If I can rationalize all this ... could I sell ice to Eskimos?
On a youth counsellor's income, there isn't always a lot of "stretch room" in the budget to have the kinds of vacations that I have always dreamed about. In fact, for many years, I didn't travel at all, as there never seemed to be enough money left at the end of the year to justify the expense. Then I became the budgetting and cost-cutting queen ... and the empress of off-price-shopping ... oh, yes, and lest we forget, I sold my little townhouse and moved in with my aging parents. And so, I suddenly found a bit of cash to fund a trip or two ... or three ... or four. And I learned the art of rationalization: I can justify a pleasure trip even faster than I can engage an angry youth in a empowering converstation - and I am pretty good at the latter, even if I say so myself!
I read recently on one of the travel forums that I love to frequent, that one of the best ways to deal with post-vacation-blues is to start planning the next trip. I was barely home for 24 hours and I had already begun in earnest, to plan the next Caribbean adventure. I use the term "adventure" a bit loosely, though ... because truth be told, I am cautious by nature and really am more of an observer or people-watcher than an all-out "adventure-gal." I am quite content to sit on the side-lines and take in the scenery and dynamics, soaking up the culture and the sun from a vantage point that won't bring about drowning, broken bones or too many hangovers!
That said, I admire, respect and love to hang out with the more adventurous travellers and locals that may cross my path once I reach a destination. I can never get enough of their stories. In this heart of mine, I am convinced that there does indeed reside the soul of an adventuous, free-spirited vagabond!
I have thought for some time now, that a nice spot to indulge my inner-vagabond would be the Grenadine island of Bequia. In fact, I have been dreaming of Bequia ever since I had seen it featured on a travel program about 15 years ago. It seemed totally unspoiled and even less developed than St. Kitts and Nevis had been when I first set eyes on those sister-isles back in the 1980's. And it's neighbors that make up the rest of the Grenadines, those small pearls that extend from the larger islands of St. Vincent to Grenada, all seem so exotic and inviting too. I can't really say that I know a great deal about Bequia, aside from the fact that like most of her neighbours, she too has her roots in the slave trade, and that whale hunting has been part of the local history and culture for some time. I also know that it is about a one-hour ferry ride from St. Vincent ... and the kicker for me is that Bequia attracts the boating or sailing enthusiast. Here I mean thetrue sailors, not the mega-yacht rich folk who are being touted as the next investors to save some of the tourism-bound islands as they diversify their economies away from sugar-cane and other forms of non-sustainable agriculture. Oh, and one other feature of Bequia that makes it appealing to me of course, is the promise of its own special brand of West-Indian cuisine and music!
As I have always had a passion for any vessel that sports a sail, from tall-ships to schooners, to catamarans to those tiny, hand-crafted single mast fishing boats, I thought "what better way to indulge my yen to see a whole host of these beauties, but in a tranquil island, that seems virtually untouched by mass-tourism?" Ironically, I really don't know a dam thing about sailing. For me, it is more of a visual sensibility - I simply like the look of boats - on the sea, on a lake - at day-break, at sunset - no matter. My heart does a flip-flop whenever I gaze upon an unfurled sail.
Somehow, I never made it to Bequia last November, when I embarked on my first trip to Grenada, opting instead to spend a little more money and hopping north via Antigua back to St. Kitts, where I had spent 17 days barely 11 months earlier. This is where my powers of rationalization started to kick in. I always seem to find a way to justify a trip by finding some sort of bargain, then I find a way to over-spend on my budget, by at least double. This pattern seems to be what has kept me from seeing Bequia over the last year or so. On a positive note, it has done wonders for my spirit of aventure ... and has gone a long way to helping me reduce my stress levels! Vactions are good for that ...
I rationalized giving Bequia a miss this time around by telling myself that travelling alone would just make it too stressful, as I was destined to be on my own for the whole 17 days. I rationalized two and a half weeks of vacation by reminding myself that I had all this carry-over from a time that my employer asked my to post-pone my vacation for about 8 months. If I didn't use the time now, I would lose it. That didn't seem cost-effective to me!
As far as revisiting St. Kitts, well, you see, I don't mind going to St. Kitts on my own as I know my way around that island well enough ... plus I have enough friends and aquaintances there that I never get a chance to feel lonely or unsafe. But travelling to two islands - Grenada and Bequia - that I had never visited before, just seemed a tad isolating. So, I rationalized, "what better compromise than to spend the first week of my holiday someplace where I have friends?" Plus, the money that I saved by booking cheap air passage on Caribbean Airlines via Trinidad seemed to more than pay for the additional air-lift between islands on LIAT, as compared to say, booking a one-way flight to St. Kitts on American Airlines, then one-way home on Caribbean Airlines out of Grenada. What I didn't calculate closely enough, or rather, what I conveniently focussed my attention away from was the fact that rooms in St. Kitts would cost me double what I would have paid in Bequia. But, I was not too bothered by that fact, because, I told myself, I had saved a bundle on the accomodation in Grenada because I had "won" a decent rate for the Flamboyant Hotel on the SkyAuction website.
