Tropical spender.

• Author: Gearino, G.D.
• Position: FINEPRINT - Travel experience - Travel narrative

As far as capitalists go, I'm all talk. I think people ought to live rich and circulate as much money through the economy as possible, but I don't actually do much circulating myself. In fact, the people I admire most are those who've managed to reduce their needs down to the bare-bones minimum, people like my buddy the legendary North Carolina newspaper columnist Dennis Rogers, who quit his job, shed his worldly goods and now lives in his ride. OK, it's a pretty spectacular recreational vehicle, but even the most spacious of them still requires that you keep the air freshener handy--if you catch my drift. That's when you know you've stripped life to its essentials.

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It was jarring, then, to find myself living like a one-percenter a few weeks ago, cruising around the Caribbean and waking each day wondering what new and inventive money-circulating opportunities would present themselves. It was fun, but more than that it was educational. Here's what I learned from my Week of Living Large.

Pricing in the islands is ... well, let's say "flexible." To step off the cruise ship was to step into a world where the cost of anything was subject to instant change, usually upward. In St. Lucia, we hired a driver to take us around the island (which, by the way, is one of the most gorgeous places on Earth). At one point, as we approached a rum distillery, he said it offered tours and had a tasting room. "Five dollars per person." Being both curious and thirsty; we agreed. But when we got there, the woman at the door said, 'Ten dollars per person." We paid, because it seemed churlish to argue. After our fees were collected, we were herded into the distillery, passing a sign that said tours were $3 per person. Fret not, fellow consumers. I got my $10 worth in the tasting room. My favorite was the Bounty label (which the natives pronounce "Boonty"). I even left with a bottle of my own. More about that in a moment.

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Your camera is a moneymaker, but not for you. In Aruba, I saw a garishly decorated bus (left) in Oranjestad, the island's capital, and decided to take a photograph. Just as I did, a man behind me shouted, "No pictures! Ten dollars!" (Apparently, $10 is the default price in the Caribbean for any nonstandard transaction. I ignored him, and he didn't press the matter. But I'll bet that more often than not, tourists pay up.

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