We'd arrived on this wonderful, beautiful, fantasy island at night, unfortunately. The feeling when that wave of heat struck you was wonderful- you knew you had truly arrived, that you had certainly left cold rainy England far far behind.nnSo the first impressions were it was hot- so hot, and noisy! The insects were playing their strings, it seemed, as if they were all trying to outdo one another to impress you most. Wonderful. nnSuch a shame it was night, and dark, so aside from the artificial lighting, there really wasn't much to see. Also, you got to walk off the plane- no suspended walkway, no trucks coming to meet you, you got of the plane and walked to where the passport control and customs were.nnThe steel band was there, of course, well, the solitary steel drummer, still smiling away, but in a slightly more forlorn way than their chief of Tourism would have wanted- but who cares? We were in the Caribbean! nnCold beers, beaches, beauties, rum, turquoise waters, mini mokes (the little jeep type rental cars) ahh- how much better than this could it get?nnWell, lots better- I could have my best mate in the world with me. Look left. Check – best mate in the whole wide world. Sweet.nnIt could be free- look down at hand, see the letter of employment from the research institute- check – free! Well, food, accommodation, flights, some living expenses- plenty for two small time wanna-be alcoholics. Besides we both loved rum – so what better place to work? nnOh, the work. Yeah, well, it was going to be really tough work, but for the few months we were there, I guess we could get over it. nnPretty shitty though, being paid to scuba-dive around the island, on the pretence of researching the pollution effects of the tourism industry on the natural flora and fauna of the sea.