(no subject)
Alright so I went to Trinidad Feb 17-24 and I took some pictures. This is the best way for me to share them with yous sooooooooooo prepare yourself!
I went to Trinidad because first of all my family lives there, my uncle (mom's brother), aunt and little cousin, Dana. My cousins Cathy, Jess and her husband Roger came down too. Also it was the week of Carnivale and everyone promised us quite the experience. So my brother and I hopped on several flights to Trinidad, we had a fabulous 8 hour layover in newark. It was amazing, i've never seen so many jews waiting to go on package deals to aruba/wherever. I also saw.. ALAN ALDA. yah, that was pretty cool. He was buying a calzone or pizza or something. He looked really good, old but healthy and very tall. He seemed like a genuinely happy person, he was with his family. No, i didn't take a picture of him cause i'm not a shmutz.
So after 28 hours of travel for me we arrive in trinidad at night where my uncle meets us before security. My uncle is the canadian consulate general to Trinidad so he has all these security pass things. some lady escorts us through customs, we dont' even have to get our baggage scanned cause of her, and she takes us to a vip lounge to wait because Roger is coming in a half hour. My cousin Jess is there and Zev and I are trying to appear as awake as possible. I feel kinda grimy though and mainly just sink into the oh so comfortable couches. Oh yah, the american ambassador is there too and Jess tells me the reason he is the ambassador is cause he was bush's roommate in undergrad. He seems like a very normal person and my uncle and him talk about their upcoming weeks a bit. I don't venture to bring up the american president because that would have been kinda awkward. I get the impression from these people that they dont' like to talk shop so much in front of their families or when they're not working. His son and his son's friend were there and they were nice 30 something people. p.s. vip lounges have ladies that get you juice and coffee and stuff. it's nice although i felt weird about it so just asked for water.
A picture of our PM in my Uncle's house. It's not technically his house but the canadian government's. This was a little funny to me, i constantly forget this guy is representing our country.
The next day we pretty much hung out by the pool and ate alot because that night we were getting up at 2 am to go to j'ouvert. j'ouvert is kinda like the anti-carnivale before carnivale. While carnivale is about being beautiful, j'ouvert is about being dirty. You pay to be part of a 'band', confusing lingo, you don't play music it's more just like a moving party. I had no idea what to expect. as part of buying into our specific band, called Red Ants, we got a bracelet, a white t shirt with the logo on it, a whistle, a beer mug, and a bottle of red dyed coconut water. We arrived at 3 am and there were probably a couple thousand people there. the object is to spray other people with the dye to get them dirty, throw mud, all that stuff (in some dirtier parties you throw motor oil, we had a relatively clean and tourist friendly band). There were 4 flat bed trucks. 3 of them were for drinks, it was open bar with the initial buy in. one of them was for music. huge speakers blaring 4 songs on repeat that the trini's seemed to love. The most popular song by far this year was about wining (grinding) so you can guess the kinda atmosphere. The trucks start moving and the people with them, roaming the streets of trinidad at night. Sometimes we would meet up with another band and it would be kinda like a disorganized dance/noise off. we stayed mostly at the very front of the band where the music wasn't as loud because honestly i probably couldn't have taken 5 hours of those speakers. There was a steel pan band up front which was way more enjoyable and it was really fun to dance to them. I'm giving you guys deluxe description here because unfortunately I do not have any pictures of this event. My cousin Jess has some but i dont' have her pictures yet. So this moving party went on until daylight, it was quite surreal to see the faces of everyone you had been around in full light after 5 hours of drinking/paint throwing/dancing. Then they served breakfast out of another truck that met up with the band. It was delicious, they served doubles which is the most common food in trinidad, it's a chickpea curry in a chickpea flour pastry. I didn't actually do any drinking but still it felt nice to have some food after all that. so we got home at like 930 am completely wiped but wait, wait! the worst day for me is about to start which is a shame following such a fun night. It's the first day of carnivale and we don't have time to sleep because we have to be there at 11 am.
It's only half costume day, so i put on my costume which includes these tiny orange booty shorts. I make it all the way to carnivale in them before deciding to don my way more comfortable brown shorts.
It start off pretty good i'm not that tired suprisingly and it looks like i'm going to get to see some pretty interesting things.
It's the same sort of deal as j'ouvert except alot more people, alot more bands, and it's the middle of the day so it's 30 something degrees. ALOT more flatbed trucks too. we have until 4pm to complete a circuit of Port of Spain (the capital city that we're in), and the entire route is filled with idling semi's bumper to bumper pretty much. We start going and it's kinda fun and we're dancing:
Then my right eye starts to itch and then sting and i'm like ok, this sucks but it's only mild discomfort and so i try washing it out with water, whatever i can do. It won't stop though and the sun is beaming and we have a long day in front of us. Now normally I'm pretty sure i could deal with a stinging eye without much complaint but I also start to get way overheated even though i'm drinking tons of water. I think my immune system was kinda low from the previous night and i pretty much start to have a horrible time as the day progresses. I put on a good face though cause i'm there with the rest of my family and i dont' want to ruin anything.
It takes me a little while to figure out that it's the pollution that's causing my eye to sting, by this point it's really red and kinda looks like someone has punched me, my nose is running pretty badly, i have strangers asking if i'm ok and it's not fun. Trinidad's main industry is oil and they don't relaly do much in the way of environmental cleanup so the city is normally pretty polluted but with the multitude of semi's just idling it's too much for my victoria system. I still enjoy some parts of the day, seeing people's insane costumes, i do a little bit of dancing and that's fun. It was just too much, i probably needed to go home after 2 hours but that wasn't going to happen. Also in this band you can't get away from the speakers since it's every third truck.
I dont' have many pictures from carnivale, my brother mostly has those but here's me with the leader of our section in the band. our section was called the soileil brulee in Island People band.
So that night i get home and just crash and i tell my aunt that i can't go the next day which is a shame cause that's main carnivale. That's when people will be in their full costumes and it will be quite the show.
So i stay home that day and hang out with Chloe, Dana's dog, whos alter ego by the way will make an appearance in dylan, alandra, sam and I's website.
THis honestly is not a bad way to spend a day. I read by the pool for a couple hours, eat some fresh fruit and trini pastry which i don't know the name of.
there is even a carribean torrential rain shower for 15 minutes. it was pretty crazy.
The next day we attempt to go to Maracas the main beach near Port of Spain. Everyone has told us not to go that day cause it's ash wednesday, the day after carnivale and it's traditional for everyone to take their cool down on maracas. we set up and what should be a 30 minute trip takes an an hour and a half.
When we see we are hardly moving anywhere and realize the beach will be standing room only with no parking anywhere we turn around and have a pool party.
my cousin dana:
The next day we get Sarge, my uncle's driver and ex military guy, to drive us downtown so we can do some exploring. It's me, zev, cathy, jess and roger, just the kids. I have a really good time but not because Port of Spain is a great tourist location. In fact it's not meant for tourists at all, it's where people do their business. It's a very functional city for Trini's with shoe stores being every 3rd store (i could have gotten puma's for a ridiculousy cheap price...).
Our first stop is the library because Jess is an architect and it looks like the newest and nicest looking building in the city.
we also see this amazing building which Jess tells me is part of some 70's movement i can't remember the name of, where people made buildings as ugly and rough as possible for the novelty of it.
I tell my brother and cathy to act like they don't care.
We wander a couple streets sarge tells us is safe to go on (muggings, not pick pocketing is rampant this time of year, i forgot to mention trinidad has a huge insane crime problem)
There are no garbage cans.
More of the city:
We make our way towards the water because we want to see it, as we get closer the rank smell that permeates the city gets more intense. Finally after crossing some very busy intersections we get to the port. Jess, zev and roger can't actually go inside because the smell is too intense for them. Cathy and I go because we're 22/23 and kinda similar in our living habits and know how to block off our noses.
It kinda smells like moldy limburger. Probably because this is where all the venezualan ships dock to unload their fruit/fish/meat/contraband. I can't see any security anywhere and ships look like they just dock, unload their stuff to the trucks and go.
