Adventure from the Caribean - New Years on the Island Part 1
He web Blog peoples! Greg Vail here stuck in Miami Florida! I have had little internet time over the past week so I have much to catch you-all up on.
Flash back to last year, December 29th.
I was packing and on my way to LAX for a great gig with my good friend Alec Milstein. Destination - The Grenadines, Canouan Island. Raffles is a 5 star resort and the pictures, DVD, website looked awesome. The musicians Alec assembled were an impressive list of LA players and the gig sounded like heaven!
We had a late flight out Monday the 29th and the adventure began. I had far less information than I usually have for travel jobs and had heard from Alec that the resort was pretty loose with details and information, but he felt good about the gig and I figured it was January so what could go wrong???
We flew thru Monday night to Miami Florida. We then got on another American flight to Barbados. Paradise! We caught a small plane to Canouan Island, arriving at sunset Tuesday night the 30th. The flight was on a funky older plane that I was told was a charter flight since the Island is only reachable by boat or personal plane. I will be posting pics once I get them sorted and uploaded, but to tell you, it was a little different than the puddle-jumper flights I had taken in the past.
We threw our stuff on the plane and some of our bags in the back little section and had a fun time in this little 15 seater, 2 engine plane. We got to Canouan and had the most amazing views by air, a nd now ground as we were shuttled to our Villa - the Villa Ferrari.
Wow - We had 11 pieces and this villa was a private area with 2 guest houses adjoined by a patio and pool, overlooking the bay and resort. Rooms were small, beds were way old school, and the vibe was quaint and beautiful old Spanish decor. Minor problem was the number of rooms, but we ended up having 2 guys room together and sent 3 off site.
As strange as the flight not having any seat assignment or actual schedule, the Villa had no room numbers or assignments and we just had to figure out how to make it all work.
Many things figured into the next few hours of gaming, as rooms were moved into to and out of over and over again. You see, some rooms had working air conditioning, some had screens on the windows, some had Mosquito nets built over the beds, some had stairs to deal with, some had bigger bathrooms, and so on...
We did eventually figure it all out but I ended up in a room with no Air Conditioning, no working fan and no mosquito net for the bed. This was a very bad combination as time will explain.
The grounds for the resort cover hundreds of access and we did have 2 golf carts at the Villa and 1 cart for the 3 people at the newer Villas, closer to the beach areas.
We got the room worked out and very much enjoyed the stocked kitchen, common area living rooms and patios and really had a great band party hang for days on a paradise Island. With reasonable amounts of alcoholic consumption and a non-stop party vibe at the Villas, we had our first accident that first night.
Our trumpet player, Brian Swartz was feeling little pain as he fell while we were exploring the outer areas of the Villas. We ended up calling the hotel and had to shuttle Brian to the local clinic for 5 stitches and 1 stitch in his arm and basic clean up including a tweaked wrist and full face plant when he fell. I missed this part of the adventure, having sent Gary Gould along o the clinic, but understand it was an amazing trip with the shuttle driver hitting on the nurse (who was totally dissin' him) and more that will go unmentioned.
Brian was cleaned up and Gary and Brian returned with stories and bandages to share. We got the blood cleaned up, glass up, and had started the movie fest that filled every night. Since we basically traveled all night and half the next day, we all hit the sack pretty early this first night - NOT! I hit the sack and heard many stayed up till 2 or 3 AM.
I think I was down by about 130, because I had a goal - a mission - I HAD A DREAM!
I set my alarm for 530 AM and will continue in part 2 - New Years on the Island.
Flash back to last year, December 29th.
I was packing and on my way to LAX for a great gig with my good friend Alec Milstein. Destination - The Grenadines, Canouan Island. Raffles is a 5 star resort and the pictures, DVD, website looked awesome. The musicians Alec assembled were an impressive list of LA players and the gig sounded like heaven!
We had a late flight out Monday the 29th and the adventure began. I had far less information than I usually have for travel jobs and had heard from Alec that the resort was pretty loose with details and information, but he felt good about the gig and I figured it was January so what could go wrong???
We flew thru Monday night to Miami Florida. We then got on another American flight to Barbados. Paradise! We caught a small plane to Canouan Island, arriving at sunset Tuesday night the 30th. The flight was on a funky older plane that I was told was a charter flight since the Island is only reachable by boat or personal plane. I will be posting pics once I get them sorted and uploaded, but to tell you, it was a little different than the puddle-jumper flights I had taken in the past.
We threw our stuff on the plane and some of our bags in the back little section and had a fun time in this little 15 seater, 2 engine plane. We got to Canouan and had the most amazing views by air, a nd now ground as we were shuttled to our Villa - the Villa Ferrari.
Wow - We had 11 pieces and this villa was a private area with 2 guest houses adjoined by a patio and pool, overlooking the bay and resort. Rooms were small, beds were way old school, and the vibe was quaint and beautiful old Spanish decor. Minor problem was the number of rooms, but we ended up having 2 guys room together and sent 3 off site.
As strange as the flight not having any seat assignment or actual schedule, the Villa had no room numbers or assignments and we just had to figure out how to make it all work.
Many things figured into the next few hours of gaming, as rooms were moved into to and out of over and over again. You see, some rooms had working air conditioning, some had screens on the windows, some had Mosquito nets built over the beds, some had stairs to deal with, some had bigger bathrooms, and so on...
We did eventually figure it all out but I ended up in a room with no Air Conditioning, no working fan and no mosquito net for the bed. This was a very bad combination as time will explain.
The grounds for the resort cover hundreds of access and we did have 2 golf carts at the Villa and 1 cart for the 3 people at the newer Villas, closer to the beach areas.
We got the room worked out and very much enjoyed the stocked kitchen, common area living rooms and patios and really had a great band party hang for days on a paradise Island. With reasonable amounts of alcoholic consumption and a non-stop party vibe at the Villas, we had our first accident that first night.
Our trumpet player, Brian Swartz was feeling little pain as he fell while we were exploring the outer areas of the Villas. We ended up calling the hotel and had to shuttle Brian to the local clinic for 5 stitches and 1 stitch in his arm and basic clean up including a tweaked wrist and full face plant when he fell. I missed this part of the adventure, having sent Gary Gould along o the clinic, but understand it was an amazing trip with the shuttle driver hitting on the nurse (who was totally dissin' him) and more that will go unmentioned.
Brian was cleaned up and Gary and Brian returned with stories and bandages to share. We got the blood cleaned up, glass up, and had started the movie fest that filled every night. Since we basically traveled all night and half the next day, we all hit the sack pretty early this first night - NOT! I hit the sack and heard many stayed up till 2 or 3 AM.
I think I was down by about 130, because I had a goal - a mission - I HAD A DREAM!
I set my alarm for 530 AM and will continue in part 2 - New Years on the Island.
Well aren't you the raconteur. Just reading this is triggering my Canouan post traumatic stress disorder and making my bug bites itch all over again!!!
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Hey Jon! Should be all better by now? I think I have complete recovery and now new bites that have healed since so the memories of Canouan are all a beautiful blur! What itch?? OOOOHHH - LOOK AT THE PRETTY PICTURES...
Hahaha - greg
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