Hot and Humid in Trinidad
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Thu 31 Oct 2013 16:29
and on board Andromeda, who is not hot and humid as the air-conditioner
continues to do its magic! Yes, after another long day travelling
courtesy of BA we arrived back in the exotic climate of Trinidad and
Tobago with Sue and Paull who elected to come and join us for a couple
of weeks. It was a very long day given the time differences but
everything worked as advertised and we were met by Stanley and a big
grin at Piarco airport and once we had our copious luggage loaded up we
started to relax a little.
Andromeda is looking well and we are very grateful to Sue and Malcolm
and latterly Chris and Sharon for keeping a watchful eye on her while we
were away. Andrew inadvertently closed off one of the scuppers so we had
a nice green patch where rain water couldn’t drain away – duh! – but
it’s all cleaned up now and we have had no leaks nor water where it
shouldn’t be, so we can start getting her ready for the haul out after
Sue and Paull return to the UK. We have already been asked to do weather
and the Saturday Net, so it’s almost as if we hadn’t been away.
Lots of folks we know are still here, a number of which are off to
Guyana in the next week to explore that largely overlooked cruising
ground. We wish them a fair passage. We have a fairly long list of
things to sort out before we can leave Trinidad and head north to the
BVI’s where we plan to join the ARC Europe rally for the return to
Europe in May next year. Of this more in due course.
We had arranged a number of trips around the island for our visitors,
organised for the most part by Jesse James, our favourite tour guide and
OCC Port Officer so Sue and Paull left us after a very hectic two weeks.
The first couple of days were spent enjoying the delights of Crews Inn,
making good use of the swimming pool then we had the of our first
maxi-taxi rides into Port of Spain and succumbed to some lovely new
lycra newly arrived in Jimmy Abouds. Our first big trip was a Taste of
Trinidad tour (Taste T&T) with a new record breaking 89 different native
foods and drinks sampled during a day around the northern and eastern
and central part of the island including a swim in the surprisingly warm
Atlantic Ocean. Yes, everyone was bursting at the end, with home-made
ice-cream concluding the whole day!(a full list is at the very bottom of
this post if you are interested and photos are from this day out).
After a rest day we then travelled to the south-western end of the
island and visited the La Brea Pitch Lake (the only place in the world
where you can walk on the pitch itself) where both Sue’s had a swim in
the pools there and the day continued with a visit to the Port Pierre
Wildfowl Trust, which is in the middle of the huge Petrotrin Oil
refinery, where we saw many birds and trees and a sombre looking
Spectacled Cayman. A really delightful place and a first visit for us.
Over the next weekend we managed to fit in an early morning trip to the
huge fresh fruit and veg market in Port of Spain where we found some
local swizzle sticks, vital for making the callaloo soup.
A visit to the Asa Wright Bird Sanctuary with an overnight stay followed
by a boat ride in the Caroni Swamp to see the Scarlet Ibis resulted us
being “birded out” – Birding is a phrase new to us! At Asa Wright (and
if you google this /search on facebook you can see much more) we saw
many, many birds including the wonderful hummingbirds who also sing,
the Bell Bird with a really strange call and four Toucans, (sounds odd),
– photo’s can scarcely do these sights justice. Particularly when
trying to photograph the hummingbirds, one of whom we saw is 2.5 inches
long from tip of beak to tip of tail and is the second smallest in the
world, and boy, do they fly fast. We enjoyed a delightful swim in the
mountain pool, very refreshing and saw lots of creepy crawlies on the
evening walk. All this and some really great meals, we were ready then
for our ride down the mountains and into the Carioni swamp to watch the
magnificient scarlet ibis come flying in to roost on one of the mangrove
covered islands.
However, this was not all – a trip to Maquaripe on the
north coast allowed us to see and hear Red Howler Monkeys, whose call is
really, really strange, and a swim in the cooling, well quite warm
really, Caribbean Sea. Several more trips to Port of Spain saw the
fabric shops thoroughly investigated.
The final trip was to the north coast once more to taste the remarkable
Bake and Shark at Maracas Bay, not to be missed and definitely
experienced, which naturally included a swim in the sea, complete with a
Stingray in attendance and a not inconsiderable amount of rain and
fallen trees!
Not least were the Pot Luck suppers and games of Domino’s. We were
pretty much shattered by the end of the visit and hope Sue and Paull
will have fond memories, especially the early morning swimming and
noodle sessions, of their trip.
Oh, and by the way, we had a 6.4 earthquake some 30 miles away in the
Gulf of Pariah, and 6 miles down, near Venezuela – the water shook and
the noise was eerie – though some managed to sleep through it!
Thankfully, no major damage or injuries were sustained.
So now we are getting ourselves organised for the haul-out before once
again getting ready for our next visitors, Sue and Ron, who arrive after
a long cruise from Europe on a liner!
More in due course........and by the way, Andrew is still feeding the
cat, you know who you are!
P.S. You know you are a liveaboard...;-)
- When invited to dinner at someone’s house you ask if you can have a
shower.
- When invited to dinner at someone’s house you ask if you can do your
laundry.
- A fifteen minute job always takes an hour and a half since you have to
pull everything out of all the storage lockers to find the right part,
then the right tool, then put it all back, somehow.
- Removing things from the refrigerator is like playing Jenga.
- You visit a friend’s house and worry that everything on the shelves
will come crashing down when the boat heels.
ps. first photos are from Taste T & T
Susan and Andrew
Andromeda of Plymouth,
Crews Inn Marina,
Chaguaramus,
Trinidad and Tobago
Caribbean
Taste of Trinidad - 10th October 2013 – List
1. Roast bake
2. Salted fish
3. Smoked herring
4. Potato pie
5. Beef pie
6. Fry bake
7. Bygam (egg plant) choka
8. Fried plantain
9. Bodi beans
10. Pak choi
11. Tomato choka
12. Curried pumpkin
13. White sada roti
14. Black sada roti
15. Cow Heel Soup
16. Spinach
17. Carilie
18. Green fig
19. Okra
20. Coconut bake
21. Scambled egg Trini style
22. Chicken gizzards
23. Barbeque pig tail
24. Macaroni pie
25. Coconut roll
26. Macaroni strudel
27. Fried beef pie
28. Spinach rice
29. Chinese noodles
30. Fried salmon
31. Stewed chicken
32. Pomme ceylete
33. Dhal
34. Callaloo soup
35. Curried duck
36. Cassava
37. Sorrel drink
38. Brazil nuts
39. Silk fig – banana
40. Sugar apple
41. Doubles
42. Sahina
43. Chacourie
44. Stewed beef
45. Curried chicken
46. Curried chickpeas
47. Curried potatoes
48. Curried mango
49. Curried goat
50. Dahl pourie
51. Parata roti
52. Peanut punch
53. Soursop milk
54. Mauby drink
55. Bust up roti
56. Pineapple chow
57. Water melon
58. Philourie
59. Mango sauce
60. Paw paw balls
61. Pickled plums
62. Tamarind
63. Chalta
64. Red mango
65. Sugar cake
66. Ballerina cake
67. Rock cake
68. Bread pudding
69. Sweet bread
70. Kurma
71. Barfi
72. Trillium
73. Cerries
74. Green plums
75. Guava
76. Cocoa beans
77. Portugal
78. Star fruit
79. Passion fruit
80. Green fig salad
81. Spanish rice
82. Barbeque pork
83. Barbeque lamb
84. Jerk pork
85. Pastille
86. Passion fruit juice
87. Grapefruit juice
88. Portugal juice
89. Homemade icecream