It's still amazingly beautiful though and if you look at the two middle dots in this picture those are actually wrecked ships that have been there for who knows how long. no one seems to care that they're there or think it's their job to clean them up.
limburger, definitely.
The sky was all dramatic and junk
There are apparently more KFC's per capita in trinidad than anywhere else. I ask the cook natalie about it later and she says she prefers them because at least you know what kind of poison you're ordering there.
they also seem to be the nicer buildings.
We got some doubles here. Delish, although the cook said we were probably crazy for eating from there.
WAX SHORT PANTS PARTY
i love this picture. i think he's eating a double.
these guys were everywhere, selling cd's, blaring carnivale music from their portable speakers powered by car batteries.
Not the store name
Apparently Nestle is the biggest brand here. It's true, i saw it everywhere. In fact the next day from this we went to an incredibly boring comedy show (3 hours of listening to tired jokes about how much shoes women buy, and how this word rhymes with that word, isn't that funny?) and there was a random raffle and my brother won an entire huge basket of nestle products. He opted to donate it.
kidnapping is a huge problem. this is a school.
Nice neighbourhoods and houses all have big gates. Our place even had a guard 24/7.
My last day in Trinidad was definitely my best. We woke up early and went to the beach cause i hadn't gone yet. It was me, Cathy and my aunt Donna. It was insanely gorgeous and the water was fabulous. i only took a few pictures right at the beginning because as soon as we went in the water i locked my camera in the car. We sat underneath an almond tree, ate the best guavas i ever tasted (they were the size of kiwis and you could also eat right through the skin) and played and swam in crashing waves until the lifeguard told us to come in because the current was too strong where we were. Afterwards at the beach they sell shark sandwiches. I figure, once in a lifetime opportunity, i'm going for it. It was honestly one of the most tasty sandwiches i've ever had. It was battered shark meat put in a very doughy home made bun. Then I went to a condiment station next to it where i put lettuce, tomato, pineapple, coriander sauce and garlic sauce. YUM!
I'm going back in December for Dana's batmitzvah and I'm definitely spending my time at the beach.
I went to Trinidad because first of all my family lives there, my uncle (mom's brother), aunt and little cousin, Dana. My cousins Cathy, Jess and her husband Roger came down too. Also it was the week of Carnivale and everyone promised us quite the experience. So my brother and I hopped on several flights to Trinidad, we had a fabulous 8 hour layover in newark. It was amazing, i've never seen so many jews waiting to go on package deals to aruba/wherever. I also saw.. ALAN ALDA. yah, that was pretty cool. He was buying a calzone or pizza or something. He looked really good, old but healthy and very tall. He seemed like a genuinely happy person, he was with his family. No, i didn't take a picture of him cause i'm not a shmutz.
So after 28 hours of travel for me we arrive in trinidad at night where my uncle meets us before security. My uncle is the canadian consulate general to Trinidad so he has all these security pass things. some lady escorts us through customs, we dont' even have to get our baggage scanned cause of her, and she takes us to a vip lounge to wait because Roger is coming in a half hour. My cousin Jess is there and Zev and I are trying to appear as awake as possible. I feel kinda grimy though and mainly just sink into the oh so comfortable couches. Oh yah, the american ambassador is there too and Jess tells me the reason he is the ambassador is cause he was bush's roommate in undergrad. He seems like a very normal person and my uncle and him talk about their upcoming weeks a bit. I don't venture to bring up the american president because that would have been kinda awkward. I get the impression from these people that they dont' like to talk shop so much in front of their families or when they're not working. His son and his son's friend were there and they were nice 30 something people. p.s. vip lounges have ladies that get you juice and coffee and stuff. it's nice although i felt weird about it so just asked for water.
A picture of our PM in my Uncle's house. It's not technically his house but the canadian government's. This was a little funny to me, i constantly forget this guy is representing our country.
