Not more than a month had passed since the surrealistic experience of the Pan Am Games and I was flying out again to another tournament. This time it was the regional Caribbean championships called CAREBACO and was being held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Trinidad was sending a team of us to represent the country and compete in the senior and junior events. The senior team consisted of Jason Ramjass (my doubles partner from nationals), Alistar Espinoza, Solangel Guzman, Avril Marcelle, and Leanna Castanada, and myself. We were the senior team that would represent Trinidad and Tobago at the championships. Along with us was a large junior contingent which had entries in all age categories for the individual events as well as a junior team for the junior team event. There was also a Junior International that happened right before the Junior CAREBACO so in a way the juniors got 2 tournaments out of it.
First things first was getting to Santo Domingo and I needed
to find a decently cheap flight there and that proved to make things very
interesting on the route that I would take. Logic does not always dictate that
flight routes make sense and believe me when I say that mine wasn’t the most
logical both going and returning. Let’s start with the journey there which had
me go for the milk run. From Calgary to LA, LA to New York, and finally New
York to Santo Domingo. This proved to take a full 24 hours of traveling
including an overnight flight from LA to New York and arriving into Santo
Domingo around 1am in the morning. The rest of the Trinidad team arrived just
an hour before me so they waited at the airport to collect me and head to the
resort. The host hotel was at an all-inclusive resort by the beach so there was
no complaints there as it was pretty much food and drinks included and a beach
with picturesque clear water. The accommodation though wasn’t as ideal, there
was 3 of us sharing the room during the team tournament phase (Jason, Alistair,
and me) but then during the individual tournament Jason and I were to have a
room to ourselves but we got stuck with one of the juniors in the room with us.
Aside from all that the resort wasn’t anything special, it
wasn’t a 5 star resort right on the beach there was a little walk to the hotels
private beach. The food was sub-par at best and most of the time it appeared to
be under cooked but it was free so I guess I’m not allowed to complain. There
was also drinks involved but they were watered down for sure which is expected
from an all-inclusive resort. Didn’t matter because we wouldn’t be spending
much time there other than sleeping anyways as the tournament hall was at least
an hour drive away with no traffic. That journey easily jumped to 2 hours when
there was traffic. It also meant that all the players had to go down at the
same time and stay there the whole day as there were not multiple shuttles do
and from the hotel. Over cramming the bus going followed by being sweaty,
tired, and hungry on the ride back was not a fun combination or fun way to
spend a week.
The original tournament venue was to be close to the hotel
but some last minute complications happened which required it to be changed to
the further one. This new venue was just like most other tournament halls I
have experienced in my travels to South America and the Caribbean…crap. There
were multiple openings in the wall which allowed a lot of wind to come in.
funny story and spoiler alert, here was a hurricane coming towards the island
which would hit later in the week when we were there. So the tournament started
with the team championships, there was 4 teams present. Trinidad and Tobago,
Barbados, Jamaica, and of course Dominican Republic. It was a format of a men’s
singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and a mixed doubles.
The order of play could vary and usually always started with a men’s doubles.
We played Barbados first and the following day we played Dominican Republic and
the next day Jamaica. At the end of the team championships when all was said
and done we came in 3rd place so a bronze medal for the Trinidad and
Tobago senior badminton team. After that started the CAREBACO International
which was a BWF event and counted towards world ranking as well as Olympic
qualifications.
Individual events started and I was the 4th seed
for men’s singles. That was the first time in a really long time that I have
been seeded for an international tournament. I played a local player first
round and then after played Gareth henry from Jamaica. However the day that I
played Gareth there was a hurricane that blew through and they only played a
few matches that morning because the winds and rain were coming in,
unfortunately I was one who played and that was a hard time with the shuttle
blowing every which way. Unfortunately I lost 2nd round singles and
then 1st round men’s doubles and 2nd round mixed doubles.
My tournament was over but first we had to make it through the hurricane. That
hit us but not as hard as it could have been, there was some minor damage and
to my knowledge no causalities.
The tournament was done for me on Friday and I was leaving
Santo Domingo Sunday morning at 4am with a ridiculous flight path to New York,
then to LA and finally to Calgary. That meant that I would actually have
Saturday to relax/enjoy the place. But first it meant going out on Friday night
to the resorts club on the beach, that was a lot of fun and with free drinks it
turned into quite the night of partying island style. Waking up the next
morning I didn’t have a hangover or anything though so I was grateful for that.
Thankfully the hurricane didn’t mess up the beach and Jason and I were able to
enjoy the water, it was incredibly salty but warm none the less. At this point
it had been a long time since I made it to the beach let alone went into the water.
So to relax in the ocean was such a peaceful and calming thing to do. At this
point half the day was done and that meant I needed to pack and get ready for
my early departure.
Once night hit we ventured into the streets and wandered
around because one of our friends wanted a real drink and no more of the
watered down alcohol at the resort. Our walking took us straight to the red
light district of Santo Domingo and we ended up getting bombarded by
prostitutes and their pimps. It was quite the interesting experience to see how
many foreigners were actually there enjoying themselves and taking in the
sights. After finally getting our friend his drink we left and headed back to
the club on the beach for a little and I said my goodbyes to everyone from the
Trinidad and Tobago delegation that was there. The driver who was talking me to
the airport was also at the club so I didn’t have to worry about missing my
ride, 1am rolled around and we made our way to the airport. Early morning
flights/red eye flights are the bane of my existence and when I retire from
competing and am traveling I will avoid them at all costs.
The trip back to Calgary would take me all day and I would
arrive at 9pm that night as I had a few layovers in New York and LA. The flight
to NYC from Santo Domingo started off smooth but then only 45 minutes there was
a medical emergency and we were not sure if we would have to turn around or
divert to another country/airport. In the end we continued forward and made it
on schedule to NYC. The rest of the flights I ended up sleeping and watching
movies on my tablet but was grateful when I finally arrived home and could
sleep in my own bed, and not have to share a bed. That would be the end of the
trip not the worst but not the best. I ended up coming home with one medal at
least and that’s something big a medal from an international tournament. I
would get a bit of world ranking points for Olympic qualifications and got to
go to the beach and into the ocean. I wasn’t planning any tournament’s for
September but that meant that I had to figure out what to play next as
tournaments/points from the previous year would start to fall off.
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