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The cruising adventures of Sid and Manuela

Monday, April 14, 2008

Liming in Trindad

I tell you it sure rains a lot in Trinidad, rain, rain, rain and nothing but rain. This is supposed to be dry season as in NO RAIN. Even the Trinis are complaining. I think in the last two weeks we had one day of no rain. Last Saturday it rained cats and dogs due to a wave and was even worse yesterday as the squalls brought strong winds. Yes, the tropical waves have already started which is way too early for this time of the year. I guess hurricane season will be a little stronger this year.

Remember the perfect translation for maƱana = “just now”? We find it to be true. The carpenter was supposed to show up on Friday morning at 8 and he knew we had a Taxi appointment at 9.30, which luckily we had canceled as he never showed up. So we figured he would be here on Monday, wellllll! A little complaining later he showed up the following day. Since we don’t have a phone we take messages through the hotel desk and they deliver the message “just now” too, anywhere from 3 hours up to three days later. So we bought a phone card and tried to make some local calls but the friendly automated phone voice tells us that we cannot make locals calls just International calls, well we want to make a local call and the card we bought says for local calls, go figure, so we’re still without any way to contact people.

Last Saturday we did another Hash, this time we met everybody at “Squeeze” a bar and hash headquarter. It was actually funny we didn’t know where it really was just new the Maxi Taxi (small van used as local bus) was going that direction. The driver let us off and said follow the road up to the next main street. We arrived and knew that Squeeze was a yellow painted building and right next to Dominos’ Pizza. At the first main road we tried to find a street sign, but none was there, so I asked the person that was sweeping the sidewalk, she laughed and pointed behind me and said “right here”, and sure enough there it was. Well, we didn’t even see it and stood right in front of it, but they just painted the building orange. One hasher after another arrived and all squeezed into an old very beat up bus and started the 2 hours drive to the hash site. Well the 2 hours turned into 3 ½, the bus did only a max speed of 45 km/h, but we had a good time as ice cold beer was passed around. Yep I think these are runners with a drinking problem and we had a blast. The owner of Fortress, the carpenter we’re using, was on the hash, he had many phone calls and was obviously frustrated and told me that he hates the “Just now” thing, his mechanic is telling him since two weeks he would show up and that I will get to experience the “just now” too to which I replied I did already with your employee! The run was really kewl it was in the Palo Seco area on the southern shore of Trinidad. First at arrival many indigenous looking people all covered in mud came towards us, it was weird, not much later we arrived at the mud pools.

It is actually a mud volcano and you can see the mud bubble out of the ground. The run through the woods was really awesome and of course it started to rain. We went up and down heavily wooded hills over roots, vines and dangerous trees with thorns all over them and finally heard waves crashing ashore in the distance. I think I deserve the name TP (toilette paper) for wiping up the rear as I’m always the last one in the bunch. I don’t run so I stuck with the guy with the machete who is making sure nobody gets lost and gets back safe to the finish line. Well at one point it was just him and I, he said “stay hea, no need to go furder”. I have such a hard time understanding the Trini accent so I kept going. He said again “stay hea, no need to go furdar, they ahll com back” and sure enough 5 minutes later all 80 or so came back as they had taken the wrong way. I think Sid was surprised to see me in front of him as he is always in the pack of the leaders. It pays to be TP, besides there is a short cut for the last runners or walkers like me and I take full advantage of it. Then the trail brought us to the beach, oh wow, was that beautiful and since it was high tide we had to walk through the surf. The surf was high with high rollers crashing onto the pristine shore splashing us with refreshing foamy water.

Then we climbed a steep mud volcano that drains all the way to the water. On top I was amazed to find just a little cone were only a little mud trickled out.