The next day we pretty much hung out by the pool and ate alot because that night we were getting up at 2 am to go to j'ouvert. j'ouvert is kinda like the anti-carnivale before carnivale. While carnivale is about being beautiful, j'ouvert is about being dirty. You pay to be part of a 'band', confusing lingo, you don't play music it's more just like a moving party. I had no idea what to expect. as part of buying into our specific band, called Red Ants, we got a bracelet, a white t shirt with the logo on it, a whistle, a beer mug, and a bottle of red dyed coconut water. We arrived at 3 am and there were probably a couple thousand people there. the object is to spray other people with the dye to get them dirty, throw mud, all that stuff (in some dirtier parties you throw motor oil, we had a relatively clean and tourist friendly band). There were 4 flat bed trucks. 3 of them were for drinks, it was open bar with the initial buy in. one of them was for music. huge speakers blaring 4 songs on repeat that the trini's seemed to love. The most popular song by far this year was about wining (grinding) so you can guess the kinda atmosphere. The trucks start moving and the people with them, roaming the streets of trinidad at night. Sometimes we would meet up with another band and it would be kinda like a disorganized dance/noise off. we stayed mostly at the very front of the band where the music wasn't as loud because honestly i probably couldn't have taken 5 hours of those speakers. There was a steel pan band up front which was way more enjoyable and it was really fun to dance to them. I'm giving you guys deluxe description here because unfortunately I do not have any pictures of this event. My cousin Jess has some but i dont' have her pictures yet. So this moving party went on until daylight, it was quite surreal to see the faces of everyone you had been around in full light after 5 hours of drinking/paint throwing/dancing. Then they served breakfast out of another truck that met up with the band. It was delicious, they served doubles which is the most common food in trinidad, it's a chickpea curry in a chickpea flour pastry. I didn't actually do any drinking but still it felt nice to have some food after all that. so we got home at like 930 am completely wiped but wait, wait! the worst day for me is about to start which is a shame following such a fun night. It's the first day of carnivale and we don't have time to sleep because we have to be there at 11 am.
It's only half costume day, so i put on my costume which includes these tiny orange booty shorts. I make it all the way to carnivale in them before deciding to don my way more comfortable brown shorts.
It start off pretty good i'm not that tired suprisingly and it looks like i'm going to get to see some pretty interesting things.
It's the same sort of deal as j'ouvert except alot more people, alot more bands, and it's the middle of the day so it's 30 something degrees. ALOT more flatbed trucks too. we have until 4pm to complete a circuit of Port of Spain (the capital city that we're in), and the entire route is filled with idling semi's bumper to bumper pretty much. We start going and it's kinda fun and we're dancing:
Then my right eye starts to itch and then sting and i'm like ok, this sucks but it's only mild discomfort and so i try washing it out with water, whatever i can do. It won't stop though and the sun is beaming and we have a long day in front of us. Now normally I'm pretty sure i could deal with a stinging eye without much complaint but I also start to get way overheated even though i'm drinking tons of water. I think my immune system was kinda low from the previous night and i pretty much start to have a horrible time as the day progresses. I put on a good face though cause i'm there with the rest of my family and i dont' want to ruin anything.
It takes me a little while to figure out that it's the pollution that's causing my eye to sting, by this point it's really red and kinda looks like someone has punched me, my nose is running pretty badly, i have strangers asking if i'm ok and it's not fun. Trinidad's main industry is oil and they don't relaly do much in the way of environmental cleanup so the city is normally pretty polluted but with the multitude of semi's just idling it's too much for my victoria system. I still enjoy some parts of the day, seeing people's insane costumes, i do a little bit of dancing and that's fun. It was just too much, i probably needed to go home after 2 hours but that wasn't going to happen. Also in this band you can't get away from the speakers since it's every third truck.
I dont' have many pictures from carnivale, my brother mostly has those but here's me with the leader of our section in the band. our section was called the soileil brulee in Island People band.
So that night i get home and just crash and i tell my aunt that i can't go the next day which is a shame cause that's main carnivale. That's when people will be in their full costumes and it will be quite the show.
So i stay home that day and hang out with Chloe, Dana's dog, whos alter ego by the way will make an appearance in dylan, alandra, sam and I's website.
