Trinidad: February 9-18, 2008
Click on the above thumbnail for a map during this time period
Post-Carnival Experiences
Yes, this period is still about Trinidad. Sticky place,
Trinidad. Actually, we were first waiting on the water maker to get
repaired, which it finally did, and then waiting on weather. This is
the time of year when the trade winds are extra strong. Cruisers
wanting to travel back north for a spell find themselves waiting for weather
patterns elsewhere to impose themselves upon the trades and moderate them.
Everyone seems to agree that this year has been unusually windy -- the
moderating forces have been absent or weak. As a consequence, the seas
have been rough, and so most of us chickens, who see no reason to go out and get
beaten up, have been spending extra time in whatever location we find ourselves.
Our email tells us that all up and down the Caribbean, friends are anxious to
move on, but sitting tight for the short term and waiting for better weather.
But Trinidad is a large island with many many features and attractions, so we
have found plenty to keep ourselves busy and -- more to the point --
entertained. :-)
Water Maker is Repaired!
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Preparing to bring back on board to install
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Botanical Gardens, Port of Spain
We visited along with Devi and Hunter (Artic Tern) the Botanical Gardens which lie adjacent to the
President's Residence and the Prime Minister's Residence, and across the street
from the Savannah where so many of the Carnival events took place.
As we began our walk, we were approached by a fellow who offered his services to
show us around and describe the various plants. Since there were no
printed materials available, even though many of the plants bore numerical
badges, we readily accepted. At the end, each couple gave him $50 TT
(about $10 US). He quietly asked if we had a little more -- he said
his usual fee was $25 US. Chuck gave him another $100 TT, which he
proclaimed to be more than enough. Nice guy, and very knowledgeable.
We got his name and cell phone number so that we can recommend him to others.
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Chuck took many pics of palms to send to Norwegian friend Lars Helge, who is interested in planting palms around his new villa in Spain
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Our free-lancing guide David, who did a great job of describing the plants
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Devi hams it up
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Barb and Devi stand in front of a tree with remarkable bark
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Zoo, Port of Spain
We walked from the Botanical Gardens to the nearby Zoo, where
for a modest admission price we found a remarkably varied and interesting
collection. Chimpanzees and many baboons and many kinds of South
American monkeys and lotsa birds and lions and tigers and ocelots and otters and
turtles and ugly-as-sin torpors and snakes and agoutis and on-and-on.
We took very few pictures -- just enough to prove we had been there. Stupidly,
we did NOT take a picture of the caiman -- the South American/Trinidadian
relative of the alligator. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
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??? from South America
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Croc'
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'gator
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Ms. Pat's Restaurant
After the Zoo we walked to Ms. Pat's restaurant, where we joined
Steve and Ann (Receta) and Heather and Don (Asseance). Ms. Pat used to run the
restaurant, but now only cooks there on special occasions. We
enjoyed beers in the bar (run by her husband) which is at the front of the same
building while waiting for Pat to show up. Soon she arrived carting
many supplies from her home. We were there by special invitation: on a
previous visit Ann had asked her about corn soup, which we had all enjoyed at
some of the Carnival events at Queen's Green in the Savannah -- now we were all
gathered so that Ann could learn by helping Ms. Pat make some corn soup, and so that we
could all enjoy the fruits of their labors.
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Enjoying beers ...
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... in the bar while waiting for Ms. Pat
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Ms. Pat and Ann preparing the soup
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Barb and Ann making dumplings for the soup
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The finished product
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Ms. Pat serving up the delicious soup
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Ms. Pat hamming it up
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One end of the table ...
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... and the other end of the table, with Ms. Pat close by to Ann, whom she has "adopted"
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Chatting at the end of the meal
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Devi's Birthday
We celebrated Devi's birthday aboard Tusen Takk II,
joined by husband Hunter (Artic Tern), Chris and Yani (Magus) and
Steve and Ann (Receta). We served champagne to the guests when they
arrived. Yani brought two! platters of delicious appetizers featuring
smoked salmon and cream cheese and cucumbers and caviar and goodness knows what
else -- they disappeared rather quickly. The next course was a yummy salad
provided by Ann. Barb served her signature shrimp-asparagus-pasta-tomato-parmesan cheese dish and
then we enjoyed Ann's delicious chocolate cake accompanied by ice cream.
