Cruise Chronicles: Nearing the sad end

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As beautiful as it is, Grand Turk was a difficult island for me to visit, in large part, I believe, because it was signalling the end of our trip.
We rode bikes a little bit around the island, and that was fantastic. The trees and foliage that grew from crowded front yards only 20 yards from the ocean were beautiful, and I enjoyed imagining what it would be like to live there, live on one of thsoe homes, and be surrounded by that every day.
As we rode we were "guided" by two locals, however, and that didn't help to improve my mood. They were truly inept. They continued to repeat some combination of brochure platitudes:
"This is a truly historical part of the island"
"As you can see"
"As far as the eye can see"
"an undiscovered treasure"
"not many people enjoy"

They did not have room, amidst all of the platitudes to say very much that was truly interesting, and even when one of us asked questions, they gave stock answers. Frustrated by the fakeness of everything, during a break, I went into a nearby Red Cross building that I had noticed. I used to work for the Red Cross, and wanted to talk to someone real, make a connection. I lucked out with this man, whose name I can't remember, because I could ask him not only about the Red Cross and disaster, but also about other things. The "office" in which he was working was actually a re-sale shop. When I asked him about poverty and unemployment, he said that was an especially big problem, especially for non-natives. He himself was from Ghana, had lived on the island for over six years. After all that time, however, the best job he could get was in a resale clothing shop, though my impression is that many members of his family have not been so lucky. He also said that there is a large number of immigrants on the island. I asked him which groups were the largest.
"Dominicans and Asians."
"Asians!" I said, "Really!"
"Yes!"
As we were talking away, my boyfriend said, "He was actually saying Haitians, not Asians." Hee. :)

We continued on our bicycle ride and reached a beach where we could snorkle. I had never snorkled before, and wasn't sure what I'd think of it - based upon this time, I didn't love it. I have double vision so I see two of everything when I'm not wearing my glasses, which I wasn't underwater. So I swam around looking at everything through one eye only. Also, I could only swim in a particular way so I wouldn't mess up my goggles or snorkel tube. This didn't improve my already weak opinion of Grand Turk, but, again, I think I was more depressed because we were about to leave. :(

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