Isla Margarita: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

(This is the abridged version of events)

The Good
Isla hermosa

The place is beautiful. Colourful. Vibrant. The people are, for the most part, friendly.
In the city, calls of "my friend" rang out often, along with some kissing noises, winks and "chocolate" and "beautiful". I had already been warned that the "my friend" was an invitation to be robbed so to steer clear; I declined with a polite "no gracias" and kept moving.
There were many sites and monuments dedicated to their past: busts, epitaths, and murals.
Their love of Simon Bolivar, and Chavez was abundantly portrayed, with paintings of both men adorning the sides of many buldings and "vota Chavez" painted along houses, a timestamp from their last elections.
Their latest Presicent is present, but I did not sense the same feelings for him as for the others.

The Bad
Tricks of the trade.

All throughout the place you felt the weariness of the people. With their state in chaos, they still tried to maintain professionalism within the hotel, but there was always a sense of preoccupation among them. Arriving at the airport, there was no water in the building; there was none when we left five days later. Driving in, there were long, serpentine lines at the supermarket; food shortages and rationing of items.
The hotel kept electricity off in many of the rooms, though not all of them...And the staff were hardly bi-lingual, many using pigeon English to communicate, which was only half effective and caused many mix ups.
I sometimes offered them my Spanish, but I felt more in a learning mode than practicing mood so I only did that to ease up those who genuinely wanted to be of help.
The tour guides...smfh. I have never been on a tour but I can assure you, these 'guides' have not clue where their assess are from their navels.
With just that warning of avoiding persons in the street offering you currency changing, they sat in the airconditioned bus while we fended for ourselves out on the streets.
And not only did they not guide us, they were charging 10US per tour per person when it would have been cheaper to take a taxi (-_-)
The skullduggery on such a personal level-personal because these are our guides, damn it Krystal Tours, what the fuck?-was enough piss you off but what really sealed the assfucking was that they were changing the US for you at a lower rate, not only raping you, but moaning wantonly whilst doing it.
Isla Caribe would not be seeing me again-because they chose who to put in the no ac rooms and who to treat like humans, and their staff hardly understood basic English-and neither would I be using Krystal Tours in future for any travelling, save maybe for a ferry to 'bago.

The Ugly
It is still a matter of complexion.

My skin tone is too rich for some of the local people.
At first I thought that they weren't returning my 'Bueno(a)s dias/tardes/noches' because they did not hear me (I do speak softly when relaxed) but I realized by the second day that it was me they were ignoring, not my Spanish.
I would make eyes with someone, find a smile and the appropriate greeting and be ignored; sometimes they acknowledged my sister who is a shade lighter than my natural tone but for the most, I was stared at and pointedly ignored.
Perhaps they thought someone of my hue should not be able to afford the same as them or more, given their economic strife of late.
Whatever the reason, as it always does for me even in Trinidad, I am supposed to be and act and want certain things based on how coloured I am.

In the end..

It is still good that I went. I got to see and hear the harp being played, as well as a number of folk and local dances.
The food selection at the hotel was redundant in its offering, but the varied the flavours enough for you not to be too bored.
I tried as many of the offered cocktails as was possible and only really enjoyed their Caiprinha.
It felt a little bit like home and you could fall into the routine there quite easily-just remember not to leave anything valuable in your room and leave your gold by your granny in Trinbago.
Margarita is a beautiful island, and I encourage you to visit when things have stabilized.

*Pictures on my instagram @marinaconn