Insaaane Houses

Location: St. Vincent

We got released from quarantine! This was good, because by the end of it, we had gone slightly insane. The other day, Jem actually laughed at one of my puns. Something was clearly off. This is Basil, by the way. He's a cutie.

Also, here's yesterday's double rainbow.

Jem's friend Jake lives just across the water. Jake is a very generous soul. Yesterday he let us do a massive load of laundry, and, most importantly, he let me use one of his showers to wash my salty, greasy, hair (think skinny french fries, or rather, don't). Three shampoos later, my hair was somewhat back to normal, and I had as deep respect for Jake and his river-stone-studded shower.

Jake's house is amazing. Walk in the garden and you come across a moon gate, bamboo, a bubbling fountain, and a tiki bar. On various parts of his wraparound balcony are a clawfoot tub with two rubber ducks, a twelve-person dining table, beams studded with sand dollars, and an assortment of edible plants. Inside is a set of massive speakers, which frame two ostrich feather lamps, which frame a fake black swan.

I found his kitchen to be absolutely amazing, especially after having lived on a boat for a few weeks. There is a butcher block island, three different styles of upper cabinetry, and an enormous wok.

Also present are two hatstands the size of Christmas trees, a movie theatre with three walls lined floor-to-ceiling with books, a framed toy car collection, an unframed vintage cellphone collection, a sombrero hanging off a pair of cowboy boots, a giant smiley face on the front gate, and the craziest home art collection I've ever seen. 

Jake took us grocery shopping. Jake's driving was vaguely chaotic; he took on and off his glasses a couple of times, he kept looking at and calling on his phone (while holding it), and at some point he said "this is illegal but there are no cops" and drove across an abandoned airstrip against the direction of traffic. 

That night, we had dinner with Jake, Damian (another pilot friend to whom we will return shortly), and Kath, a very nice med student whose land-based travels almost rival those of fellow sailors. Also present was Rufus, the oldest and shaggiest of Jake's three dogs. He likes belly rubs.

Today, Damian took us into town. Within the first five minutes of driving, he had complained about his car paint, the weather, bad drivers, the music, and internet connection. Then we ran into traffic and it took us 45 minutes to drive 5 km. By this time, Damian had run out of complaint steam, so I took the opportunity to ask him about his life. Damian grew up in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. He is currently a pilot based in St. Vincent and flies throughout the Grenadines. Before that, however, he worked on a prawn trawler in Australia, in a call center in England, with horses and heavy machinery in Scandinavia, as a bouncer in various places, in construction in New Zealand, Australia, and Germany (he hated scaffolding, because, although he is a pilot, he hates heights), as a magazine writer in Czech Republic, and as a translator in Spain, despite not speaking a lick of Spanish (he supposedly learned it on the job). He also knows swear words from all the countries that he's lived in.

After finally emerging from the traffic, we went for lunch at a place called Vincy Roti. Maybe I was just hungry, but holy crap, was that roti good. The restaurant is run by Trinidadians, and the dishes are both huge and cheap. It's absolutely amazing. If you somehow one day end up in St. Vincent, go there. 

This is the view from Damian's house. He lives rent-free on a massive former plantation house owned by the company for which he works. (Great job perks.) It's a bit run-down, but there are enormous hallways, arches everywhere, a small pool, and four acres of surrounding land. There are mango, plum, sea grape, coconut, orange, sugar apple, avocado, almond, and cashew trees. There are also two beaches. This is one.

This is the other. On a slightly grislier note, there are occasionally other people who go on the beaches, and four of them drowned once because of the undertow and they couldn't swim.

On a lighter note, here is some aloe vera. It is also a cutie. Larger ones line some of the garden pathways.

Lastly, here is a motorcycle that Damian rebuilt. It is called Eddie the Antichrist. The skull's eyes glow when you turn on the lights.

Tomorrow we go to pick up our laundry and do various other unplanned things. I'm glad that the pace of life is picking up again; I had been slowly becoming a slug. Here's the closing sunset picture. Bye