Apr
23
Tagged with (, , , , ) by Meredith on 23-04-2003

The day started out bad when the pest control guy came around and we had to vacate the room for a while. We decided to take a taxi tour of the island, and of the three drivers’ business cards we had we chose the one A and :R: had taken home from the capital yesterday. (Most cab drivers can serve as tour guides as well, and they’ll offer fixed-rate trips.) We realized we didn’t have the camera, so I went back to the room to look for it. I am notoriously bad at looking for things, but I really couldn’t find it, and I started getting kind of headachy from the fumigation. So I went back to the hotel lobby (it’s several minutes’ walk from our room, by the way) and reported that it wasn’t there and that I was worried. Knowing how bad I am at locating things that are right in front of my face, A got frustrated and went off to look for it; C went after her. They came back a little while later and reported it was nowhere to be found, at which point I really started to panic that it was gone. (This is the several-hundred-dollar digital camera my parents got me for my 21st birthday.) A put in a lost-item report at the front desk, and I continued to freak out. Finally we asked the cab driver - who had been waiting a while by this point - and it turned out he had it! A had left it in the taxi and he had taken it home, figuring it belonged to one of the cruise passengers he’d driven around the day before. (We’d noticed a large cruise ship docked in the harbor.) Although I didn’t know where the driver lived, I hoped it would be somewhere close by so he could run and pick up the camera right away. He didn’t mention doing that, though, so I kept quiet and rode around all day without a camera. (:R: had his, and he took some pictures during the day.) Our first stop on the tour was the distillery for Clarke’s Court rum, which I thought smelled absolutely terrible and didn’t find interesting in the slightest. We drove around for a while after that, passing at least one fort and climbing higher into the mountains. The next time we got out of the cab was at Annandale Falls, where members of the Annandale Jumpers Club were waiting for us. For US$15, they would climb to the top of the rock cliff and dive into the pool below so we could take a picture; it was much too steep a price and we declined. (I felt bad about it, because I did want to see them jump and because they probably don’t make much money doing the stunt. Then again, when a large tour group comes by, they probably make a lot of cash all at once.) From there we drove to Grand Etang National Park, where we had lunch and got another tour. This one involved a lot more walking - and could have included even more if we’d taken the full tour. A and I were rather dismayed that our tour guide kept picking flowers to show us - we could see them just fine, he didn’t need to kill them! He also pointed out the sensitive plant I’ve been looking for for years but never known the name of, but he called it “sleeping flower” so I still don’t know what it’s called. It looks like a tiny fern leaf, but when you touch it the fingers of the leaf close up, making the leaf fold in half. We also saw lovely small white flowers with yellow centers and pretty red stems that looked like coral; the guide called it “bread and cheese” and handed us what he’d picked so we made the best of it by putting it into my ponytail. After the park we headed back toward civilization, and got to pass Grenada’s national stadium, where all the important cricket matches are apparently held. We stopped at a roundabout to wait for the driver’s brother, who handed off the camera to us; after that we went back to the hotel and had tea.

Comments

Sunny on 3 May, 2003 at 11:39 am #

Whew! The driver was probably waiting all day for you to offer him a tip for returning the camera. (He apparently gave up by the end of the day, figuring these Americans were clueless.) In any case, it’s wonderful that he was honest enough to return it — he probably could have gotten more for selling it than he did for spending an entire day driving tourists around. I hope you did give him something extra for his honesty.


Post a Comment
Name:
Email:
Website:
Comments: