Tobago

Tauna's parents, Grandpa and Grandma Kern arrived for a visit. So, this last weekend we took a trip to Tobago, the sister island to Trinidad. For the geographically impared, I've provided a simple map below.


The 2 islands make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Although Trinidad focuses its resources toward the petroleum industry, Tobago is all about tourism and is more typical of a Caribbean island (speaking of petroleum, I have been paying the equivalent of $1.63 a gallon for gas since I got here last June. It hasn't varied a penny in almost a year, not to rub it in...). Anyway, we took a cheap little commuter flight ($49 round trip) to Tobago and checked into the Crown Pointe Hotel. We picked the Crown Pointe because it was within walking distance of the airport and right on the beach. I was an older hotel but it had a lot of Caribbean atmosphere.




The hotel had a nice restaurant, but the rooms also had kitchenettes that allowed you to make some meals on your own. We had a simple breakfast one morning on the patio, as you can see in the second picture below. In the way of explanation, Tauna is holding the toilet paper because there were no napkins or paper towels in the room. I didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea...


The next day we went to Pigeon Point, which has access to Bucco Reef, one of the most popular coral reefs for diving in the Caribbean. We took a tour in a glass bottom boat, which allows you to see the reef and the fish as you float over it. Unfortunately, the pictures don't capture the beautiful colors, and I could never time my shots right to get pictures of the amazing fish, but these will give you some idea... I am also uploading a small video to give you a better idea.

They also provided us with snorkeling gear and stopped and let us do some diving around the corals. It was amazing! Unfortunately, I couldn't get anyone else in the family to try it, but Tauna got a great picture of a goofy sea creature swimming under the glass bottom boat.


There is also an area they call the "Nylon Pool." Basically, it's a giant sand bar in the middle of the sea that is only about 3 feet deep. All around it drops off to 67 feet deep. The guide took us out for a little bathing in the middle of the sea.


They also rented jet skis, and we couldn't resist. They had a 3-seater, so Grandpa, Isaac and I took one out for awhile and had a blast. The guy that rented us the jet ski was excited too, he said Grandpa (81) beat the record by 6 years of the oldest person he had riding a jet ski! Tauna got some pictures while we were close to shore, but I wish she could have got a picture of the 3 of us airborne after hitting some of those waves! All Isaac could say was "WAHOOO!"




All of that kind of wore out Grandma and Grandpa (see Grandpa on the bed in the background)


So, we kept it kind of low key for the last day and just hung out at the beach by the hotel. We had a nice time and got the obligatory sun burns...


I had to close with a Caribbean sunset and a final picture of Grandma and and Grandpa that kind of says it all...

New Additions (2)

A couple of weeks ago I posted the pictures of the dove that had nested in our hanging fern and laid a couple of eggs. Well, they hatched last week and it has been pretty entertaining watching them. Isaac has named the two new additions, "Trinidad" and "Tobago" or Trini and Toby for short. It has been like a mini National Geographic special. For the first couple of days their eyes were closed, and they looked like they had damp fur instead of feathers.

The mother was real protective and flew around nervously every time we came in or out of the apartment. Then their eyes opened, their feathers dried out and became more apparent. It was amazing how quickly the looked like their mom. The picture below is like 3 days after they hatched.

The day after that mom coaxed them out of the nest, helped them clean their wings and started the flying process. It was fascinating to watch. She got them out onto the scaffolding next to the nest (management is getting ready to paint the apartment building). Mom would sit out there with them one at at time and lift their wings with her beak. I love this picture, you can imagine the mom saying, "Come on, go!" and the little one responding, "Do I have to??"

Eventually, both little birds took off. We watched them flutter around for a little while, and then they really took off. A little later, I was standing in the kitchen and one of the little ones flew right into the kitchen window, "Bam!". Sure enough, within a couple of seconds, the other one, "Bam!", right into the kitchen window. It was hilarious (Aubrey, you get your sick sense of humor from your Dad...). Fortunately, both of them fluttered down briefly but then were able to fly off again. Their mom needs to teach them about glass...

One of Trinidad & Tobago's claims to fame is the Steelpan. The history of Steelpan is pretty interesting. You can read about it at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelpan

Isaac saw some steelpan players and thought it would be "cool" to learn. Since he already plays the piano and violin, why not add another instrument to his repertoire? We found a place that does lessons and signed him up. He goes every Saturday morning for about an hour and a half with a bunch of local kids. The amazing thing is that it only costs about US$6.00 a month for the lessons. He is having a ball. I've got a couple of pictures and a video below. We'll add more as he progresses. The second picture is a custom the group has of introducing new students and having a prayer at the end of the lesson. I took the picture just as Isaac was walking from the center of the circle where he was being introduced formally to the group.


Sorry about the quality of the video, but I think you can at least see that Ike is getting the hang of it pretty quick. This is just his second lesson!

