I think the Forth of July is not my holiday. Last year we went to the beach and I got terribly sunburned. To make it worse, I had to put on a wool suit that night and work a big formal reception, enduring lots of solicitous comments on the lines of, "You're
really burned, did you know that?" This year I was determined that it would be different, partly because I got the embassy reception scheduled for July 2nd, so we'd have the 4th to just relax. A whole bunch of us went to Maracas Beach to enjoy the day. It's lots of fun going to the beach on American holidays, since we have the place pretty much to ourselves. I've been to Maracas many times, and have been boarding there also many times. Despite that, I got badly crashed on my first wave of the day. Extremely sore neck, bleeding face, and a puffy eye. I got through the rest of the day with some ice, but was a hurting unit. By the next morning, I looked like Quasimodo. A beautifully swollen eye, raw patches all over my face, painful back, etc.... Again, to make it all better, I had an early morning flight to Tobago to have a day full of meetings with a bunch of new contacts for my job. I did as many meetings as I could that day with my biggest sunglasses on.... Sadly, I did not get any pictures - you'll just have to imagine it. To add insult to injury, we were planning a big day of diving at our favorite spot in Speyside since we were in Tobago anyway. I somehow managed two dives, even though the combo of my scuba mask and the water pressure made my face feel less-than-awesome. Tobago was beautiful as always though, and we had a relaxed snorkel on Sunday before flying back to Trinidad.
One image I want to remember from the weekend: our hotel was really short-staffed on Sunday, with our dear dive instructors Tanja and Adrian working as cooks, waitstaff, reception crew, boat driver, and dive leaders at the same time. We were waiting by reception that afternoon to check out and pay our bill while the crew was out diving, when a boat pulled up to shore, Tanja dove out and swam to the beach to come up and settle our bill. It was straight out of a Bond movie.
I think the Forth of July is not my holiday. Last year we went to the beach and I got terribly sunburned. To make it worse, I had to put on a wool suit that night and work a big formal reception, enduring lots of solicitous comments on the lines of, "You're really burned, did you know that?" This year I was determined that it would be different, partly because I got the embassy reception scheduled for July 2nd, so we'd have the 4th to just relax. A whole bunch of us went to Maracas Beach to enjoy the day. It's lots of fun going to the beach on American holidays, since we have the place pretty much to ourselves. I've been to Maracas many times, and have been boarding there also many times. Despite that, I got badly crashed on my first wave of the day. Extremely sore neck, bleeding face, and a puffy eye. I got through the rest of the day with some ice, but was a hurting unit. By the next morning, I looked like Quasimodo. A beautifully swollen eye, raw patches all over my face, painful back, etc.... Again, to make it all better, I had an early morning flight to Tobago to have a day full of meetings with a bunch of new contacts for my job. I did as many meetings as I could that day with my biggest sunglasses on.... Sadly, I did not get any pictures - you'll just have to imagine it. To add insult to injury, we were planning a big day of diving at our favorite spot in Speyside since we were in Tobago anyway. I somehow managed two dives, even though the combo of my scuba mask and the water pressure made my face feel less-than-awesome. Tobago was beautiful as always though, and we had a relaxed snorkel on Sunday before flying back to Trinidad.
One image I want to remember from the weekend: our hotel was really short-staffed on Sunday, with our dear dive instructors Tanja and Adrian working as cooks, waitstaff, reception crew, boat driver, and dive leaders at the same time. We were waiting by reception that afternoon to check out and pay our bill while the crew was out diving, when a boat pulled up to shore, Tanja dove out and swam to the beach to come up and settle our bill. It was straight out of a Bond movie. 
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