Trinidad & Tobago

Below is a brief summary of our trip: a post-wedding celebration for Scott (law-school friend) and
Natalie (a Trini native)


Day 01:

An early morning start, a sprint through customs to catch a connecting flight (departed 30 minutes after
we landed), and a no-thrills/no food/non-working TV 10 hours of air time later we landed in Trinidad.
Alex and I met Yochi (a law school friend) on the plane and met two others in our group by asking
random people on the plane “do You know Scott and Natalie?” While I have never enjoyed flying much,
the arrival was well worth the sleepless uncomfort that is modern air-travel. We ladened ourselves
with alcohol in the duty free shop (as it is highly taxed in the country) and were welcomed at the airport
door by Scott, Vishnu (Natalie’s uncle and our tour guide/dive master), and a cooler full of beer. Turns
out the island generally only has 2 beers available; Carib and Stag, both owned by Syrians, and both
Coronaesque.

So Syrians are an interesting story…well the whole island is. Basically, Trinidad and Tobago have been
conquered a couple dozen times. They had African slaves brought in, but that outlawed slavery some
years later. So, the plantation owners brought in indentured servants from India who, in return for “X”
years of toiling, received a chunk a land on the island. That comprised 90% of the current population:
blacks and Indians. Natalie’s family was Indian descent mostly. However, due to strife in the Middle
East, a gaggle of Syrians moved to the Islands (starting around 1900) and grew wealthy due to trading.
They now own the vast majority of wealth on the island and almost every large business. So it became
common practice to shake our fist and mutter “damn Syrians…” for almost any occasion. Can you
only buy one type of beer at the store? “damn Syrians…” Did you stub your toe on something? “damn
Syrians…”

Anyho, I digress. We spent 2 hours in a bumpy van drinking beer and trying to interpret some American
sayings, like- “It’s hot as balls out here…” A saying which doesn’t make sense unless you are trying to say
the air is the same temperature as the human body- 98.6 degrees. The other big news was Natalie was
pregnant, about 6 weeks into it. So, the rest of the week she sipped water as we pounded rum, vodka,
and beer and acted like idiots.

Day 02:

The hotel we stayed at for the first 3 days was more of a hostel/large flat, with four bedrooms and
a kitchen on the first floor and the same on the second floor. Alex and I were on the second floor,
and with holes going to the outside and no sheets on the bed, by the first night we were covered in
mosquito bites. There were about 20 in our group, but the mosquitos seemed to like me best. While
I did dab bug stray and eventually get a mosquito net, it was too late, the damage was done (covered
in bites already). I spent most of the rest of the trip scratching my legs with Alex telling me to stop and
everyone else asking what the hell happened to my legs.

Anyho, today was the day of their wedding “celebration” with over 50 family members expected to
come join in the party. However, it rained heavily over the day. This helps up from getting sun-burned, but prevented almost any of the family from coming to the celebration that night due to flooding. The
rains were unseasonable for April (wet season starts late May usually), and the local lore is that if the
bride eats out of a pot during her wedding day, it will rain. Natalie’s aunts kept yelling at her to stop
eating out of pots as the down-pour continued throughout the day.

There were no activities plans, so Alex and I walked up and down the beach, soaked in the warm (albeit
wet) weather and drank Syrian-owned Trinidad beer. The stray dogs hunted mud-skipping minnows in
the shallow waves, and we stopped to take pictures at many of the dilapidated buildings on the shore-
line. I thought a hurricane had destroyed the coast-line, but the Vishnu explained 1. We were too far
south for strong hurricanes, and 2. The locals did not do any upkeep on their buildings mostly and
would let them go into complete disrepair/abandonment. Another good aspect of the rain was that the
beaches were empty. The beach stretched as far as the eye could see on both sides, without another
person in sight. The water was warm, but to wave-y and sandy for swimming/snorkeling.


At night, despite the heavy rains, the DJ showed up. The aunties, who spent the day cooking, set up a
feast made for 100 despite there being only us (20 visitors) and 10-15 of the immediate family. We ate
like kings, drank from overflowing glasses of cocktails, and danced the night away. But as you can see, 2
babies stole Natalie and Scott’s spotlight and quickly became the stars of the evening.

Just before bedtime, Alex and I strode the empty beach and stumbled upon a humongous leatherback
turtle returning to the water after laying her eggs. She was massive, over 7 feet long, and quickly made
her way into the darkness and safety of deeper water.

