My Trip Draws to a Close
I haven't updated the site in a while for a number of reasons. One, because this patrol has had me rather busy. Two, I just haven’t felt much like writing. I've felt rather worn out lately; unable to form coherent enough thoughts to warrant writing them down. As I've said before, I keep drama out of my life, but my life is constantly surrounded by drama. There has been so much silly, pitiful, high school like drama happening onboard lately, and somehow I seem to get dragged into the middle of it. It makes me feel like the innocent bystander that catches a stray bullet. Granted, I’m usually a mediator or a shoulder to cry on, but even that can take its toll on a person. In the end, it has left me too drained to really say anything of worth on here.
This has been a very long patrol. The departure from Honolulu two months prior seems like a lifetime ago. We were talking about it the other day how the three day break we had back in Honolulu a while back seems like an entirely different patrol since we have been out here for so long. I know, I know, this is a reasonably short patrol, but there are certain factors that occurred that have exacerbated matters. Needless to say, I am very ready to return home and begin my very, very busy inport(many schools, many projects, and little time to do them).
Anyway, enough with my complaining. I'm not depressed or melancholy, or anything of the like, I'm just tired and wanted to explain my reluctance or inability to update as of late.
Most recently I visited Golfito, Costa Rica. It was definitely a ray of sunshine in this rather bleak patrol. It felt like I took a vacation to a tropical resort, which is hard to fathom considering I live on Oahu. But it was definitely a very welcome retreat. Golfito has been my favorite port call this patrol, and I think I accredit that to the fact that I played this port call right, unlike the others. On the recommendation of a friend, I checked into a certain hotel. This was the key point to my relaxation. I stayed at the Banana Bay Hotel, which is owned by two retired Coasties that actually served onboard the CGC RUSH. This place was exactly what I was looking for. It only had four rooms, which were all rented by crew from the CGC RUSH(crew that I didn't see the majority of the time I was there, which was key). There was a bar, full service restaurant, and a jacuzzi. I ate almost every meal there, relaxed in the air conditioned room(Golfito was excessively hot), chilled in the Jacuzzi, and spent my nights at the marginally attended bar(that is to say there weren’t 100 drunken sailors around pissing me off). My days were spent exploring. Those that know me, know that I like to walk around a new place I'm visiting for many miles on end. I probably walked well over 50 miles in the four days I spent in Golfito. I saw many sites, visited many shops, and just tried to take in as much of the culture as I could. I certainly look forward to visiting Golfito again in the future and just having a very relaxing time.
The only real “event” that occurred while I was in Golfito was a community relations project….that went terribly wrong. Those that know me know that I'm rather particular about doing volunteer work. But, the First Class Mess onboard decided to coordinate doing some volunteer work for the community while we were in Golfito, and I certainly wasn't going to be the only one not participating. Well, we gathered many volunteers and had many projects ready to go, but then one of the heaviest rainstorms I've ever seen decided to drop in on Golfito that day. So they loaded MY group into a pickup truck(I'll emphasize that my group was the ONLY group that actually headed out that day), and they drove us to another city up in the hills about an hour away. When we arrived we ended up picking up garbage along a strip of road and ended up looking like a prison chain gang. The people were very appreciative of the help we provided, but it wasn't exactly what I expected because we were originally going to help do some renovations on an elementary school. I did my work, but I felt a little bitter in the end. I guess I just felt that our time could have been spent better elsewhere.
Well, it's only a few more days till I'm back home and can start unwinding from this patrol. I actually miss my little apartment; my tiny fortress of solitude. I'll work on posting some pictures from the trip, but as I've mentioned before, it takes quite a while for me to upload them all while I’m still at sea.
Comments
I'm guessing that the onboard drama had something to do with letting women serve on ships?
Posted by: Tom Bissell | February 15, 2007 04:48 AM