I tried to avoid it. I really did.
I know that some people who’ve traveled with me and know my love of a good cliché may not believe me (my most recent favourites being in Ireland and being able to tell a limerick when in Limerick and sing "It’s a long way to Tipperary" on my way to…).
This time was different. This time I felt that it was too much even for me.
I’ve spent the last two months surrounded by cheesy pirate dummies and other cheap "The rum drinking will continue until morale improves" t-shirts and souvenirs. I’ve seen the Pirates of the Caribbean movies at least four times on TV. Due to a lack of other English reading material in Cuba I’ve even read Treasure Island for the first time.
All this time I have managed to control myself.
Finally, after 5 days out on a boat sailing around St Vincent & the Grenadines I succumbed to the temptation.
We’d dropped anchor at a place called Tabago Cays which is an impossibly beautiful set of small uninhabited islands which are the epitome of the stereotype white sand beach and turquoise water Caribbean island. I was excited because I’d finally found my ideal happy place to imagine in times of needing to escape reality. When it was pointed of that this was the location used to film the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie scene where Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightly are stranded on a desert island with a stockpile of rum, I finally let my guard down long enough for it to came out.
In the end it was disappointingly banal comment to my captain about what it would take to piss him off enough that he would make me walk the plank and leave me stranded on this deserted island.
I’m not proud about it, but there it was for all to hear - the cliché that I just couldn’t contain.
More photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bc_melbourne/sets/72157600341739604/
Coming up next: The Return to the Real World. Yes, that’s right. I’m sure you’ll all be happy to hear that two months later I’ve pretty much run out of money and have to finally accept the reality of working again sometime soon. I’m in Barbados now. From here I’ll fly to Vancouver in the near future and start the reintegration process.