Usually “Fall” as in Autumn refers to the red, golden, brown and yellow leaves falling to the ground and carpeting it with their rich colors. This Sunday afternoon though it just refers to the rain that has been falling all day from the low, overcast sky.
No wonder my mind turned to sunny beaches and taunted me with visions of the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan, those Tropical ports of my recent cruise. I had written about Roatan then forgot all about posting about the other ports, mostly because I didn’t get off the ship at the others so I didn’t take any pictures on shore. In my reverie this afternoon I remembered that I had some pictures from a previous trip. It took some fishing around in my files to find them because I couldn’t remember what year I had visited them. Time has become such a blur.
When I saved those pictures my older computer software just put them into folders which I labelled with the year. I have not yet transferred them to my current catalog which tags my photos in several different ways making it easy to retrieve them. My favorite is the Place tag that brings up a map of the world with a stick pin indicating places where I have taken pictures. Click on a pin and those pictures appear on the screen.My next camera should automatically do that tagging.
A pirate might greet you in George Town, capital of the Cayman Islands, but he will be a friendly fellow and instead of plundering you he will be offering great prices at a Duty Free store.
The real current buccaneers are just further down the street, in what seem like warrens of small offices in highrises. These are the “offshore banks”, havens for corporate and wealthy taxdodgers in the US, Europe and other big countries, politicians hiding nest eggs for when they are out of power, and money launderers. I never knew there were so many Irish banks, for example. Don’t look for counters and bank tellers or local customers waiting to cash a check in these places. These buccaneers are affable, young, college graduates, mostly expats armed with laptops, cellphones and degrees in finance, not cutlasses. And they are well-dressed. No bandanas. At the time unregulated Reaganesque and Bushian hedge funds and other wealth-from-nothing financial schemes were bubbling along nicely in the US and these offshore banks were flourishing. I wasn’t tempted to go ashore this time to stock up on the duty free cognacs and whiskey because you can no longer take liters of liquids as hand luggage onboard the flights home and it’s risky to pack bottles in your manhandled checked luggage, but I was tempted to go to see how many of those “banks” were out of business on this cruise.
Perhaps it’s fitting that just a short drive from these financial operations takes the traveller to Hell:
Not a bad place at all in this tourist version. The only heat is from the glorious Tropical sun. No brimstone here, just a harmless interesting lava formation:
There are all the comforts of Paradise: lush greenery, magnificent multi-hued seas, beaches, swimming pools, airconditioned five star resorts, free samples of rum cake, even a post office (no need to wait for the Hungry Ghosts month to contact the folks).
You can assuage your environmental zeal by visiting the turtle conservation center:
or just pick up shells on the beach.
The ultimate in peaceful coexistence, Hell and a Tropical Paradise?
10 comments:
Louis,
Thank you for sharing your travels. God willing, one day I will reach the shores of the Americas, north, south or the middle of the two.
You saying I have been wrong all along and hell isn't a tropical paradise?!
Dear Louis,
What an interesting and engaging post! Ah, "offshore banking" -- an industry that grew out of the proceeds of crime, corruption and heavens-knows-what-else. Still, it's the demand that creates the supply, no?
I never knew there was a place called Hell. I like the kitsch photo opp standee of the Devil. Why didn't you have your photo taken as the Devil? ;) It would amuse the grandkids no end!
I love the photos of the turtles at the turtle conservation centre BEST of all!
And so you shall, Zawi. Any of the three Americas would be interesting and enjoyable, all three even better, so start making reservations.
Pat,
I am cautious about responding to your question as those warnings of fire and brimstone and devils with pitch forks of the sermons of my childhood still dance in my head. And then there was Dante and his awful Inferno. But maybe Dante was just being envious of rumored warm Tropical islands as he had to put up with another dreary European winter and indulged in some unpleasant exaggeration. So, you may have been right all along:)
Hi CO'78,
Right after I took her picture my wife marched me off to pose with my head in the cut out of that devil. I know what she was thinking.
I was hesitant about referring to that turtle conservation center. Glad it got your seal of approval. I wondered what position you take on such centers, knowing that not all environmentalists approve of that approach.
Louis, great to see you both on the move again. Have a nice day.
We are in the same mood, Louis. This must happen to many people from the tropics at the approach of winter. I cannot get enough of the photos and notes from your travels. Somehow the warmth reaches me. Thanks so much for a welcome change of scene.
Blessings
Idrus,
Yes, it was preferable to bask in real Tropical sunshine rather than having to settle for the virtual kind per my iPad.
Hi Guanaguanare,
I must have drawn my inspiration from the glimpses through my rain splattered windshield of that large billboard that knowing advertisers erect every year at this time when winter and short days are taking over. It's a billboard with a sunny Hawaiian scene usually posing the question: Wouldn't you rather be here?
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