don’t call me a backpacker…

I’m home!

Finally got to upload my video of the steel pans I edited together. 4 of 20 groups on here, the last one on (I wish I’d got more of) was the only group to actually bring the crowd to its feet!

more later. gotta get back to work.

Had the best dive yesterday. Saw all the usual stuff plus… finally, four sharks. One 6.5 foot reef shark and 3 nurse sharks. Cool too because our younger divemaster, 20-year-old Dutch kid has been here for 6 months, and he said that was the biggest reef shark he’s seen. It didn’t take any interest in us, but the nurse sharks we played with and I think I got a pretty close picture with one if it doesn’t come out too dark.

So other than diving, I’m pretty much bored outta my f*c+in mind at this point. I should have made this a 7 or 8 day trip with 4 days of diving. Live and learn.

Frustrations include, no one here drinks coffee, transportation sucks, and no one on this side of the island sells sunscreen, and I lost my big bottle on the first day of diving. (Well, it got left in the boat and lifted.)

I’ve tried to avoid beachy vacations traveling single cause they make you lonely. I thouht diving would change that but it doesn’t. There’s just not much else to do here.

Right now I’ve been waiting for 2 hours for a bus or ‘maxi’ (big taxi) to take me back to Scarborough. The only thing that’s keeping me mildly entertained is a fight that’s broke out between two locals. Its funny, I didn’t realize it was an argument until neighbors started coming out to either spectate or try and intermediate. There’s been some shoving but no punches thrown yet. The Speyside drama has been going on for some time now.

Back to waiting on the bus…

(more…)

I was backrolling into the water before most of you were rolling out of bed this morning!

back tracking a little… When I pulled into port at Scarborough, Tobago it was at night. I hate arriving in these foreign cities at night with no place to stay. (The whole day trying to buy a ferry ticket and dealing with that was a waste of my Sunday.) Stupidly, I keep doing it.

I went with a Rough Guide recommendation that had me hoofing it up this steep street, at night, sweating my ass off, only to have no one answer the bell. It was only about 9pm. After the 4th ring finally the guy came out and told me they had no rooms. Seeing the slim options in this town, I bit the bullet and decided this would be splurge night. Went back down the hill, got in a taxi, and said take me to the Hilton.

The Hilton was pretty, eh, ok. I mean, ocean view from every room, and the amount of luxury for the low season price was a bargain. I just hate supporting these kinds of places, i.e. golf and watersports resorts, but it was the right choice at the right time. The next morning I called the front desk…

Me: “Hi, can I get a late check out of say, 1 or 2 pm since I got in late last night.”
Receptionist: “Umm, let me check a minute…”
pause
Receptionist: “Hmmmmm”
typing on keyboard
Me thinking: ‘ok bitch I know this place is half EMPTY, just tell me yes’
Receptionist: “2pm? Ok, that is fine.”

That’s what I thought. I made the most of my Hilton stay by pigging out on the $20 breakfast buffet, then hitting the private beach (there were about 5 other people on it) and then the giant swimming pool (I was the ONLY person in the pool.) Crazy.

Yesterday I took a day with no dives to catch my breath. I’ve wanted to hike but hiking alone is not recommended. Fortunately, Rough Guide pointed me to Argyl Falls, Tobago’s biggest waterfall, and just a few km’s away. It was a nice short hike but the waterfall part was steep enough to get a good workout. The water totally cooled you off however.

(more…)

…picking up where I left off… Maracas Bay was pretty much as expected. Apparently Sundays there can be a real scene of skin, drinking, and loud stereos, so I went on Saturday. A lot of the roads here are hilly and windy, and the one to Maracas is no exception. But once there the beach was very family oriented and nicely sized, plenty of palm trees and nice showers to change in. There are several other beaches north and south of Maracas which are supposedly nicer and quieter, but then you’d miss out on…

Richard’s Bake’n'Shark!

