Blogs from Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago, Central America Caribbean

Just a very quick update to let you all know that we had a fabulous trip on the Manamo River in Venezuela. We were gone for 17 days and they were fabulous ones! We enjoyed traveling with 2 other boats - 1 from Holland and 1 from Scotland. The experience was one that we will remember for a very long time. It was wonderful to have some interactions with the Wareo Indians that live on the river as well as to see a beautiful area of the country. It was a very relaxing trip but with lots to talk about so will take some time to provide you all of the details of the trip. We promise to get the full story up soon with lots of photos but it will be difficult to sort through ... read more

It was a very busy week. Wednesday, Oct 26th we went to the village of Felicity to participate in the Hindu Festival of Lights (Divali). Friday we went to the Queens Hall in the capital city of Port of Spain to listen to 7 steel pan bands compete for a 150,000 TT prize (6TT= $1). Queens Hall is an excellent auditorium with great acoustics that opened in 1969. The audience was dressed to the nines with their elegant evening wear for this evening of music. The cruisers that attended stood out a little because as you might imagine we don’t carry evening wear on our boats – some did better than others, but luckily that didn’t make a difference. The evening was filled with talented musicians of all ages. It was great to see many of ... read more

When you think of Trinidad, 2 of the things that will most likely come to mind are steel pan music and Angostura aromatic bitters. So what better way to spend a day then learning the secrets (well some of the secrets) of these 2 truly Trinidadian things. Our day started with Jesse picking us up and taking us to a steel pan factory. This factory consisted of a 4 posted pavilion about 10’x 10’ covered with corrugated tin connected to a shipping container. Tony, the owner and operator of this pan factory, was very informative not only about the actually making of the pan, but the history of how the pan came to be. Between 1838 and 1883, the beating of skin drums was an integral part of Carnival celebrations. When a ban on all drum-beating ... read more

Magnificent, lush, green, wet, alive, elegant, relaxing, serene, and vivid are all words that could be used to describe our trip to Asa Wright Nature Reserve in Trinidad. We signed up for an overnight trip to stay at the Asa Wright Nature Reserve. The trip began on Saturday, October 15th at 9:30 AM when we climbed into a van driven by Jesse James, Trinidad tour guide supreme. We heard Jesse’s name from other cruisers hundreds of miles before we even got to Trinidad. For the cruising community he is Trinidad’s number 1 ambassador. His business, Members Only, caters predominantly to cruisers. His primary business is providing transportation to shops but he also is a source of information and assistance - everything from where can I get this part for my boat to emergency medical assistance. The ... read more

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we made it back to Trinidad safe and sound. We left the Albany airport by van operated by Premiere Services with our trusty driver, Joseph. It was great leaving the driving to him. We had a great time visiting with Sonja, an Argentinean. She is a biologist who works in a government lab testing drugs. Our discussion covered politics, education and life in her home, Buenos Aries. Due to our flight being very early the next morning, we stayed overnight in a hotel near JFK. Neither of us had lunch on the trip down so went for a walk and to our amazement found a restaurant that specialized in food from Trinidad. At 3AM Wednesday morning we took the hotel shuttle to the airport for our 5:40AM ... read more