barbados / martinique / barbados : may 2011
Though this was just one of many international trips for hops, it was my first trip outside my home country. Not only that, I would be traveling to Martinique, which is legally, technically and (it turns out) culturally part of France, where they speak primarily French. I did not speak any French when I made this selection. I gave myself about a month on Fluenz French, and fortunately, hops knows some French from previous trips to Europe.
In addition to the language barriers, and my inexperience with international travel, and the fact that we'd need a rental car on Martinique, where all the rentals are stick -- which I don't know how to drive, I have no experience with high humidity. I grew up in high heat and enjoy it now once in a while, but I've never spent much time in high humidity. I had no idea if I'd like it, but I figured that everyone loves the Lesser Antilles, so I probably would also.
Despite many miscalculations, mistakes, and blunders, I got one thing right: I love the Lesser Antilles (or at least, I love Martinique).
The trip involved a lot less prep work than I expected, and as it turns out, we probably could have done a little better with planning, but we didn't overplan, and we certainly didn't do poorly once we got to the Antilles. For the trip, I updated my sparse wardrobe with a couple of linen shirts, a lightweight fishing shirt, some seersucker shorts, some expensive linen trousers, some expensive silk trousers, and a polo shirt. I'd read that the dress code on Barbados for dinner tended toward formal, and I really didn't have any formal. I also picked up three pairs of "you only need one pair" underpants and a big floppy sun hat.
hops didn't really get any new clothes.
We stocked up on our favorite waterproof sunscreen, some insect repellant, plane snacks, security/travel wallets, and vaccinations. I bought a very expensive and sturdy piece of Swiss luggage, to check all the new clothes I'd bought.
We booked a room at Boogerville for our first night on Barbados, half a week at LSV on Martinique, another half week at DSA on Martinique, and a half a week at Sandpiper on Barbados. Information on Martinique is not sparse, per se, but neither is it richly available for the non-French speaker. In all cases the hotel selections were based on location (Boogerville is close to the airport, LSV is close to the nice beaches and food, DSA is close to the other half of the island, and Sandpiper is on Barbados' "Platinum Coast") and internet reviews. I was pretty confident in my selections. Turns out I nailed 2 out of 4. In fact, I assign myself the same score for Island Selection.
We took no electronics besides my Kindle and my camera. The camera, which has seen only light use in its one year under my ownership, has developed a persistent malfunction whereby it thinks the battery is dead when in fact it is fully charged. We pop out the battery and put it back in, and the camera is happy again. I mention this only because it was a constant throughout the vacation and did in fact affect some of the photography. Since I tend away from action shots, however, it was not a terrible burden, only a frustration.
I found that the voyage itself was a fascinating combination of extreme pleasure and extreme frustration/aggravation. I am not particularly well suited to the tropics. I have an aversion to humidity, a predisposition to physical hyper-reaction to mosquito bites and sunburns, and no special love for long, drawn out, 3 hour meals. Also, I don't really speak French.
And so it was that against a backdrop of constant itching, terrible sunburns, constant, unremitting, unproductive sweating, and sketchy communications, I experienced the best vacation of my life. I'll try to remember it for you, day by day.