I took the short cut back and found a wild orange tree, picked a couple and also a banana tree and took the purple flower that hangs below the bananas, what a treat, well the oranges turned out to be very, very sour so I use them as lemons. Then of course at the finish line ice cold beer was waiting for us and we partied a couple of hours under the canopy of the jungle with a clear starry sky above and lightning bugs flying around us. They even thought of food as a local sold Pillow a traditional Trini rice dish, yummy. On the drive back we stopped at a bar and had more fun oh yes drinks too, yep definitely runners with a drinking problem. We didn’t get home until 1am. I tell you these hashes are the best way to get to know a country and people. We went to an area locals don’t even know. This is definitely not the last hash we’ll be doing here.

In the mean time the carpenter came and it took him two days to make the templates for the cabin sole (floor) and galley (kitchen) counter, you should have seen the boat it was all upside down as we had to move the table and water maker out of his way. The carpenter now is making the floor according to his templates, the counter template is being sent to the company to be molded to the shape of the template. He told us that he can finish both within three week. Well, we’re holding our breath with the “just now” in mind.






The new autopilot arrived and Sid is busy hooking it up which is more work then he thought as none of the old cables match so he has to crawl through tight spaces to feed the new cables through the bilge into the boat. He also is going to build a new box for the control head. It doesn’t fit where the old one did, but it will be even better as we will be able to see it better. We also ordered a freezer which will fit into the box in the cockpit, for that we have to raise the box 2 inches. Imagine ice on Paradise even ICE CREAM, wow we’re getting pretty spoiled.

While in Costa Rica visiting Bill and Jeanette, Shelly a born Triniadian was visiting them as well. She sent us contact info for her girlfriend and brother. Since we can’t get local calls out from here we sent emails and Marilyn answered telling us that every Friday she goes to Sails Bar which is right across from our marina. So that she could recognize us I sent the caricature photo of Sid I used for his 60th birthday, she printed it out and showed it to all her friends in the bar. As we entered the bar everybody turned heads and started to point at Sid, that was really funny, but we didn’t know who was Marilyn. A little trial and error we found her, lots of fun. She introduced us to so many of her friends it turned into a very busy, fun night with lots of talking, dancing and yes learning the Trini language. One guy started to talk to me and no matter how much I tried to listen to his accent I could not understand him not even one word until I realized he was speaking Spanish so my ear tuned right into that and no further problems thank goodness as it started to get really frustrating for both of us, you have to know that it was very loud in there. You can tell Trinidad is a small country as three of her friends desperately shared their problems with me one even asking for advice, Sid was laughing as they talked my ears off. We both had a blast and are looking forward to next Friday’s liming.

Shawn and his wife Debbie the owner of our sister ship “Catbird” came to look at Paradise. They were very impressed at what we’ve done to her. He was especially interested in the dodger and she was just speechless as she came down below and saw all the cabinets. The boat came without cabinets in galley or salon and so Sid built the

m himself. Poor Shawn has a huge boat list now. They were just going to stay for one hour; 6 hours, appetizers, dinner, 4 bottles of wine, and who knows how much RUM later, they left at midnight with an invitation to their home. We sure had fun. Two nights later Swan picked us up and they winded and dined us in their beautiful home. Debbie made the most delicious Callaloo soup. You’re probably asking what the heck is Callaloo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callaloo all I can say is it’s yummy. Shawn cooked the most wonderful shrimp curry with saffron rice and curried beans, wow.

We didn’t get home till after midnight, we sure had a great time, what a nice couple. Midmorning we met them already again on their boat Catbird. It’s nice to sit on a boat that looks the same us ours. The boys were very busy installing speakers, fixing the compass and adding insulation around the engine. Catbird needs a lot of work and Shawn will be busy for a long time to come. So we’ve been well introduced into the liming thing and we’re just glad that they have to work during the week so that we can recuperate.

It still rained for most of the day and some heavy squalls brought uncomfortable waves into the marina. You should see the hills here though, through all the rain the Pui trees are starting to bloom and the jungle is turning into a bright yellow, just absolutely beautiful.











We still enjoy watching the noisy parrots every evening as they settle for the night in the near trees Ahhh, life is good!