It was pretty amazing. I had one for breakfast, hit the beach, and then had another for lunch. The guy that cleans the salsa bar said “Ah you’re back!” And I was surprised until he reminded me he was on my bus to the beach this morning.The funny (or sad) part is the literally 16 other stands with bake’n’shark, most of them close like at 1pm or are closed for the season. Richard’s usually has a line and stays open until dinner. I mean, you’d have to make a lot of trips to the beach to find out if anyone else makes one close to the original.

I’m not a big fried food eater, not even french fries, but this fried sandwich on the fried roll is a piece of culinary art. Quite possibly the King of Fish Sandwiches. It is very much all about the sauces in the Caribbean and those cucumbers you see on there were just perfect cool compliment to the nuclear hot sauce. The green garlic sauce was still with me the next day. Shark is a very dark flavored fish but I’ve had it here twice now, the sandwich and fried nuggets, and I kinda like it. It was worth the trip.

Last week one of my travel forum friends said “Wow you take so many trips, you must make bank!” Those that know me well, know I can be a little thrifty with the money. I like to call it being smart. My ex- used to have a little “Cheap Bastard” song she would sing when I would exhibit this behavior. (kidding of course). But being smart can allow, well… 2 or more international trips per year eh? So I guess it all just depends on your perspective and priorities.

I say this because it was not coincidental that I chose April 17 for my arrival date. I needed to take a trip sooner rather than later because I have a summer project at work. April 15th seems to be the date “Low Season” starts in T & T meaning the prices drop significantly in hotels. Someone cue the “Cheap Bastard” song.

Ok so no travel experience in a foreign country is complete, or gives you the “expect the unexpected” feeling quite like the notorious ferry ride. If you haven’t read my entire blog, I can sum up each ride in one word:

Hong Kong: Tourists
Bali to Java: Circus
Thailand: Vomit
Spain to Morocco: Frustration
Trinidad to Tobago: Party!

On a Sunday evening the ferry is pretty full with people who came over for the weekend. Boy once we left dock and that bar opened up things got pretty loud and wild. There was a guy with a guitar, some loud gossipy ladies, and an impromptu casino of card tables really hootin it up behind me, and then the first movie they showed was a corny Kung Fu movie circa 1979. Now that was unexpected. It was a 2.5 hour ride, I soaked up the people watching, ate a snack, listened to some ipod, and did some reading.

There was an 8 (or so) year-old boy with his mom, who was starting at me from across the aisle. After we left dock he jumped over and sat down next to me, and I said ‘what’s up?’ He said ’so I can see the TV better.’ hehe. I noticed that he looked a little malnurished, and I asked him a couple of times if he wanted anything, he said no. I got him an apple anyway which he devoured.

So I’m in Tobago now. I’m going to save some stories for later, and post this tonight from my Blackberry cause that’s the only internet access I have here. I’m going to go to another town tomorrow that has some.

But damn is it sleepy and quiet here! I expected a few more tourists. Today I was the only person swimming in the giant pool. Tonight I was the only person eating in a restaurant in the sleepy dive town of Speyside. Compared to all the other places I’ve been, it’s downright shocking. I guess that’s what I asked for huh? Peace, quiet, gorgeous…

Hey ya’ll. I made it, I’m just starting to feel like I’m on vacation… well… except that my Blackberry data and email works, but not my phone. (ironic huh?) Which means I can stay obsessed with checking email, and before dinner I got a flood of emails that there’s a power outage at work. *cry* I know before the end of the trip I’m going to make like that Corona commercial and end up skipping the blackberry across the water like a rock.

My travel went off without a hitch. Well, except that I decided to bring a lot of emotional baggage with me this time. Stupid me. They wouldn’t let me check it in cause it was toxic. Then it was too big to fit into the overhead bin. I almost had to buy an extra seat for it but I just kept it in my lap instead. Fortunately it’s getting better now, I had let it go and remind myself I can’t control everything. Bygones.

SO! Trinidad – Port of Spain! Crazy ass place!

When I got dropped off at my first choice of guest houses (which I didn’t make a reservation) they were full. It was a bit disorienting at night, cause it kind of looked like we were in a sketchy neighborhood of Miami or something. There were like 8 people hanging out in the street, 3 of which were like shadowboxing for exercise, including this little 5 foot tall Latin chick with cornrows, drenched in sweat, who looked like she could have beat me sideways. I was like… whoah, where the F am I?

