Remebering!

I remembered!

During my first contract in the Mexican Rivera, I learned that I did NOT want to see any local color, because it was so depressing and maybe I would get Hepatitis B (which someone got from going to a dentist in Mexico, just saying) (and someone else got from getting something pierced in Mexico. Just saying).  So, during my second contract, I stayed in resorts, particularly after seeing the Dominican Republic’s town Semana, which smells like exhaust and sewage and features 2,000 children selling shells and everything else, and learning the Dominican Republic has an AIDS problem worse than Africa’s. And then there was the matter of almost being killed on a Scooter in Nassau, and going to a gorgeous beach in Tortola that smelled like sewage and featured a confusing camp? Homeless shelter? Camp? What is that? In the surrounding woods. It was enough to make a nice girl who once was a vegan (2 months) and pretends to be rather liberal say “I don’t care anymore, let me live the full fantasy.” So, for the past 6 weeks, I have gone only to beaches and resorts and things via taxi.

Explanatory whining:

I am very fair skinned. This means that I wear long sleeves in 90 degree weather and sometimes jeans and people say “are you going to wear that outside?” or “do you know you’re wearing jeans?” instead of the much more direct “are you insane?” and if it is the morning, I get sarcastic in my responses (“no, I’m just trying it on” or my favorites: “I’m not telling” or “I can’t remember.” Juvenile). Then, whence on the beach, people are confused by my insistence on an umbrella and aversion to tanning (because it is impossible) so I spend a lot of time running into shade, or running from my chair to the water, and spraying myself down again with SPF 50 (and I would prefer SPF 80) and hearing jokes while other people (tan dancers with perfect bodies) cavort in the sun or do handstands. And I’m blinking and frowning like a crabby vampire grandma. And every time, I learn where I forgot with my sunscreen. Right now, I have two boring and misshapen burns on either side of my neck, kind of collarbone-ish. So I have a large pattern of freckles with a white stripe down the middle. Dull. I am completely aware that these problems are absurd, superficial, and silly.

The saving grace to all of this is a book called “Caribbean 2008,” which has explained the wonders available to me in all of these towns. Also, remembering that at the core, I am a geeky 9 year old who wants to ask questions and say “oooh” and then find a craft store.  I enjoy saying “THIS IS CRAZY!” because something is crazy. My point is, there has been a watershed, my stars are in my heavens, I am back to walking around in dangerous parts of towns where I wildly do not belong, and happily geeking out.

ANTIGUA:

We port in [town]. My goals were the church and a museum. 

First of all, hahaha:

Happy Inauguration! Did you know Antigua voted? Me neither.

No, racist. That is not Obama. That is the father of Antigua and Barbuda, a country. I had to start taking pictures quickly, because suddenly I was the only tourist, and someone said "whitey" pretty clearly. This is why the following picture is haphazard.

It is the top of the fountain in front of the father of the nation sculpture. The fountain was beautiful and about 8 feet tall. The top of it is a bathroom faucet from Home Depot.

I then tried to make my way to the church, which obviously was impossible because there are very few road signs and lots of old towns hate having streets in a grid. So I wandered down to a side of town where all signs were hand painted. And I found the cathedral. Doesn't it look deilghtful and romantic?

It was a dump. It has been hit by hurricaines for about 150 years, so everything is falling apart.