Hotel Normandie 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.

... so it was quiet when she began to lay her eggs. As I always loved the best, I hung out by her front flippers and her face. I got closer and felt her breath, and this made me cry. A combination of being too tired, having forgotten my cake snack, and knowing that this was one of the coolest things I'd ever been near.

It's easy to be grateful and reflective when you have the energy to be so, but gratitude and appreciation become more difficult in the presence of weakness and ...

... an ancient rock. It was like Alcatraz had sprouted a broccoli head. Now the water was rough behind the island, and it was pulling our kayaks in crazy rocking, rolling directions. But I decided it was time to get some action shots of Ronald executing extraordinary paddle strokes and kayak control in the rough water. So for some time during Ronald's photo shoot, we completely lost track of the others. By the time we packed up my camera into the dry storage and looked ...

... 14 years and who's nicknamed "Trinidad Jesus." I asked Francis how much of a problem poaching still was on Matura Beach. Francis responded, "There is no poaching."

That's the strange thing about this place. Francis wasn't lying to me, because he really believed these words he said. But the evidence spoke different words to me. Every night while recording turtles, we came across the carcasses of dead turtles. All of these animals displayed injuries that, in my limited ...

... 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 ...

... et on conduit a gauche, en plus il y a plein de rond- points, c'est drole. La pluie semble avoir cesse un peu, je crois qu'on verra bientot la saison seche. A part ca tout va bien, je n'ai pas trop de voyage de prevu prochainement, le Sommet approche rapidement et j'ai moins de temps. Au mois de mai je vais sans doute jouer plus a la touriste. Je vous donne des nouvelles bientot Annabelle xxo

Mas bands (themed costumes) compete for "band of the year" on Carnival Tuesday. All these bands (who have spent the entire last 12 months working on their costumes) proudly march down the streets of Port of Spain all day in the relentless sun with the biggest smiles in the most exhuberant, excited, and involved crowd of masqueraders, tourists, and Trinidadians. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. The music is just infectious, everyone dancing and ...

... imagine...all continuing up until exactly Midnight, when everything shuts down because of Ash Wednesday. The cleaning crews start cleaning the roads and everyone goes home to sleep off the days of chaos. The next few days we spent relaxing, sight-seeing in the area, visiting with ...

... was unacceptable. She said she'd fill it if there was a problem. She filled it. Later, she told "Princess Misery" about it, who looked in my direction and muttered, "*******!" "Pin-head Never-Smiles", for her part, was friendly with me a lot compared to the other two: a whole two times! Also an Indian, she complained about her relatively easy job so much you'd think she was a slave gold-miner sent down poisonous shafts. She got her joy out of sleeping with most ...

... lady I stay with is like a Roald Dahl character. Roald probably would've called her: Old Miss Abominable, a.k.a. "The Tenant-Muncher." She's lonely, so that whenever she speaks to anyone she deems a good person (any person who is not me) she's so excited that she laughs like a screaming witch being pumped full with helium. In contrast, in my presence - say, in the kitchen, stirring her brew in her favorite mumu as I fix myself a peanut butter-and-bananas on white - her ...