This process of rationalization continued and actually refined itself when I reached St. Kitts, when realizing that I had spent a small fortune on taxis during the previous two visits, I decided to rent a car. And what a beauty it was! The most economical car in all the rental pools in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is the Dhiatsu Charade - I called it my "Lil' Blue Toaster Oven." After all, didn't Dhiatsu start out as a kitchen appliance company? I told myself that it was a real bargain at USD $40.00 per day, give or take taxes, insurance and license; and it freed me up to visit any part of the island any time of the day or evening. Yes, it was great fun trying to get that little beast to make it up that first hill of the South East Peninsula along the R. L. Bradshaw Highway. And what an adventure driving along that highway! Two lanes, many potholes, beautiful vistas of Atlantic Ocean on one side and Caribbean Sea on the other, as well as a myriad of living creatures, - cattle, egrets, monkeys, mongoose, goats ... oh my! The final triumph of "auto-rationalization" was when I told myself that once I reached Grenada, I would be saving SO much money on transportation because I planned to ride the buses there! I had heard that they were so efficient and cheap - so, why not spend my Grenada taxi money on my St. Kitts car rental?
And so it went. In Grenada I overspent on my food budget, even though I had a kitchenette in my room. The rationale for this one was quite sweet - I discovered early on that there were some differences in the local cuisines between islands. Grenadian versions of "Creole," "local," and "West Indian" are quite different than their northern or Leeward Island counterparts. Now, did I not owe it to myself to discover all the subtle differences? And so it went ...
Today, I found myself really needing to fight the vacation blues ... so I continued to resurrect my plan for getting myself over to Bequia one day. When, I received an e-mail from a fellow traveller who seems to love all the same places that I do, I found myself chuckling, because she happened to mention her knack for rationalizing budget overages and extra expenditures on all her vacations. It seems that we have quite a bit in common, and when I read her travel blogs she has me convinced to travel more and see the entire Caribbean "one island at a time." Just knowing that she also seems to be a reigning monarch of the rationalization game, brings me to the conclusion that quite a few of us are able to pull some amazing skills out of our "bag of tricks" when it come to travel!
In my case, I think now that I have had a rekindling of my love for the Caribbean, I will pretty much resign myself to never owning a dam thing again, as long as I can get back there at least once a year - or more - but India, Asia and Africa still beckon, so I have to squeeze them in too! Anyway, if I could only consolidate those rationalization skills and channel them toward my career from time to time, I could probably sell the proverbial ice to the Eskimos!
I read recently on one of the travel forums that I love to frequent, that one of the best ways to deal with post-vacation-blues is to start planning the next trip. I was barely home for 24 hours and I had already begun in earnest, to plan the next Caribbean adventure. I use the term "adventure" a bit loosely, though ... because truth be told, I am cautious by nature and really am more of an observer or people-watcher than an all-out "adventure-gal." I am quite content to sit on the side-lines and take in the scenery and dynamics, soaking up the culture and the sun from a vantage point that won't bring about drowning, broken bones or too many hangovers!
That said, I admire, respect and love to hang out with the more adventurous travellers and locals that may cross my path once I reach a destination. I can never get enough of their stories. In this heart of mine, I am convinced that there does indeed reside the soul of an adventuous, free-spirited vagabond!
I have thought for some time now, that a nice spot to indulge my inner-vagabond would be the Grenadine island of Bequia. In fact, I have been dreaming of Bequia ever since I had seen it featured on a travel program about 15 years ago. It seemed totally unspoiled and even less developed than St. Kitts and Nevis had been when I first set eyes on those sister-isles back in the 1980's. And it's neighbors that make up the rest of the Grenadines, those small pearls that extend from the larger islands of St. Vincent to Grenada, all seem so exotic and inviting too. I can't really say that I know a great deal about Bequia, aside from the fact that like most of her neighbours, she too has her roots in the slave trade, and that whale hunting has been part of the local history and culture for some time. I also know that it is about a one-hour ferry ride from St. Vincent ... and the kicker for me is that Bequia attracts the boating or sailing enthusiast. Here I mean thetrue sailors, not the mega-yacht rich folk who are being touted as the next investors to save some of the tourism-bound islands as they diversify their economies away from sugar-cane and other forms of non-sustainable agriculture. Oh, and one other feature of Bequia that makes it appealing to me of course, is the promise of its own special brand of West-Indian cuisine and music!
