Getting to Trinidad

Trinidad – Our Last Port

Good morning!  We are just about to dock at Port of Spain, Trinidad.  With this being Sunday, we have been told that there will not be much open.  That is fine with me, I have been very good about not buying too much as we have a very restricted amount of luggage allowance. So the less temptation the better!

Doing my blog so quickly yesterday caused me to end it and say goodbye before the real end.  The real end still went out because I am doing this blog as a document and then cutting and pasting.  I have to then cut all the pictures I want to put on, then paste them back.  It can be a very slow process and I missed the picture of the Unexpected Boys, I was going to add it here, but I can't seem to beat the computer into submission and have given up!

We have visited two ports since the last time I wrote – St Lucia and St Vincent.  These islands, along with Antigua have quite a bit of hurricane damage.  St Lucia has a famous landmark – which is two peaks, called the Pitons.  We were told the roads were so bad, it would take too long to get to see them. Although I did hear of one couple who did see them.  They were gone all day though.  Lucky for me to wake up so early every day- I saw the Pitons in the distance from our balcony. I usually wake up early when travelling, it is my way of dealing with jet lag.  I never thought about the fact we do not shut our curtains and the light does start streaming in fairly early. 

I have heard that there is snow at home so I am trying to really enjoy the sight of sun and waves from our balcony.  Every day the ship has retail specials out on the Atrium.  These have ranged from a Jacqueline Kennedy jewellery collection, to chains you can buy by the inch, fashion rings and lots of other things hard to live without!  Last night they were offering fleeces and warm vests and the people were flocking to them!  We are concerned about going home to snow, especially with a 5 hour journey, after landing at Manchester, to get there!

My Mom has cruised extensively and I remembered she had visited St Maarten and St Lucia.  So I was really looking forward to these islands.  St Maarten was fantastic, but I was disappointed in St Lucia.  It was not at all what I expected. 

Every day when Alan and I get off the ship, we intend to wander around and maybe just enjoy a relaxing day.  We don’t intend to have an activity daily.  But, so far, we have!  The only shore excursion planned was my ill fated beach horseback ride, but there are so many taxies and buses and guides to take you places, at a fraction of the cost of the cruise ship, that we end up finding a person we like and going with them.  At St Lucia, we were not going to do this!

Ok, we did!  Cyrus was our driver – there were only four of us to start with –Ron and Barbara, Alan and me.  Driving along, we spotted Helen and Peter and they jumped in!  He was not as chatty as Dennis had been the day before and that suited all of us.  Our first stop was a little market place on a hillside.  This was real pressure, I ended up negotiating with a man about a set of jewellery made of volcanic stone.  It started at $28 and I got it for $10.  I think the fact I really didn’t want it was a great negotiating point!  (I wore it at dinner that night and it is really pretty!) Getting back in the taxi, we were all buzzed, possibly comparable to surviving walking across a minefield.  Not really pleasant.

So the next stop was a bit wasted on me and I am so sorry about that.  Only about 5 minutes later we stopped at the highest point in the city, not the island, but it was high.  There was one man sitting there, with a huge baseball cap on – Michael.  He told us how Rastafarians made dishes out of the Kalabash.  Very interesting and pointed out various points of interest.  Then he pulled out yet more necklaces and asked us to support him as he was on his own.  There were really cool, some in Rasta colours, some not, but made with stone ginger seeds from the rain forest.  I resisted and then regretted it the rest of the day. Not only were they really cool, but he was on his own; or appeared to be anyway.

Alan asked him about the hair and the hats and Rastafarian beliefs and he was really interesting.

Michael’s hat was not the highest we saw – and we saw many on this island.  I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but some of the men’s hair required hats so high to cover them that they really looked related to Madge Simpson.  The reason they wear these is to protect their dreadlocks from the elements.  Michael has not cut his hair for 14 years and he said his dreadlocks went almost down to his waist.

After returning to the dock area, Alan and I walked around.  So far, this was the most poverty we have seen at a port.  The people were all very nice to us, but it did not feel right to be walking around in their areas, so we did go closer to the ship eventually.  After a few attempts to visit the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. This was the first church we have seen with open doors and Alan really likes to visit local churches and take pictures!  The first attempt ended due to a funeral, but we returned an hour later and the funeral was over.  There were lots of murals painted on the walls with all black saints and numerous paintings of Jesus as a black man.  The wooden ceiling also had these murals, but they were very faded.

Oh, to give an idea of how isolated I have been on this trip (I avoid news and tv and papers and magazines)  I only found out yesterday that there has been an announcement of William and Kate getting married in April.  How on earth did I miss that!!!!

I did not appreciate that on Granada and Bonaire that there were no duty free shopping areas and with the jewellery stores like Diamonds International and Columbian Emeralds, EFFY and Tanzanite International.  It just became the done thing to wander at all these fantastic stores at every stop.  They are not on St Lucia and St Vincent.  I was surprised at first, but it is much nicer to see real people.  But then, these two islands have been the poorest we have seen.....

St  Vincent

Alan and I had the same game plan on St Vincent – we were going to walk around and maybe not do a tour. Then we saw another couple we met: Sheila and George talking to a man about the same trip we had talked about with another driver, so we went with them and an American couple from Oklahoma.  (that makes a total of 3 Americans I have met on this trip!) We visited a small waterfall, and I bought a Rastafarian necklace! I found the one Helen had bought, but I got one a bit different; instead of the stone ginger seeds, mine are Queen Bean seeds- bright red and black. I also saw the same style necklace made with other seeds, including pussy willow!

Our driver’s name was Conrad and he was nice enough, but very excited about the upcoming election on December 13.  Apparently, “everyone” hates the Prime Minister ("Ralph No More" was one poster)  and can’t wait to vote him out.  It was obvious there was a bit of hysteria building up when we drove through the little villages along the coast.  Not only were there many posters, but also campaign graffiti on walls, buildings and the street itself.  (it was also in both party colours so someone must like Ralph). 

Conrad took us to a black sand beach on the volcanic side of the island – the other side has white beaches.  We only had 20 minutes and only Sheila and I went in.  The water was so clear that I could see my toes clearly in water up past my shoulders.  Mount Wind Bay Beach.

The highlight of this tour was visiting the set of one of the scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Conrad showed us where Johnny Depp stayed while filming.  We had time to wander around and also to have a drink (mango juice for Alan and me, I guess my 11:00 am cocktail hour is becoming a thing of the past) Having never seen a Pirates movie, we didn’t know what to take pictures of!

Just before being dropped off at the ship, Conrad took us to St George’s Cathedral.  There was a choir practising for the Christmas service and it was absolutely beautiful.

I got back early enough for book group!  We all met at the Champagne bar.  Not what I expected though.  At my own book group, if we had met at the Champagne bar, we would have been drinking champagne!  We merely met to discuss the book “Vision in White” by Nora Roberts.  (the bar was not open anyway) We agreed that we thought it might have been a bit “light” for a book group book, but the discussion was really fun and interesting.  Last month’s Princess Book Group book is the one I had actually planned to suggest to my own group in two weeks.  I was pleased to hear it had been very successful and I just might use some of their discussion points when we meet to discuss it. 

Just coming into Trinidad now.  Alan has spotted 4 shipwrecks already, so I am going on the balcony now!

“The man who is content with what he has is a very rich man”