pages read: 6204