More Life in Trinidad

There are a lot of open markets down here to get fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and even clothes and utensils. There are stands with candies/candied fruits or shoe repair. These open markets allow anyone to open a business without the overhead of opening a store. They just put up a table or a booth on the sidewalk and establish “squatter’s rights” to sell there. We have been getting some real good fruit, but have not been willing to try the meet or fish from these open markets.

They lay out on long tables with flies buzzing all over. Shark is a common choice for seafood. They sell little ones like the ones in the picture below, on the left side.

Sanitation is a real problem all over the island. Open sewers are common and trash is left everywhere. The picture below is the entrance to the market…

Speaking of food, I need to tell you what Tauna has been doing. She has made several local friends and they have been teaching her to cook local cuisine. She said she wants to make it for family and friends when we get back to the States. The picture below is a family from Church, the Ningwahs, who came over to our place to teach Tauna to make pelau. I think I posted a picture and description of pelau in an earlier post on local dishes. It turned out great. The have a boy, Richard, who is the same age as Isaac. They have become pretty good friends.

I have to post one more picture of Isaac though. He likes to learn to cook (he even watches all the shows on the Food Network and won't watch ESPN... where did I go wrong?). Anyway, he was helping Tauna in the kitchen one day. I walked in and found his ingenious way to keep from crying while he was cutting onions. I had to sneak a picture. Check out the swimming goggles.

New Addition(s)

When I moved into this larger apartment prior to Tauna and Isaac coming down, I bought a few plants to dress it up a bit, including a couple of hanging ferns for the patio. Tauna had quite a surprise last week. She got out the fire hose (the only source of water out front) to hose down the floor and water the plants. She gave the ferns a good drenching, only to notice afterwards that one of the ferns has a dove nesting in it! It was pretty interesting. Tauna couldn't see it initially because she just reached the hose up to the basket and poured water in. The bird just sat there and got soaked. I got some pictures of thee bird (which Isaac has named "Claire." It's an Isaac thing to name any animal he comes in contact with, including "Jericho" a little lizard that has been hanging around the porch). I also got a picture up there one time when Claire was away and found out why she wouldn't fly off despite the drenching Tauna gave her. She has a couple of eggs she is caring for. Anyway, we thought it was interesting enough to put on the blog...

Carnival!

If there is anything that Trinidad & Tobago is known most for, it is Carnival. The celebration and traditions go way back to when slavery was abolished. Without writing out the whole history, let me tell you that it has now become a wild, extended weekend party. If you can imagine New Orleans' Mardi Gras (which actually got its origins from Carnival) 100 times bigger. For the most part we avoided the wildest aspects of Carnival, but did enjoy a few of the traditions. On the Saturday before Carnival, they have what they call "Kiddie Karnival." Hundreds and hundreds of kids dress up in unbelievably elaborate costumes and hit the streets dancing behind semi-trucks pulling 6 foot high speakers blasting out Caribbean music. The music is so loud that it hurts your chest as the trucks rumble by, but the kids dance the entire day behind the trucks as they wind through the streets of town. I have a few pictures below just to give you an idea as to how elaborate the costumes were.






On Monday, they have what they call "J'ouvert," which I am told means freedom in French. It is the throwback Carnival, also know as "Dirty Carnival," which is understandable from the following pictures. They start the parade at 4am Monday morning, although the partying and drinking starts Sunday night. They don't wear all of the elaborate costumes for this day. They use what they did before anyone could afford the lavish costumes. They cover themselves with paint, mud, chocolate, motor oil or anything else they can use to "masquerade" without buying a costume. I had to work that day, so I had to go downtown anyway. I went early to work and thought I would walk at and get a few pictures of J'overt. After getting this set up at work, I walked out into the streets and there were tens of thousands of people walking the streets dancing and drinking. LOTS of drinking, and it was 6:30 AM! They have trucks pulling open bars in the parades so participants have an endless supply of alcohol. It's actually amazing that they have as few problems as they do every year!





The Tuesday Carnival is the biggest day. That's the day that all of the adults come out in the lavish costumes. However, another common tradition for many local folk is to get away from the madness and go to the beach. Friends from church invited us to spend the day with them at Mayaro, on the other side of the island. There were about 4 families that rented an old beach house. Some of them stayed all weekend, but we only went up to spend the day on Tuesday. I subsequently didn't get any pictures of the big Carnival extravaganza, but we had a great time at the beach. It was a beautiful drive (although we were wondering where they were taking us for a while as you can see in the first picture). We made some new friends and had lots of great, local food: curry chicken, curry duck, curry goat, etc... There were people at roadside stands selling these huge iguanas (lizards) for cooking and currying as well, but none of them made it to our party (and I didn't have my camera ready as we drove by to get a picture of the dead iguanas hanging in the stands for sale). Our hosts told us iguanas taste great and they would be sure and have some for us next time...