petit problem in gros islet

as my blogmate and i furrowed our collective brow at our flat tire (can a tire be very flat or are they all the same degree of deflatedness?) at the beach today we thought longingly back to our 36 hour blitz through coconut bay all-inclusive resort.

let us summarize: land cruise. beach chairs, pina coladas, waterslides, lime rum and diet cokes, lazy river, vieux fort special, lounge chairs, caribbean explosion, buffet lunch, dirty banana, dancing jerk pork carver at buffet dinner, lucian driver, worst most emotionless steel drum cover band EVER, worst white wine ever, lime rum and sprite, gin and tonic, more lime rum and sprite, more worst cover band ever, ten minutes at the gym, one more lime rum and sprite for the road, all-you-can-grilled-cheese, fountain diet coke (a rarity in this country), and best of all, a room to sleep in with ALL FOUR WALLS and much fewer mosquitoes and barking dogs than we thought possible.

our state of despair about the flat tire lasted the entirety of the 40 minutes that it took us to attempt to change to the spare, be assisted by a bored-looking taxi driver, find a "tyre" station, get the "tyre" fixed (for the standard st. lucian rate of $3.50), and find ourselves seated over pitons and spicy fish cakes at our new favorite beach dive.

from this we conclude that some things are just done more quickly in st lucia than in chicago. but this might be the only thing that's fast in st. lucia.