As I have always had a passion for any vessel that sports a sail, from tall-ships to schooners, to catamarans to those tiny, hand-crafted single mast fishing boats, I thought "what better way to indulge my yen to see a whole host of these beauties, but in a tranquil island, that seems virtually untouched by mass-tourism?" Ironically, I really don't know a dam thing about sailing. For me, it is more of a visual sensibility - I simply like the look of boats - on the sea, on a lake - at day-break, at sunset - no matter. My heart does a flip-flop whenever I gaze upon an unfurled sail.
Somehow, I never made it to Bequia last November, when I embarked on my first trip to Grenada, opting instead to spend a little more money and hopping north via Antigua back to St. Kitts, where I had spent 17 days barely 11 months earlier. This is where my powers of rationalization started to kick in. I always seem to find a way to justify a trip by finding some sort of bargain, then I find a way to over-spend on my budget, by at least double. This pattern seems to be what has kept me from seeing Bequia over the last year or so. On a positive note, it has done wonders for my spirit of aventure ... and has gone a long way to helping me reduce my stress levels! Vactions are good for that ...
I rationalized giving Bequia a miss this time around by telling myself that travelling alone would just make it too stressful, as I was destined to be on my own for the whole 17 days. I rationalized two and a half weeks of vacation by reminding myself that I had all this carry-over from a time that my employer asked my to post-pone my vacation for about 8 months. If I didn't use the time now, I would lose it. That didn't seem cost-effective to me!
As far as revisiting St. Kitts, well, you see, I don't mind going to St. Kitts on my own as I know my way around that island well enough ... plus I have enough friends and aquaintances there that I never get a chance to feel lonely or unsafe. But travelling to two islands - Grenada and Bequia - that I had never visited before, just seemed a tad isolating. So, I rationalized, "what better compromise than to spend the first week of my holiday someplace where I have friends?" Plus, the money that I saved by booking cheap air passage on Caribbean Airlines via Trinidad seemed to more than pay for the additional air-lift between islands on LIAT, as compared to say, booking a one-way flight to St. Kitts on American Airlines, then one-way home on Caribbean Airlines out of Grenada. What I didn't calculate closely enough, or rather, what I conveniently focussed my attention away from was the fact that rooms in St. Kitts would cost me double what I would have paid in Bequia. But, I was not too bothered by that fact, because, I told myself, I had saved a bundle on the accomodation in Grenada because I had "won" a decent rate for the Flamboyant Hotel on the SkyAuction website.
This process of rationalization continued and actually refined itself when I reached St. Kitts, when realizing that I had spent a small fortune on taxis during the previous two visits, I decided to rent a car. And what a beauty it was! The most economical car in all the rental pools in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis is the Dhiatsu Charade - I called it my "Lil' Blue Toaster Oven." After all, didn't Dhiatsu start out as a kitchen appliance company? I told myself that it was a real bargain at USD $40.00 per day, give or take taxes, insurance and license; and it freed me up to visit any part of the island any time of the day or evening. Yes, it was great fun trying to get that little beast to make it up that first hill of the South East Peninsula along the R. L. Bradshaw Highway. And what an adventure driving along that highway! Two lanes, many potholes, beautiful vistas of Atlantic Ocean on one side and Caribbean Sea on the other, as well as a myriad of living creatures, - cattle, egrets, monkeys, mongoose, goats ... oh my! The final triumph of "auto-rationalization" was when I told myself that once I reached Grenada, I would be saving SO much money on transportation because I planned to ride the buses there! I had heard that they were so efficient and cheap - so, why not spend my Grenada taxi money on my St. Kitts car rental?
And so it went. In Grenada I overspent on my food budget, even though I had a kitchenette in my room. The rationale for this one was quite sweet - I discovered early on that there were some differences in the local cuisines between islands. Grenadian versions of "Creole," "local," and "West Indian" are quite different than their northern or Leeward Island counterparts. Now, did I not owe it to myself to discover all the subtle differences? And so it went ...
Today, I found myself really needing to fight the vacation blues ... so I continued to resurrect my plan for getting myself over to Bequia one day. When, I received an e-mail from a fellow traveller who seems to love all the same places that I do, I found myself chuckling, because she happened to mention her knack for rationalizing budget overages and extra expenditures on all her vacations. It seems that we have quite a bit in common, and when I read her travel blogs she has me convinced to travel more and see the entire Caribbean "one island at a time." Just knowing that she also seems to be a reigning monarch of the rationalization game, brings me to the conclusion that quite a few of us are able to pull some amazing skills out of our "bag of tricks" when it come to travel!
In my case, I think now that I have had a rekindling of my love for the Caribbean, I will pretty much resign myself to never owning a dam thing again, as long as I can get back there at least once a year - or more - but India, Asia and Africa still beckon, so I have to squeeze them in too! Anyway, if I could only consolidate those rationalization skills and channel them toward my career from time to time, I could probably sell the proverbial ice to the Eskimos!
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