Life is good, if somewhat artery clogging!
(Photos by Steve [*])
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Yani, Chris and Hunter enjoying Champagne before dinner
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Ann, Steve, Chuck and birthday girl Devi
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[*]Devi with her welcome-to-the-party champagne
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[*]Barb serves up the last of Yani's appetizers
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[*]All the guests except Steve, the official photog of the evening
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[*]Devi preparing to blow out her slightly-under-represented set of candles
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Visit to Pan Maker
On another of Jesse James' fantastic tours, we visited a pan
maker. He demonstrated how shot puts, cannon balls, or hammers are used to
push down the tops of the barrels into concave shapes of a prescribed depth --
depending upon which section of a conventional band the instruments will be
designed to emulate. They then use templates to pencil in the
appropriate shapes for the notes. Then, this shape is rendered
permanently into the top by the use of a small punch. (Below, the
pan maker demonstrates with a pencil instead of a punch, since, as he explained,
someone had stolen his set of punches.) The depths of the outside
"skirts" are also prescribed, and dependent upon the intended voice of the
instrument. The deepest instruments -- the bass -- use the entire
top for one note, and the skirt consists of the entire barrel. So a
bass player, in order to be able to play a number of notes, is surrounded on all
sides by full-length barrels -- each capable of rendering only one note.
(It is really fun to watch these guys and gals contort themselves to be able to
play a series of notes to a quick beat.) Pan making used to be
highly seasonal, with all of the activity just before the time for the bands to
begin practicing for Carnival. Now, the makers are a little more
busy all year long, since the current government just a few years ago made pan
instruction compulsory in the public schools, and so the pan makers are
moderately busy during the off season making pans for the schools.
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Barrels held in reserve, ready to be made into pan instruments.
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The group waits for the pan maker to appear
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The pan maker himself
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Demonstrating how templates are now used to make the areas that will give the various notes
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The concave surface of a pan, with the separate zones that create separate notes
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Visit to Angostura Bitters/Rum Factory
After the visit to the pan maker, we went on to the Angostura
Bitters factory, where all of the Angostura bitters for the entire world is
produced. The factory also is a rum distillery, producing a number
of rums bearing the Angostura name, as well as a number of rums that bear the
name of "competing" brands. They also produce pure alcohol for sale
to educational and medical institutions. And vinegar. Unlike
the rum factories much further to the north in the Caribbean chain, the
rum here is produced by fermenting molasses, a by-product of the production of
sugar. (The alternative is to ferment directly the squeezing of cane
sugar -- the result is called "agricole" rum.) Angostura is an official
supplier to the Queen of England. Several years ago the plant was
visited by the Queen. Did you know that when the Queen is to visit a site,
it must provide a new, never-used toilet for her majesty? No one seems to
remember that the Queen has ever felt the need to actually take advantage of
such a facility, but the requirement stands none-the-less. The
facility remains at the Angostura factory to this day, but is now a guard house
with a peculiar name: the Queen's loo. The tour starts with a
movie, and then a trip through a museum, the first part of which is a huge room
filled with butterfly specimens. What do butterflies have to do with
bitters and/or rum? Absolutely nothing. But a local
scientist spent a lifetime collecting butterflies, and needed a place to dispose
of them as he approached death. He donated them to Angostura, and they
accepted and now display them. We spent a fair amount of time in the
huge room where the bitters are created in accordance with a secret recipe known
only to five individuals. No pictures there, however -- pictures are
forbidden in the bitters room and in the bottling room. We were also
treated to a golf-cart-train ride through the sprawling grounds outside of the
plant. There we saw the areas where the whiskey kegs (from America)
are disassembled, cleaned and reassembled for use in aging the rums.
We also saw the huge storage containers for molasses and the huge distillery
tower. And of course, the Queen's loo. At the end of the
tour, a complementary rum tasting, followed by an opportunity to purchase from
the company store.
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One of hundreds of panels of mounted butterflies in the butterfly room
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The original cooker used in the production of bitters
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Our guide explains the utilizing of used whiskey casks for aging rum (cf. text)
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Molasses storage tank
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Massive distillery tower
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The Queen's Loo
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Tasting the rums...
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Traffic was horrible on the way back from our visit, so Jesse took an alternative route that gave us this view of Port of Spain
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