Work with a scenic view

Last week was definitely a departure from what my usual week looks like. Instead of going to the office every day, I had the opportunity to go to Trinidad, Barbados and Puerto Rico for work.

Let me just preface the trip with one thing - I hate flying. I'm not a huge fan of heights period, so being 38,000 feet above ground freaks me out. Nonetheless I wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity to travel, so fly I did.

Monday was basically spent flying the whole day (yay!) and getting through customs. Seriously, I thought the guy at the customs counter was going to ask me to draw blood and give up my first born. Fortunately we all made it into the country and to the hotel by dinnertime. Our hotel was amazing - by far one of the nicest places I've ever stayed, and it was ocean front to boot. After a 2 hour dinner, we went back to our rooms and I took a waterfall shower (so.good.) for 20 minutes before slipping into bed.

Not a bad view for breakfast/dinner!

Enjoying the scenery on the way to the next location

The first half of the week we spent in Trinidad, hopping all over the island and spending a good 14 hours of the day working. Tuesday night we had an early enough dinner that I was able to slip away with a couple of my coworkers down to the hotel bar to enjoy some Mojitos and some live music. While in Rome, right?

Then Wednesday I got my first peak at what I'd be flying on for the next 4 (yes, 4) flights.

Gotta love propeller planes

 I'm not going to lie, I had a mini panic attack when I realized the plane we'd be flying on from Trinidad to Barbados was a twin prop plane and not a plane with engines. I felt even less confident about flying when I:

1. Got seated in a window seat that was a view of the propellers (luckily a coworker switched me)
2. The pilot turned the plane around before take off because there was a "technical" issue with the plane (side note: I don't think the plane had a technical issue at all. We just had to turn around because 2 people on the flight had to get off - and get arrested. For what I'll never know.)

Fortunately (and unfortunately) for me, my coworkers thought it was hilarious that I was terrified of flying, so half the flight I spent laughing since everyone else was laughing so much. The nice man across the aisle from me that spoke no English also offered me his KFC. It was definitely an experience. 

We flew into Barbados at 9 at night, and then went straight to dinner. I wasn't super excited about another long night, but my mind changed when I went into the restaurant. We were seated outside right next to the ocean. Enjoying fresh seafood and listening to the waves crash on the rocks was all I needed to unwind from the stress of flying.

One of the best spots to enjoy a meal

The next day was another early day. Fortunately the island was small, so we called it quits around 5:30 at night at had the chance along the way to visit the beach. Barbados is definitely on my list of places I want to come back on vacation. I could have enjoyed weeks of just looking at the ocean.

We also stopped for lunch at the #1 rated restaurant on Trip Advisor for Bridgetown, Cuz's Fish Shack. It's 1 guy that serves fresh fish sandwiches every day, and the type of fish varies from day to day. We had Marlin, and it was one of the tastiest things I've ever had. I'm still drooling just thinking about it.

For dinner we went to another restaurant on the island that was right on the beach. Since we finished up a little earlier than planned, we got to walk there on the way to dinner. I'm now convinced a beach vacation has to be in my future - a couple hours on the beach is not nearly enough.

Delicious mussels

 Friday we got up at 5am to catch our flights from Barbados to Puerto Rico. Since the airlines that fly in-between the islands make no sense, we had to take a total of 3 flights to get from Bridgetown to San Juan. Again, I was stressing about flying, mostly because I got stuck on one of these again:

Fortunately we made it to San Juan right on time (something that rarely happens on the airline we flew) and since we were all starving, we filled up with some delicious Cubans.

We spent less than 24 hours in San Juan, but it was a definitely necessary trip as far as work was concerned. We enjoyed our last dinner at another seafood place, and made it to the hotel around midnight. Saturday was another whirlwind day of flying, but coming home was the sweetest, sweetest thing after a long week traveling.

-A