3.20.2011

Barbados - written 3.10

Riding in the back of a big white taxi-van, alone, in Barbados - a passing glimpse of an apartment building reminds me:

Life has its own sense of humor.

On the outside of the yellow-stuccoed cinder block edifice was a single word: Luxor. Well, I thought, close enough.

Up until about 4 weeks ago, the plan was for us to be headed from Cairo to Luxor this very night, aboard the overnight train. History had its own plans, so one deposed dictator later, Dan and I found ourselves changing plans.

So, one might wonder, how is it that I find myself laughing at the irony of a vacation rental name alone? Blame it on resting too easily. Dan and I both, when traveling alone, would never dream of heading to bed without a back-up alarm set, just in case 'something' happened to the wakeup call.

You can see where this is going.

8:30am we are jolted awake by the universally-gentle knock and call of the housekeeping staff. Instinct kicked in, and we both hit the proverbial snooze button, groggily calling out 'no thank you' a couple times. Thankfully, something didn't sit right; I checked the clock one last time before dozing back off. 5 minutes later, we were at the curb, waiting for the airport shuttle to take us to our 10am flight. We hit the airport at 9am, and I decided to run ahead to try to stall while Dan checked our one bag.

I got to the gate in time, but unfortunately Dan wasn't able to even get passed the luggage counter.

So, here I am - 10:30pm, waiting for Dan's arrival. He should be here sometime around midnight. A nice place of jerk pork and parsley potatoes awaits as his reward for all his struggles. Tomorrow, it's on to St. Vincent, and the Bequia, barring any more unforeseen misadventures.