Fresh coconut water

I wasn’t going to get up early. Well I was (for a sightseeing tour), but then I went to bed much too late, and so I wasn’t going to make an effort to go. But I got woken up with an early phone call by the front desk from someone who wanted to make some money. Since I was up, I went with it. I ended up bargaining for a good deal with a travel company. Instead of the hotel wanting me to pay 200USD for about 5 hours, I was able to get 90USD for 7 hours. That’s quite an improvement. Screw those effing hotel money stealers, especially from young women who are alone!

I made a good choice. My driver was a very sweet older man who was 65 but looked older than he was, who was full of life. Not only was he full of life, but he was full of kindness. He wanted to buy my lunch, he got me some coconut water and fresh mangoes when I wanted them. Pulled a guava off the tree and gave it to me after splitting it open. And on top of it, he was surprised when I tipped him. He was a wise man who wanted to teach me lessons in addition to the culture and history of Trinidad. My eyes were closing during nearly the whole ride. I was only going on 4 hours sleep and was exhausted. But I tried, real, real hard. It helped that we got out of the car every now and again to walk along the beautiful beaches. And man, they sure were beautiful. The flaura and fauna and tropical trees along with the hills and mountains were just beautiful. I forgot for a while that we were in Trinidad. At one of them there was a beautiful rock structure with some pretty amazing micah in it. Back in junior year college in my geology class I would have gone nuts to see and study that! Haha. We went to a place where a beautiful river meets up with the ocean. Pristine beaches with few people around. We walked into the forest a little bit and over some bamboo, I saw some huuuuuge crabs. Pretty cool.

Later, we stopped at Maracas beach and I had a bake and shark while limin on the beach with some pretty sweet Caribbean music. What is limin? It’s the Caribbean version of hanging out. What’s bake and shark? It’s fried bread and shark and you add different vegetables and sauces to it. Deeeeeeeeelicious. I could eat it for lunch everyday. Then, got into a “situation”. Well, not really. It was a little sketchy, but I went with it…. When I went to take a solitary walk on the beach a guy came up to me, a bit shy perhaps, very black with long, long dreads and said “hi, I just saw you on Blanchisseusse beach, and you just had a bake and shark?” Yes, this was all true. I wanted to ask why, are you stalking me?? But anyways, he said “Mind if I join you on your walk?” Sure, why not. He lived on the northeast coast and was just here for fun, apparently. He has 15 brothers and sisters! And lives in a little cottage on a beach and sells handicrafts. Not too bad of a life, I would say. He showed me videos of a tarantula he found (scary as sh**) and some baby turtles that had just hatched and were trying to make their way to the water. He told me he would like to show me around, take me to some waterfalls or this, or that. We all know I wouldn’t have gone with him anyways. RIGHT?? But he gave me his card and told me he didn’t have internet. We parted going separate ways and I went back to my wise, kind, but very talkative driver.

I have decided that I am in LOVE with the Trinidad accent. Everything about it. I think it’s my favorite ever so far. I wish I had one. I think if I lived here I would adopt it on purpose. I especially love the fluctuation in the tone of their voice. Love it. On a side note, because I like to observe it, in cars Trinis signal to pass with a hand gesture, they hold it up high and wave you forward. This means, “please pass me”. Ok brutha, gotcha.

After the tour, we went to a coconut vendor and got the fresh coconut water and jelly. The guy used a huge blade to cut the top of the coconut off, then handed me a straw. I sucked the juice right out of the coconut. I gave the coconut back to the guy and he sliced it in half and handed me a piece of what he cut off. I used this to scrape the jelly out of the coconut. Awesome, and awesomely healthy!