Let me tell you about Trinidad

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Trinidad... Oh Trinidad.

The people in Trinidad are absolutely the nicest people on the face of the earth. I want to move here immediately. But first, let me tell you about it...

I sat next to a really nice Trinidadian on the plane, not that I really chat it up with people on planes, but we talked toward the end of the flight and turns out she is in policy and her sister works for Deloitte (EMG's former owner) in New York and knows this Trinidadian at EMG named XXX that I know. Everyone on the plane was falling over each other to help with things, and do you know so and so... When I say what I'm doing in Trinidad, they are like, do you need me to take you to the hospital, are you meeting anyone here? This is my number if you need anything. Everyone was like that on the plane. And to each other they were like, oh do you know so and so, etc. I also learned that Trinidad is really interesting in that they have E. Indians, Africans, white folks, you name it. So I am eager to try the food, because it is supposed to be good. When the plane landed, all the Trinidadians were clapping and saying, "God bless this island", etc., which I thought was cool.

Then I'm in line for immigration and I'm waiting for like an hour, no exaggeration. It seems they have a problem with South Americans (particularly Venezuelans - as you can see Venezuela from Trinidad) trying to get in and stay. Tobago is the resort island and Trinidad is where they do all the industry, like manufacturing and business, etc. I finally get up to immigration and the woman is asking me a ton of questions, why am I here, how long am I staying, and then she wants to see my return ticket. I'm like, return ticket? Um, I do e-tickets, so I don't have a paper ticket. I have to show her letters from the Global Fund and everything to prove that I'm not trying to get a job here and stay. Anyway, she lets me go through eventually. This man also told me that they are very particular because they don't want drug dealers from Latin America coming over. So much so that they have a surveillance blimp that flies over the island because in the mountains the police can't see everything, so with the blimp they can keep an eye on everything. Interesting. I don't think there is a local chapter of the ACLU here in Port of Spain.

Ok, so I take a cab into town and the cab driver is pointing out everything and telling me all about Trinidad, that they have Catholics, Hindus, Anglicans, and a small amount of Muslims. That they are the world's largest producers of ammonium. Who knew.

So I arrive at the Kapuk Hotel. I have a very weird feeling when I arrive at this hotel... Like a not good feeling, and I can't tell you why exactly. And they are charging $200 a night, which is way way above the price of hotel rooms in Trinidad. Then when I'm put down in the basement in a room that scares me, I'm thinking, this isn't cool, I wonder if I can like check out tomorrow and go somewhere else.

So, I did just that. Of course the people at the hotel were so nice, like why are you leaving, is everything okay, I tried to diffuse it with, "personal reasons" thinking they would stop at that point. But no, they were like, personal reasons, I hope everything will be okay, do you need help with anything, oh dear, I hope everything is okay. So then I feel guilty that I've essentially made these people think something bad has happened to me so I can get out.

Then I arrive at the L'Orchidee guest house. So nice, so calm, so peaceful. I am on the patio typing away. It is in a neighborhood. I love it. I might never come back. And then this afternoon I'm going to go to the beach.

So that my friends, is the word from Trinidad. I don't think I'll get to see Tobago this time around though. But I'll be back for that, for sure.

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