THis honestly is not a bad way to spend a day. I read by the pool for a couple hours, eat some fresh fruit and trini pastry which i don't know the name of.
there is even a carribean torrential rain shower for 15 minutes. it was pretty crazy.
The next day we attempt to go to Maracas the main beach near Port of Spain. Everyone has told us not to go that day cause it's ash wednesday, the day after carnivale and it's traditional for everyone to take their cool down on maracas. we set up and what should be a 30 minute trip takes an an hour and a half.
When we see we are hardly moving anywhere and realize the beach will be standing room only with no parking anywhere we turn around and have a pool party.
my cousin dana:
The next day we get Sarge, my uncle's driver and ex military guy, to drive us downtown so we can do some exploring. It's me, zev, cathy, jess and roger, just the kids. I have a really good time but not because Port of Spain is a great tourist location. In fact it's not meant for tourists at all, it's where people do their business. It's a very functional city for Trini's with shoe stores being every 3rd store (i could have gotten puma's for a ridiculousy cheap price...).
Our first stop is the library because Jess is an architect and it looks like the newest and nicest looking building in the city.
we also see this amazing building which Jess tells me is part of some 70's movement i can't remember the name of, where people made buildings as ugly and rough as possible for the novelty of it.
I tell my brother and cathy to act like they don't care.
We wander a couple streets sarge tells us is safe to go on (muggings, not pick pocketing is rampant this time of year, i forgot to mention trinidad has a huge insane crime problem)
There are no garbage cans.
More of the city:
We make our way towards the water because we want to see it, as we get closer the rank smell that permeates the city gets more intense. Finally after crossing some very busy intersections we get to the port. Jess, zev and roger can't actually go inside because the smell is too intense for them. Cathy and I go because we're 22/23 and kinda similar in our living habits and know how to block off our noses.
It kinda smells like moldy limburger. Probably because this is where all the venezualan ships dock to unload their fruit/fish/meat/contraband. I can't see any security anywhere and ships look like they just dock, unload their stuff to the trucks and go.
It's still amazingly beautiful though and if you look at the two middle dots in this picture those are actually wrecked ships that have been there for who knows how long. no one seems to care that they're there or think it's their job to clean them up.
limburger, definitely.
The sky was all dramatic and junk
There are apparently more KFC's per capita in trinidad than anywhere else. I ask the cook natalie about it later and she says she prefers them because at least you know what kind of poison you're ordering there.
they also seem to be the nicer buildings.
We got some doubles here. Delish, although the cook said we were probably crazy for eating from there.
WAX SHORT PANTS PARTY
i love this picture. i think he's eating a double.
these guys were everywhere, selling cd's, blaring carnivale music from their portable speakers powered by car batteries.
Not the store name
Apparently Nestle is the biggest brand here. It's true, i saw it everywhere. In fact the next day from this we went to an incredibly boring comedy show (3 hours of listening to tired jokes about how much shoes women buy, and how this word rhymes with that word, isn't that funny?) and there was a random raffle and my brother won an entire huge basket of nestle products. He opted to donate it.
kidnapping is a huge problem. this is a school.
Nice neighbourhoods and houses all have big gates. Our place even had a guard 24/7.
My last day in Trinidad was definitely my best. We woke up early and went to the beach cause i hadn't gone yet. It was me, Cathy and my aunt Donna. It was insanely gorgeous and the water was fabulous. i only took a few pictures right at the beginning because as soon as we went in the water i locked my camera in the car. We sat underneath an almond tree, ate the best guavas i ever tasted (they were the size of kiwis and you could also eat right through the skin) and played and swam in crashing waves until the lifeguard told us to come in because the current was too strong where we were. Afterwards at the beach they sell shark sandwiches. I figure, once in a lifetime opportunity, i'm going for it. It was honestly one of the most tasty sandwiches i've ever had. It was battered shark meat put in a very doughy home made bun. Then I went to a condiment station next to it where i put lettuce, tomato, pineapple, coriander sauce and garlic sauce. YUM!
I'm going back in December for Dana's batmitzvah and I'm definitely spending my time at the beach.