Caribbean: not all of it is a rip-off

Brandon Tucker makes some very good points in his blog about golf in the Caribbean, especially his point about the need to go back and take a hard look at some of our old Caribbean copy. A lot of those stories were written by a former editor who seemed to look at the Caribbean with rose-colored glasses and a strong wish to be a public relations hack.

I have written quite a bit about the Caribbean, some good and some bad. I stand by that.

Still, it isn’t all about rip-off artists and crime. I once lost my wallet on Eleuthera, one of the out-islands of the Bahamas. I went back and checked all the places I had been. Two days later, I found it at a store. The cashier had found it and saved it for me, knowing I’d be back. There aren’t many places in the U.S. – or in Nassau – where you can leave your wallet at a convenience store and find it two days later, with all the money still in it.

The people in the Bahama out-islands are friendly and honest and hard-working. You can leave your car unlocked overnight. I’ve never felt unsafe there, as opposed to Nassau, where you get drug offers walking down the sidewalk. Drugs are overwhelming the Caribbean, but there are still pockets of paradise.