Exhausted from the day we slept/donated more blood to the local mosquito populace.

Day 03:

We loaded into the van and headed out to the north side of the island for a waterfall hike and “shark
N bake.” The waterfall hike couldn’t have been more than 2 miles each way, but was solid up-hill and
required ropes to get up and down some sections. Most of the group were not “outdoorsy” and seemed
to struggle quite a bit. The pool of water was cool (albeit warm for most standards, but too cool for me),
so I watch people swim until Alex pushed me in. The woods were tropical and lush, and much more like
central/south America, than the rest of the Caribbean.

We ate raw cocoa beans/fruit and drove into the neighboring town for “shark N bake”, which was a fried
shark sandwich filled with deliciousness. Now, already late in the afternoon we started the long drive
back, stopping intermittently along the way for photographs.

Day 04:

The last full day in Mayaro Bay (southeast Trinidad) Alex spent in the pool starting her scuba
certification, and I wandered around taking pictures, buying Benadryl for my bug-bites, and relaxing. I
bought the bug-net today, but all our subsequent hotel rooms were adequately sealed from insects,

so it got used as an impromptu screen door, rather than a bed-shield. We ate left-overs and drove to
the other side of the island in the evening to spend the night and wake up early (4am) for the shuttle to
Tobago.

Day 05:

The 3 hour ferry was harshly air-conditioned, and with luggage stuck in the cars in the vessel’s belly
below (no access), most were too cold to sleep. There was a blanket and newspaper in a nearby seat as
we boarded (we were on of the first), so Alex snagged the blanket and Vishnu started reading the paper.
About 15 minutes later, an Indian woman came back to Vishnu reading her paper and Alex using her
blanket. She did not seem too happy about it. Needless to say, Alex spent the rest of the trip cold. Tired,
I tried to sleep, but a bootlegged version of Transformers 3 was playing on the screen above us and I
found myself unable to look away. Luckily, the planet wasn’t destroyed by angry robots….this time….but
only because I watched…or so I assume.

While Trinidad was predominantly Indian, Tobago was predominately African. Also, it was bright, hot
and sunny on this island. And Vishnu, keeping us on a tight schedule, had us drop off our stuff at our
hotel/hostel “Fish Tobago” and took off with the group to finish scuba certifying the group. So I tagged
along to snorkel. As they got their equipment out of the truck I took my snorkel and fins out to the
beach. There was a sign “no bathing” in the middle of the beach and 2 lifegaurds on duty. I looked up
at the guards, they back down at me. I put on my fins and mask and started waddling towards the calm
waters. The lifeguard blew his whistle, why he didn’t simply say there was no swimming while I was
standing next to him still escapes me. He explained that due to the heavy rains all beaches were closed
due to dangerous waters. I looked at the glassy calm surface of the bay, then back to the lifeguard.
“dangerous?” “Dangerous…” I looked back out on the clear water, sheltered by land on three sides,
anchored boats gently swaying in the currentless shallows. “so I see….” Needless to say, Vishnu wasn’t
too happy about “all beaches being closed,” so he called some buddies to find out which beaches didn’t
have lifeguards. We arrived a few minutes later at a stretch of beach, with aggressive waves and water
too thick with sand to see more than a couple feet underwater. Why this beach had no lifeguards and
the other had 2 still eludes me. Alex and gang put on scuba gear and crashed through the waves to
less turbulent waters to practice their “drills” while I snorkeled around them, poking my head into grey
corals that scattered the bottom. There was nothing spectacular. The sand choking out the last vestiges
of color from the struggling blots of coral.

We headed back to Fish Tobago hostel with a handful of coconuts I’d picked. The owner, Brandon, had
caught over 50 Tuna on a fishing excursion that day and planned a big BBQ for the hostel’s occupants,
us and 4 Germans. As Brandon stated he thought his name did not reflect his outward personality, one
of our members decided the name “Barracuda” fit him better. Barracuda agreed, and henceforth was
called as such. However the star of the property was Toast.

