The Royal Palm Suite Maraval

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.

... at the Nature Seekers office in the white diesel flatbed truck, as he had most nights. The truck was extra full, since the following day was a Trini holiday, meaning that the beach would be swarmed tonight with mobs of tourists. We took our final drive through the streets of Matura, busy this night with men standing outside shops and bars, exchanging un-understandable jaw-jacking with the young guys on our truck---then lots of laughter and watching them disappear into the distance ...

... all of our teammates had disappeared. We assumed that Rodger and the guide had simply looped out of our sight to the far side of the island...but where were the others? I looked back and far off in the distance, between the rise and fall of the swells and the glints of sun bouncing off the water, I made out the shapes of two kayaks. But I didn't see any people. And the kayaks looked strange. I squinted and squinted and realized that was I was looking at was ...

... warmth of the equatorial sun, in the calm of a sweltering day on the terrace. As I enjoyed my chillin', Askim arrived on the terrace with a strange look on her face. She said that she had something really weird to tell me. A few minutes ago in the kitchen, she'd overheard one of the staff report to Suzan that two people had been shot and killed on Matura Beach today. The weirdest part of it was not that it had happened, but that later, when we were all gathered together with ...

During the daytime hours, we have the option of hanging out at our accommodations at Susan's Guesthouse in Matura village, maybe toodling over to the Dis-and-Dat Shoppe to pick up a bottle of pop, roaming the village streets and fending off crazed looking island dogs that are a cross between Corgies and Beagles, or venturing out onto a planned excursion. Yesterday, the planned excursion was a kayaking adventure on the Salybia River. Now, I was a little leery ...

... obsessed by the beads of sweat on the side of my face. He commented on them several times, in language I could barely understand, and then laugh in the darkness. WTF? For the first hour, I though he was a staff member and couldn't figure out his problem, but I later learned that he was just a guy who knew a guy who decided to "volunteer" for the night.

At any rate, Aaron the hanger-on was a bothersome parasite, full of questions and weird comments and other distracting ...

... took us parallel to the beach, but under the canopy of a wild mixture of tropical and deciduous foliage. Christopher pointed out robust sea grape trees along the path, with wide green fan-like leaves and brand new green grapes. He told us that locals will use ripe sea grapes to make wine. Between the sea grape trees were gaps of sky and sand and ocean, punctuated with nubby brown termite hives wrapped around thick tree branches. Overhead, a turkey vulture ...

... point, it's a good idea to get a log to hold it there...not only does it help with rolling but it stops the boat from going back out to sea when the swells come. In any case, it seems that Dash quickly realized he had found a place with people that would help, and we have have been recruited regularly. However, now Pual has begun to tell Dash to get a log before we start hauling! Paul and Dash have hit it off and now the greeting to Paul is "Hey, Daddy know boats!."

... dripseal, and coupling...that unfortunately was out of the question. But sticking to the rough idea and to 25mm, we opted to cutout the cutless and about 20cm of the stern tube. But before that could be done we had to make shure we could get the parts. As per usual, not one shop had everything we needed. We had to buy the cutless, shaft, and coupling from one shop, a foot of sterntube from the other, and get the prop machined to fit the 25mm shaft. This all ...

... a clean ball. He doesn't have one, of course, but he hands the old one to David, who is satisfied with the exchange and throws back to the pitcher. Meanwhile, The Youths go on pretending to chew tobacco and spit. The big-leaguers got nothing on these guys. "Justin draws a walk, putting two men on for The Youths with "The Vulture" looking to scavenge. Gerardo had his A-game, though, getting Caracas to pop out straight back to him and then inducing "The Gringo ...