Trinidad
We’ve had a good taste of Trinidad from our two weeks here, especially arriving at Carnival time. The whole country seems to grind to a halt for four days (only KFC stays open) while hundreds of thousands of party-goers take to the streets in brightly coloured bikinis laced with tassels. It’s certainly a spectacular sight, not least for the dancing, the local move known as ‘wining’ is aptly described by our friend as ‘sex with clothes on’. The noise is pretty spectacular too, forty-foot trucks loaded right up with speakers accompany the parade blasting out ‘soca’ music and as they pass, your whole body pulses with the thumping bass.
During the run-up to the big day, various competitions take place. Pan bands play steel drums made from 45-gallon oil drums, with a surprising versatility of sounds. Calypso singers sound off about local political and moral issues and 'ex-tempo' singers ad-lib songs on a given theme with only a moment's notice.
People dress up in highly elaborate costumes to compete for the title of King and Queen of Carnival. Some of these creations are so enormous they have to be supported on a wheeled framework, they take months to make and can cost several thousand pounds. The King and Queen finals were a truly awesome sight.
Otherwise, we’ve been catching up on work on the boat. We are anchored in a place called Chaguaramas Bay, which has the third biggest collection of boats in the world (after Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Gibraltar). The whole area has been designed for the boating industry – there is a choice of five or six boatyards, all with private marinas and dry storage the size of football fields. You can buy almost any marine item or service and get most things repaired. Trinidad is about the only safe island of the Caribbean during hurricane season (July to November) so thousands of boats come here to be craned out of the water.
Despite this, the anchorage is in a lovely spot, surrounded by wooded islands in a corner of the Gulf of Paria. The water is pea green, apparently from the outflow of the nutrient-rich river Orinoko. Growth appears within no time on the bottom of the boat and the water seems to ‘crackle’ with the noise of marine life feeding on these microscopic nutrients.
Away from the city (Port of Spain), Trinidad is a lovely island, with three mountain ranges and a lush green and fertile countryside. We took a trip to a nature reserve and watched hummingbirds feeding from a distance of less then two feet away. On a boat trip through the mangrove swamps, we saw tree snakes, caymans (small alligators) and flocks of thousands of egret and scarlet ibis coming in to roost. It was a wonderful sight seeing the pure white of the egrets and the almost fluorescent bright red of the scarlet ibis against the green mangroves.
We will be pulling up the anchor again on Tuesday night and by Wednesday we should be in another new country.
During the run-up to the big day, various competitions take place. Pan bands play steel drums made from 45-gallon oil drums, with a surprising versatility of sounds. Calypso singers sound off about local political and moral issues and 'ex-tempo' singers ad-lib songs on a given theme with only a moment's notice.
People dress up in highly elaborate costumes to compete for the title of King and Queen of Carnival. Some of these creations are so enormous they have to be supported on a wheeled framework, they take months to make and can cost several thousand pounds. The King and Queen finals were a truly awesome sight.
Otherwise, we’ve been catching up on work on the boat. We are anchored in a place called Chaguaramas Bay, which has the third biggest collection of boats in the world (after Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Gibraltar). The whole area has been designed for the boating industry – there is a choice of five or six boatyards, all with private marinas and dry storage the size of football fields. You can buy almost any marine item or service and get most things repaired. Trinidad is about the only safe island of the Caribbean during hurricane season (July to November) so thousands of boats come here to be craned out of the water.
Despite this, the anchorage is in a lovely spot, surrounded by wooded islands in a corner of the Gulf of Paria. The water is pea green, apparently from the outflow of the nutrient-rich river Orinoko. Growth appears within no time on the bottom of the boat and the water seems to ‘crackle’ with the noise of marine life feeding on these microscopic nutrients.
Away from the city (Port of Spain), Trinidad is a lovely island, with three mountain ranges and a lush green and fertile countryside. We took a trip to a nature reserve and watched hummingbirds feeding from a distance of less then two feet away. On a boat trip through the mangrove swamps, we saw tree snakes, caymans (small alligators) and flocks of thousands of egret and scarlet ibis coming in to roost. It was a wonderful sight seeing the pure white of the egrets and the almost fluorescent bright red of the scarlet ibis against the green mangroves.
We will be pulling up the anchor again on Tuesday night and by Wednesday we should be in another new country.
posted by Katie at 1:39 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Hazel and David,
Looks like you are having a wonderful time. It doesn't much feel like Spring here yet - very cold, blustery southeasterly today - but it must be on the way. Sea Dream II came out last week and now sits on the Quay. And, equally significantly, in the last few days the swan has begun to build her nest (for the sixth year in a row) in the exact same spot. Now doesn't that make you a teensy bit homesick? No, it doesn't it? Hmmmnn, let me think: trees full of parrots, yellow-tails, mot-mots and frigate birds; Carnival; sex with clothes on (but not many, I bet); and sitting out on deck in Trinidad's Charlotteville anchorage; or else, shivering in a freezing so'easterly, the daffodils not even up yet (though it's mid March already), and weeks before anyone here will even begin to think about boating. Not too difficult to work out where most of us would rather be...(though of course there are SOME consolations, Branoc at The Bridge, David's fish and chips...)
Well done in keeping the blog up to date. We're all enjoying following your travels.
Marc, Kim, Bella and Guy
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