5 Cubans and a Kansan: the rainforest day

Saturday was to be our exploration day on St. Kitts. My friends Betty and Martha were keen on a volcano hike that was pretty heavily advertised online. I took one look at all the euphemisms for "hard as shit" scattered throughout the text, words such as "challenging" and "exhilarating" and "strenous" and knew that this wasn't for me. Another option presented, a train ride around the island was deemed too sedentary, too expensive, too touristy and "just sucky" by the group, in general. Our perfect middle ground came in the form of a man named Oliver Spencer. We had gotten his name and number from a friend in Miami and knew that he was the president of the St. Kitts Horticultural Society from a brochure we had received. My friend's reviews of his tour services were glowing and his prices were very reasonable, so it was decided that we would have Oliver take us on a "gentle" walk of the rain forest. After talking to him on the phone and having him confirm all my worst fears about the volcano hike, I knew we had made the right decision. At the appointed time, Oliver arrived at our hotel... and found all of just settling down to breakfast (at this point we were 5 Cubans and a Kansan...the Frigate Bay crew...and the fact that we were all dressed and out of bed was an accomplishment in itself, timeliness would have been simply too much to ask for), but Oliver good-naturedly joined us and did not seem to mind the delay. Watching him interact with the restaurant staff clued us in that we were now joined by a local celebrity. An hour late, we set off in his SUV into the rain forest, with Oliver amiably showing us points of interest and educating us on the history of the island along the way, but it was not until we stepped foot into the rain forest that we realized what a gem we had in Oliver. His boundless appreciation of nature and his passion to share this world were absolutely infectious. He spoke with so much enthuiasm about the plants and flowers of the rain forest that we were all rapt students in his presence, wanting to soak in all the information he had to impart. He wanted us to feel the leaves, smell the flowers, taste the berries, listen to the gurgling streams. He wanted us to see the beauty that he saw and in doing so, he took what could have a been pleasant but unexciting stroll through a pretty rain forest, and turned it into the very highlight of our trip. I should mention that I have done dozens of rain forest tours, in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Rwanda, South Africa, etc. and usually the nature guides tell you the names of the plants and possibly some medicinal value or interesting factoid about a particular tree. I listen impatiently because I am in the rain forest to see wild life and it feels like the guide is stalling until the monkey, bird or tarantula makes its appearance, and generally speaking, they are. Yet during our St. Kitts hike, we saw nothing more dramatic than a hummingbird, and I can unquantifiably state that this was the best rain forest tour I have ever been on. If I could do it every single day, I would, because I know that there would always be something new to learn, some new variation to appreciate. We came out of the rain forest tired (and this was the gentle walk!) but invigorated. We told him of our plans to go a highly recommended restuarant, Spratnet, that evening and he revealed that it was owned by his sons, and even offered to pick us up, or at the very least join us for a drink. We had pre-arranged plans to pick up a van that evening, so we declined the ride but looked forward to meeting up with him later. We spent the ensuing hours reuniting with my family...the Marriot crew; searching for the ever present, but highly elusive vervet monkeys and most of all, trying to get our stinking van. I won't go into lengthy details, but as it turned out Avis gave away our van, somehow recouped it hours later, had me waiting outside while they sat at the wrong hotel and eventually showed up four hours later sans van. I was steaming by that point, all our plans for the following day had to be reworked, my phone bill was quickly sky rocketing thanks to my many entreaties to Avis, other rental car providers and in case of plan b, cab drivers and I hadn't even had time to take a shower since leaving the rain forest. Frustrated, I left everything in Shawn's hands and returned to our room to decompress with a much needed shower, only to find that, could it really be...someone had taken a big steaming dump on my pillow. My immediate reaction was to think that someone had entered through our ground level sliding glass door and for some sick reason, decided to relieve themselves directly on my pillow. After the aggravation of the Avis incident, this was simply too much. Not to sound too British, but I was aghast! Who would do such a thing? Then I remembered who I was sharing a room with. Betty and Martha: Evil One and Evil Two. All I could bring myself to say is: Who the hell travels with a plastic turd (and yes, it was plastic)? But secretly I was thinking, I really hope airport security gets a hold of the turd bag, that'll learn them for going through people's luggage. Avis, plastic excrement and a shower behind me, I learned that Shawn had made some calls and Oliver was coming to our rescue. He graciously took us to the Spratnet, where he introduced to his sons, grandsons and nieces and hung out with us as we lingered at the restaurant watching the water, chatting about life in general and enjoying some really excellent food. Once again, we had Oliver to thank for saving the day.

I would have loved to have linked to Oliver's information, but I could not find a website for him, so I will just copy what is on his brochure and highly recommend him to anyone visiting St Kitts. His phone number is 869 465 6314, cell: 869 662 7010 and email address is oliverspencer@caribsurf.com.