{"id":2708,"date":"2024-04-28T18:27:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T18:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/?p=2708"},"modified":"2024-04-28T21:58:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T21:58:29","slug":"charlotteville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/charlotteville\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotteville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlotteville is different. Nobody in Charlotteville has any money.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. They\u2019re not poor \u2013 Joe the fisherman whose boat has \u201cJoe\u201d written down the side in big red letters only bothers to go out three days a week (he offered to take me on Monday but that\u2019s when I\u2019m leaving for Trinidad). The other days he spends sitting in the shade with his friends, fist-bumping anyone who comes by and asking how they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t sit under the coconut trees, of course. Only strangers like me would think of sitting under a coconut tree \u2013 which is why there\u2019s a sign reminding people not to (a coconut falling from 70ft is an official cause of death around here).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No, the reason nobody has any money in Charlotteville is because the ATM machine hasn\u2019t worked for two months and the only place that takes cards is the bright red Shopping Mart where the till is empty after two months\u2019 of paying everyone Cashback.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t have come if I\u2019d known. But Tom on Bonny<\/em> said it was delightful. He could afford to. He sailed on a reach from Barbados. I was hard on the wind all the way from Grenada \u2013 and then had to put in two tacks to make it into Pirate\u2019s Bay two hours after sunset.<\/p>\n

Actually, I was aiming for Man o\u2019 War Bay because the app said that was where I would find the Customs Office. However there wasn\u2019t a single light in the whole bay, and so I picked a spot sort of midway between the two. A lot of rowing the next morning found me tying the dinghy to a tree just as the immigration officer strolled by.<\/p>\n

Charlotteville is an official Port of Entry for Tobago, so it is reasonable to assume it would have a uniformed Immigration Officer and a proper brick-built Immigration Office \u2013 and a Port Authority Office and a Customs Office. Going round the three of them, I had to fill in a total of nine forms (everything from what contagious diseases I had to how many firearms and stowaways).<\/p>\n

Also, I had to come up with 315 Trinidad and Tobago dollars. All I had were East Caribbean dollars \u2013 and no, they didn\u2019t take cards.<\/p>\n

Which is how I ended up in debt.<\/p>\n

Here were my debts by the end of that Wednesday morning:<\/p>\n

$315 to the Immigration Officer for clearance.<\/p>\n

$210 to Donna the Digicel rep on her balcony opposite the football pitch for a SIM card.<\/p>\n

$32 to Gray at the bright yellow Royal Harbour Restaurant and Bar on the beach (two bottles of Carib and a $10 loan for the bus to Roxborough and the nearest working ATM machine).<\/p>\n

No, the bus doesn\u2019t take cards. In fact, the bus doesn\u2019t even take cash. You have to buy a ticket from the Licenced Ticket Trader next to the bus stop \u2013 it\u2019s $4 each way.<\/p>\n

And maybe this is the time to explain the exchange rate. One Trinidad and Tobago dollar is 12p Sterling. So, the bus ticket was 48p (and the bottles of Carib, \u00a31.32 each), so maybe that\u2019s why Charlotteville has been getting along so well without too much money.<\/p>\n

It took the rest of the day to get mine \u2013 the bus went at walking pace for much of the way (and if you saw some of the inclines and the tortuous bends, you\u2019d be glad it did). Then, when we got to the ATM machine in Roxburgh, that one didn\u2019t work either.<\/p>\n

Never mind, there was another at the gas station at the other end of town.<\/p>\n

I missed the bus back.<\/p>\n

When was it due?<\/p>\n