Trinidad - Music and Sailing on the Caribbean

Trinidad was our first experience of casa particulares (private houses). These are basically homestays and have some of the best accomodation and food available in the country. Ours is one of the better in Trinidad so we were very fortunate. The house has a private courtyard, rooftop terrace and is very tidy.

One of the things we were warned about but not prepared for was the meals at our casa. You´re expected to dine with the casa if you stay in them and you are brought out more food than you could possibly handle and left to it. When you´re finished you feel very guilty about having left so much on the table especially considering what the locals have to go without.

While our host didn´t speak much english we managed to muddle our way through.

The first full day in Trinidad and Nicola was not feeling well so I spent it in Trinidad wandering around with some of the group taking in some of the sights, galleries and markets. And turned downed countless offers of cigars on the street. We seem to be getting hassled a lot more here. Got a hat and shirt and now I´ve been labeled the one turning Cuban. We´ll see about that.



Also spent some time wandering round by myself, caught a local musician across the street from our casa. The place seems to be a major tourist bus stop off, as every 15 minutes a different group seemed to appear.

With Nicola not well enough to go out I headed out with the group. We went to a couple of local spots, one playing for a younger crowd with lots of cubans picking up overseas dance partners and the other a little more laid back, still plenty of dancing just a little more low key with a slightly older crowd and where one of the local "celebrity" couples danced for the audience and showing they still got what it takes.

The next day with Nicola feeling better (in part thanks to our casa´s homemade mint tea) and bouyed by thoughts of sailing on the caribbean we headed off on our sailing and snorkeling trip.

The boat ride was great, a couple hours on the deck in the sun chilling out and rapidly getting through my one and only book. Will need to do some more sailing in the future. We stopped off before we got to the island for some snorkelling which was below average and Nicola had a scuffle with the coral and came off second best.

Got to the island for some lunch and to meeting the local population of iguanas and jutías (tree rats). I´m bringing some jutías home to train up. Both of the locals are onto the deal and before we got off the boat they were waiting with even more appearing as lunch was served.

During lunch, much fun was had with the locals running under the tables and over feet. The jutías would come up and balance on back legs and sniff around for some tasty morsels. I was very surprised how friendly and comfortable they were around us.



Hermit crab racing was cut short before the first race when the skipper decided it was time to head back.

All up was a very good way to spend the day.

The next day we said goodbye to our hosts and were back on the bus headed for Camagúey. We both really didn´t want to leave Trinidad as the casa and our hosts were so nice. We need to ship them over to NZ, they can help train the jutías.