Chancellor Hotel Port of Spain

I decided to take advantage of my paid vacation and spend two weeks in Trinidad and Tobago. My good friend Kevin Fortune, who I met in college, is from Trinidad and was a phenomenal tour guide. I stayed away from computers, cell phones and any reading materials related to the economy and/or the environment.

... meal times, and the crazy Caribbean humidity.

The night was slow with turtles, and much of it was spent watching groups of tourists slowly appear in the darkness, stumble past with shoes and flip-flops in hand, laughing and drinking, sometimes seeing us and stopping to ask us strange drunken questions. The tourists were streaming all through Zone 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 to see the turtles that had been slow to arrive for the past several days. But Peter, Chris and ...

... the dog." I skinned my knee.


We learned later at our team dinner, that Rodger and the guide had actually made it to the uninhabited island. But when the guide saw that we were in need of assistance, he took Rodger's life vest and kayak and attempted to reach us on his own. Somehow, he capsized as well, let the kayak drift away, and swam into the shore. Meanwhile, he had abandoned Rodger on the uninhabited island to fend for himself.

love,Q

... scenario extended for long enough, where I felt that these four houligans were left with only two potential outcomes; the first being that they would leave, and the second being that an assault was imminent. I watched them clustered in the dark, halfway down the road to the beach where they had stopped short. They finally, egos swollen, pride pounded, beer metabolized....rolled back up to their car where they stood and yelled in words I could finally understand like ...

... underwear, as well, and one of them started to sludge toward me with a gallon-sized vodka bottle in his mitts. More men appeared on the river bank and waved bottles and yelled some more. I put my little red kayak into high gear and aimed it toward the jungle river ahead.

The river quickly gave way to dense banks of jungle and silence. The water beneath my kayak was clear, cool, and green with a layer of rocks and jungle leaves on the bottom. We ...

... to Cuba from TJ, no need to hip-hop the Caribbean. But that's a slow way to reach 200 countries. It's not easy connecting the Caribbean dots without a boat, but with my other killer $250RT from Jamaica-Barbados, I'm doing okay, and that's a three-hour flight! Havana's little more than an hour from Jamaica. Guyana's the expensive leg. Are the hardest places to reach ultimately the most rewarding? We'll soon find out. I've schemed on ...

... company lying about the duration of a job to get people down here. We got our orientation and sat through a 10-hour safety class that afternoon. Trinidad just adopted OSHA and now they're working on making the country compliant to help minimize job related deaths on the island. Anyway, so the next 5 days were spent tracking down gear and waiting for Customs to release our ...

... got to Trinidad (after another flight delay of about an hour and a half) on Saturday and stayed out at Maracas Bay. Its a really nice spot, with palm trees by the beach and moutains with jungle vegetation complete with cloud mist at the tops. Quite the scenic place. We then travelled to Port of Spain on Sunday morning to get the ferry to Tobago. The port ran like a well oiled machine, and by well oiled machine I mean a pig circus! We were lucky to get ...

After a very long and tedious trip, we were there. HOORAH! My first Trinidad Carnival in 3 years. Gavin's first proper carnival, first trip the Caribbean, and first time meeting my friends ... and many other firsts. We arrive 10 days before Carnival Monday ...

... peas and packed with powerful pepper. Mmm ... 3. TOBAGO - This cuddly island has characteristics of paradise. 4. PIER-ONE 5. SANDRA'S HOSPITALITY - Dexter's mom took me to Tobago and several times Down the Islands on her boat. In addition, she concocted this amazing cracker dip with mangos and cream cheese which was delectable. A nice thing to take away from Trinidad would be how the rich, older generation stays young. Sandra and friends throw parties, go out on ...