Toast was a 50 lb brown dog that lived at the hostel. Toast’s story is that one day he arrived at the hostel
with his original owner and then guest to Fish Tobago. Barracuda had described the owner as a yelling
man, so less than pleasant to be the dog of. When the owner was leaving the hostel, Toast refused to follow; not allowing the owner to get close enough to catch him. Barracuda refused to help the man
catch his dog and instead sat and watched it unfold. The owner came back shortly escorted with the
local police with Toast sitting next to Barracuda in the middle of the yard. “Make him give back my
dog!!” Before I proceed, an important fact of the island is that no dogs have collars because dogs are
guards and not really pets here. You train a dog to guard your family and house rather than fetch and
roll-over. So Toast, like every other dog, had no collar. So the Police responded to the owner “prove he’s
your dog.” The owner called, and whistled, and brought out treats, but all Toast would do is hop around
barking madly at the owner. So, without ever asking for Toast, Barracuda got Toast.

And Toast was quite the guard dog. While always outwardly gentle, quiet, and calm, Toast’s reputation
as a vicious fighter/guard dog was reknowned. Toast would follow guests carrying bag to and from the
hostel, making sure they got wherever they were going safety. He would wait at the store for them to
exit and lead them back home. If the guests were to then get in car and depart, Toast would find his way
back home. The scar on his head was when a drunken local had wandered into the property late one
night and hit Toast with a machete as he barked at him. Story goes that Toast still chased him off the
property “his brains hanging out” and then went swimming in the ocean to wash and heal his wound. He
survived to be the protagonist in a dozen other fight stories. We all loved Toast.

Back to us, we drank, ate, and imbibed like it was our birthday and then slept soundly in a cool room
with no mosquitos….mana from heaven at this point.


Day 06:

Another early morning, followed by a long van ride on twisty road led us to a port facing the even smaller island of Little Tobago. The island is a bird of paradise sanctuary and reef-lover' paradise...supposedly. We were met at the pier by a fisherman, whose small boat we'd rented for scuba diving. We loaded 2 tanks each and headed out to the reefs surrounding the island. Beautiful as it was, it was not like the reefs I remember from Providencialis. The corals were scattered and lacking the colors I remember. Even worse, I couldn't clear my left ear, so I watched from the surface as the rest of the group descended into the depths to uncover it's mysteries. It made me feel better that I saw black-tip sharks while snorkeling above. More important than the corals is the fact that Alex is now scuba certified!!! After a full day of snorkeling/scuba, we loaded the truck and headed back to a fish BBQ hosted by Fish Tobago Hostel. Delicious.

Day 07:

Today was a good day. We headed off by boat to an isolated peninsula called No-Man's Land. 

The beaches were pristine, the water clear, and with no one in sight...well for a while. By the middle of the afternoon, tour boat after tour boat dropped off gaggles of British spring breakers. Needless to say, we vacated the beaches quickly and headed several hundred yard off shore to shallow sand beds only 2 feet under the water's surface. When the spring breakers followed us there, we headed off the the reefs for some last-minute snorkeling. And this was the most amazing snorkeling of the trip. Shallow corals, rich with life and corals: morays, turtles, parrot fish.

Cruising back to Fish Tobago, sunset on our back, music blasting on the boat, and cold beers in hand....life was good.

 

 

We ate dinner at Randy's parents house (the diving assistant-really nice guy) and half the group decided to stay out late and hit the local party scene. While they had fun, they also got a flat tire and the way back and nearly caused us to miss the ferry back home (5am the next day). Luckily, all worked out and we arrived...a little hung over, back to Trinidad.

Day 08:


On the last full day in Trinidad, Alex and I walked around Marabella: The town where Natalie grew up. It was inland and speckled with oil refineries, which made for an odd horizon. Beautiful palms, ramshackle houses, and billowing flame licking the sky.

That evening we concluded with a large family BBQ/gathering. All Natalie's Aunts, uncles, and cousins descended on the small house (about 30 in total) and we feasted, drank, and drank some more. Her uncles were quite the characters. Kinda like the Trinidad version of the movie Big...but instead of 30, the 13 year old turns 60 and loses some teeth to rot. Trini-folk are notorious for their quick talkin'. Add alcohol and they were almost incomprehensible. That said, I spent the rest of the evening straining to understand what was being said, smiling, nodding, and laughing when others did. (uncle Pepe top, and Uncle Chicken- bottom)

The evening ended with a last drive to the hotel located next to the airport in anticipation for our early morning flight.

Day 09:

We woke up early and flew back. Boo.