Caribbean

Most Caribbean Islands are now self governed but the European domination and exploitation cannot be overlooked when visiting.  

We arrived in port at Dominica yesterday and spent today in Barbados.  I was unaware until yesterday that Dominica is not the Dominican Republic.  Dominica is mostly undeveloped and covered in rain forests, waterfalls and one boiling lake.  On the other hand, Barbados has a vibrant tourist industry and is home of the coconut pie.  These were our first two shore excursions and they were less than satisfactory.  We were in 20 person buses and visited three sites on each island.  It felt like we were riding around in a bus full of white people viewing the natives through the windows like we were riding through a zoo.  We are accustomed to experiencing the local culture when we travel through custom/small group tours conversing with locals, enjoying their cuisine and listening to their music.  In our first bus, there was a man behind us who loved the sound of his own voice.  Ruth Ann suggested I remove my hearing aids which made his incessant gabbing more tolerable.  In the second bus, the guide talked constantly which grew from annoying to irritating and back to tolerable as I not only removed my hearing aids, I drank two glasses of rum punch.  

Brazil will be our next port-of-call on Thursday.  We have excursions planned at each port and even a few overland excursions, many of which are small groups.  We have much hope they get better from hereon.