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The scarlet ibis
so basically they just showed up like pink dots, but they are the national bird and are gorgeous So I was meant to go to my last wedding on Saturday...but we never really made it. Between running late to start with, getting lost, a huge traffic jam and torrential downpour, the wedding was over before we even made it there. So instead we went straight to the reception...the important thing is that I still got my free food. And I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did stuck in the car in a long time. Clerene's best friend, a crazy 70 year old woman noticed that all the guys in the car next to us were hanging out the window staring. I don't notice these things anymore. So naturally she rolls down her window and strikes up a conversation with these gentlemen.
Mrs Barrows: You staring at my daughter?
Guy: _____ (confused about how she has a white daughter)
B: Yeah she's my daughter. I made her with a nice white man. (Because people in Trinidad don't have babies, they make them like you would make cupcakes.)
Guy: _____ (continues staring)
B: You like my daughter?
Guy: Yeah I want a white girl
B: I've got a gun
Guy: _____
B: you know everyone now
Boa in the tree
I just stopped looking up because I didn't want to see what snakes were above us days has guns. I got it right here in my purse. don't make me use it.
Guy: _______ (tries to say something to me. but i am laughing too hard at this point to understand.)
B: and you can't have my daughter, I already promised her to someone. besides she's 15. that's illegal, i'm going to get you locked up. and use my gun.
Guy: _______
So I'm pretty sure it was one of those things you probably had to be there for, and know the woman, but I'm still laughing. And just to clear it up, just like I'm not 15, she doesn't have a gun. So in retrospect, I think it was probably a better use of my time than a Anglican wedding that lasted 20 minutes anyways.
Other than that here's a quick run down of my past week:
I went hiking with a group of 60 13 and 14 year olds and two med students from Texas. Remind me never to go anywhere with 13 and 14 year olds again. I'm desperate for any tour I can join...so I decided to give it a shot. The hike was the "Covine River Trail", so
Hanuman
so none of these are great pictures...but this guy was incredible I assumed we'd be hiking along side a river. My first problem was that I even assumed. The hike was straight up the river, through two gorges where the water came up to your neck and up a waterfall that we had to use a rope to climb. It did end up being fun, but much more than I bargained for. Every step you took you slipped on the rocks, or were pushed down by the 14 year old boys who pushed by you so they could be first. Somehow we got really spread out on the walk back so I had nobody in sight in front of me. About halfway back the kids stopped me saying "Miss, do you have any clue where you are going?" When I said I had no idea, one of the girls started crying. So we thought we were lost for a while but thankfully made it out of there. It was supposedly only a mile and a half hike, but it took a good 4 hours, so if they had told me it was 7 miles I would have believed it.
I went on a swamp tour in a boat to look
Me in the mandap
all marriages take place inside a mandap. so we just wandered in this temple and found one, and i'll pretend i was at the wedding. at birds. It was a good way to spend some time, and I did finally get to see the national bird, but I didn't see anywhere near as much as I thought I would. Instead most of the time was spent the tourists and locals alike were in awe of my mastery of the public transportation and being able to travel on my own. I just sort of laughed since mastery is a bit of an overstatement. But it is unheard of for any tourist, or really anyone foreign or white for that matter, to use the group taxis. They insisted on charging me $50 to pick me up and take me home, I laughed and paid less than $3 to do it on my own.
The neighbor and one of her 40 year old friends wanted to take me out to try "Indian Delicacies"...read: everything you can imagine fried in so much oil that it tastes the same. Luckily I was able to avoid black pudding- all I know is that it involves pig's blood. We ended up 'liming' in every town within 30 miles which was great for about the first 2 hours, it got a little old after a while. He did take me to one of the famous Hindu temples that is bright pink and outside it has a huge 80 foot statue of one of the Hindu god's that is part monkey. It was really neat to see at night and we even got to go inside the temple. When I got bored of being shown every person's house he has ever met, I just giggled to myself because they guy's fly was down the entire night.
I've run out of time, but I just have 3 more days, I'm home on Thursday! While the past 7 weeks have been filled with amazing experiences, beautiful places and good people, I'm not going to lie that I'm pretty excited to come home and be able to drive alone in my own air conditioned car, not pack in with at least 5 other sweaty people, interact with people within a decade of my age and no longer have to sleep in a mosquito net. So until I'm off to Africa in the end of August you probably won't here any more from me!
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Kelsey
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Mrs. Barrows reminds me of a female version of "Uncle George"... haha... but she is real!