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Grenada
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12/25/04:
The computer crash stays in our mind the whole night. At dawn, Emil comes up with the idea
that we should try to get access through our agent to our container again. He has a little
hope that our laptop could be restarted with the “Rebooting”-Floppy. But it is
left in the car, and now is Christmas! We have still a little chance to catch somebody
from our agency, as Maduro is also dealing with the Cruise Ships, and some while ago one
just docked in the harbor. And we are lucky. At 10am Cyril shows up. First, he shakes his
head, as we ask him to let us have the phone number of Mark, who was dealing with us.
“It is Christmas, I cannot disturb him”, he argues. But finally we can persuade
him. We reach Marc at 11am and luckily, his reaction is positive as he wants to help us.
He asks Cyril to assist us to get access into the port. But it is not at all an easy task
to convince the two security guys at the gate that we are firstly going to break the seal
of a container and secondly get stuff out of a car. But finally they cooperate. To make
things short: It was not worth the efforts. Our laptop could not be revived anymore.
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- Another sad moment - saying good-bye to our adopted sweet cat on the Toyota premises -
happened already in the early morning hours. It was not easy because we got very attached
to her. And she was pregnant and we would have loved to see her kittens. But these are the
“down sides” of our nomadic life! At lunch time, we are sitting on the veranda
of Marietta and Han’s lovely house and are enjoying a hot coffee, Christmas pie,
cheese, ham and egg cocktails. It was long, long ago, when we met them the first time. It
was 1986 on a campsite South of Valparaiso on Chile’s sea coast. The Dutch couple was
touring South America with their Mitsubishi and a roof tent. Unfortunately, we lost
contact.
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Dominica
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Anguilla
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- And now, 18 years later, we have met again on Sint Maarten - their new home country -
thanks to the very special look of our blue LandCruiser, which Han spotted on Kim Sha
Beach – what a beautiful surprise! Of course, together with their pictures we had
many memories to share. Early afternoon, we are very grateful that Marietta and Han drive
us to the airport. At the counter of BWIA West Indies Airways – called simply Bee-Wee
- only a few passengers hang around. Very soon we find out the reason: Today’s flight
to Guyana via Barbados is cancelled; the next one will leave tomorrow at noon via
Trinidad. Our ticket has to be rerouted what takes one and half an hour. At least, Bee-Wee
put us into a clean small hotel, the “Carl’s Unique Inn”, for the coming
night. We enjoy every moment of it.
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- 12/26/04:
At 8am a small breakfast buffet is ready, and at noon a sweet and sour lunch from a
Chinese catering is served. Then we get the message that the flight is postponed to 11pm.
At 8pm a taxi drives us to the airport and afterwards it is waiting and waiting again,
until 2.30am the next morning, in a freezing departure hall without any possibility to buy
a drink or something to eat. As the aircraft finally takes off in the darkness of the
night and the many lights of Sint Maarten disappear, we already know that the Caribbean
world we had come to know so well and love so much, will always keep a very special place
in our hearts in many ways. Twenty months ago, these islands meant nothing else for us
than little dots on the American map, and now they became an acquainted world, a beautiful
world with unique people, new friends, bright colors and countless experiences, which we
will never forget.
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St. John
- US Virgin Islands
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St. Vincent
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- 12/27/04:
At 3.30am we are landing at the airport of Bridgetown in Barbados. The captain informs us
that he has to refuel but that no responsible person is around, what means waiting again.
Finally, at 5.15am we take off to our next destination – Trinidad. Arrival is at 6am.
There we have to disembark. We get a voucher for breakfast, the only serving during the
whole flight. Departure to Guyana is announced for 8.35am, but then changed again to
11.40am when we finally leave. I am sitting next to a middle aged American missionary who
is talking nonstop in a soft, but persistence voice to her other neighbor, an
“Afro-Barbadian” and I am wondering if her efforts are falling on fertile soil.
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- St. Lucia
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As we finally are landing shortly after 1pm in the bright afternoon sun at the airport of
Timehri in Guyana - the small country in the Northeast Corner of the South American
Continent - we are already longing for exploring its colonial richness, the mysteries of
the virgin rain forest and the vast plains of the Rupununi savannah again.
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- Tobago
- Trinidad & Tobago
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