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Published: January 22nd 2009
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Welcome Rainbow at Orientation
8:00 in the morning after 22 hours of travel and 4 hours of sleep. The rainbow brightened our smiles. TRINIDAD IS HOT! We happened to come right before it rained, so it was wicked humid. Probably only 75 or so, but it was like the middle of July. Our flight came in right on time, the UW Trinny kids were there to meet us. A fantastic surprise. They treated us to some local fried chicken, like KFC with out the gross factor. They use this hot pepper sauce…looks like mashed up pickle relish…which is amazing, on everything. I think its garlic, cilantro some kind of pepper and a special blend of curry. Pretty awesome.
The next morning, we had Subway. Yeah, I know…what the hell is up with this American cuisine. Don worry, ‘m breakin’ away a ready! After a short introduction to campus life by the Ag director, Richard (funny guy, crazy black santa…I was told), our group of 7 jumped in a van with 6 other Trinnies to navigate the Northern Range to Maracus Bay, the number one beach in Trinidad (Tobago is much better, so I’m told). The drive was intense. The bus had no seatbelts, however it was big enough to accommodate all of us, with room for one more. The lanes have a spare
The Northern Range
Upon arival at Maracus Bay, the sun was coming out and the clouds clearing. A picture of the clouds rolling up the mountain side. foot on either side and the gutters on the side of the road can be anywhere from 4 inches to 2 feet deep. Some without a curb. The mountain roads were even more narrow, and driving in the rain made me a bit nervous. Not because of possibly slippery roads, but the fact that there was some intense washout the whole way there. I saw a tree trunk that was at least 12’ by 8’ torn out from some of the hardest rains Trinidad has seen, this was all two Decembers ago. But I still felt like we could get some mudslides. We missed much of the view on the way there, but the low clouds scrapping the mountain tops were breath taking.
Now the food gets good. Upon arrival at Maracus Beach, everyone was absolutely starving. Luckily, one of Trinidad’s most famous foods was for sale, Bake ‘n Shark. It was first sold at Richard’s stand, and was soon copied by other vendors across the country. It was also featured on one of those strange foods shows.
Two pieces of battered fried shark on a fry bake get put in your hands for 25 TTD (aprx. $4),
Richard's Bake and Shark
Kezia is coming to join my on the beach, one of the best sandwiches of my life. then your go to a table with about 12 large tubs of toppings. Pineapple, cucumber, tomato, cabbage, and dressing (mixture of ketchup and mayo) are on one side. The other side is all spices, again the hot pepper sauce, a yellow even hotter pepper sauce (which they said I took to much of and was going to hurt myself, looks like to many Americans have been there, made me look bad) and 3 or 4 others that I didn’t know. All in all the thing was absolutely amazing. I’m still burping spicy garlic right now.
Then we took to the waters. Colder than I thought it would be, but once we started swimming I warmed up. Luckily, it was still cloudy and I didn’t burn. We had some good surf, 2 - 4 foot breakers, perfect for body surfing. Every once in awhile a real big one came along, you could surf those all the way into the beach. Must say I am absolutely spent right now. Seems like we took the long way home, lot of stops, site seeing. Got the full fledged view, check out my pics…doesn’t do justice to the place. We stopped at a little
Maracus Bay
This is the most famous picture you can find of Trinidad; a view of Maracus bay, which is just over the first penisula. (is this appropiate usage of a ; linds?) road side stand, they had all kinds of sweet and candied fruits. Real great stuff, mangoes and some other thing, candied and drenched in pepper and salt. Quite tasty, iced prunes, sugar bakes, some amazing spiced granulated sugar ball and tons of other stuff that died my fingers and tongue different colors. Down the road we stopped at another vendors stand, got some sweet pics of an iguana, for sale, it is suppose to be a delicacy…confirmed by Kezia. I believe her, will have to try it out some time. Lots of site seeing after all this too, saw an over look of Port of Spain, from a couple miles away we could clearly see the biggest TV in Trinidad, which I think is on top of a KFC. That’s how I took it anyway.
It is to bad I didn't have to go to class today. Don't think I could have handled it. Hope Wisconsin is suiting all of you well.
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Chetek Jeanne
Jeanne Anderson
Awwww!
And it is STILL below zero here! Sure am happy to see you are having fun. Keep us posted. Thanks. Jeanne