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The Immigrant Survival Guide
Can You Trust GPS on a Low-Tech Island?
Exploring the pitfalls of high-tech navigation in regions where technology lags behind.
“Let’s take the backroads.” I said. I had no idea that would set off a chain reaction that almost ended in a fight, complete with machetes and no way to escape.
It started with a traffic jam. On the island where I grew up, there’s one major highway connecting the North and South parts of the country.
In the middle of the country, where North and South meet, large residential developments spread on either side of the highway. In a planned expansion, sensible people pay attention to drainage. Not so much on our island.
When it rains, the highway often floods, enough to shut down traffic entirely. Cars stall. People stand around. Vendors sell water. It’s a whole thing that can last hours. You don’t want to be caught in it and just our luck, we’re supposed to spend the night in South Trinidad and the highway was flooded.
I’d just bought an iPhone 8, and in those days, we were GPS savvy. We knew how to map our way around the USA — how hard could it be to navigate to South Trinidad if we had our gypsy (GPS) and a full tank of gas? There were backroads, we had time…