He took me to my second choice just 2 blocks away, and it was great. Funny enough this “sketchy” neighborhood called Woodbrook is just a block away from where all the upscale bars are, so that’s kinda cool and unexpected. Also disorienting about Port of Spain is just the crazy mix of old and new side by side… New high rise hotels, next to old run down industrial factories, next to fenced yards that – like I said – kinda look like Florida with ramshackle houses only a few blocks away from really nice houses, all gated. But after 2 days you realize Port of Spain isn’t SO big and daunting, and it’s the biggest city in the country.

Right off the bat in the morning, I made a couple of friends at the guest house. So what better way to get right into things than to tag along with wherever they were going that day! This virtual Bennetton ad of cute British med students (and 1 of their boyfriends) had plans to visit one of the little islands between here and Venezuela, and there was a mention of caves and swimming, but I didn’t realize the two activities were going to be together!

I do have this habit of doing things I’ve NEVER done before on my first day of arrival. I guess it’s such a great way to dive in and force yourself into vacation mode.

After boating to the island we have a little hike to the cave. You’ll notice in the photo gallery, a foggy outline of Venezuela I took from the top of this concrete structure that used to hold a military canon to guard the Bay. Well right after I snapped that photo, our tour guide started talking about the concrete canon holder, and I got shy and took a step back, lost my footing since it was all uneven, and fell down about 3 feet to the ground in between these concrete walls. It didn’t hurt that bad, I was more embarrassed, but then there was a fair amount of blood. It could have been MUCH worse as the concrete had tips of rusty rebar coming out parts of it. Ugh.

Now, if you’re going to fall and injure yourself on a hike on an island, you might as well do it with a Bennetton ad of 5 cute British med students (and 1 of their boyfriends) packing a first aid kit. Fortunately it was mostly a lot scratches and nothing too deep, not nearly as deep and nasty as my knee accident in Thailand that proceeded to get infected when diving… I won’t make that mistake again.

So back to cave swimming… never done it before. It was pretty damn amazing. The cave had two holes in the roof letting streams of light in and lighting the clear, blue water. The water is from the sea and goes up and down with the tide, but much cooler. It was just us, our tour guide, and the bats! No one else! It was so rad. You could jump off the rocks, you could float on your back and just stare up at this giant hole in the top of the cave with trees growing around it. One of the guys brought goggles. Occasionally a couple of bats would chase each other for a minute. So rad.

Quite an excursion and nothing I could have done by myself.

(pictures are up on flickr ——–> )

Our tour guide tipped us off to a big steel pan show in the park that night. Perfect! Everyone else was into it too so after getting cleaned up we all headed over. It was looooong but very worth it. This is the REAL DEAL. It’s cool cause all over town the famous steel pan groups have their rehearsal “yards” even marked on maps, so you can occasionally just catch rehearsals on the street, more often around Carnival time. But this was a championship competition of groups from both Trinidad and Tobago.

I took a couple of videos with my new camera, but there’s no way I can upload it over this slow, hijacked wifi. (yes I brought my laptop, hah!) So I’ll link it up later. There was ONE group out of the 24 songs performed that REALLY brought the house down, and I caught just the final long note of their song on the video.

That was yesterday… today I ventured alone to Maracas Bay for beach and the notorious Bake’n'Shark! But I’m too tired to write about it now…. and heading over to Tobago tomorrow. Later.

Ok, so it’s clear from a lot of friends responses, that many people don’t know diddly about the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, where I am heading next.

What did I want to do on this trip? Diving, Food, Culture, Beach. Most of the Caribbean islands are expensive and have been wrecked (in my opinion) by tourism and beachfront condos. That kind of strips out most of what culture and food is there, and just leaves the beach.

These two islands lie just a few miles from South America, at the end of the chain of the West Indies in the Caribbean. It has its own self sustaining economy not reliant on tourism, which is partially why it stays low key. Tobago is the smaller island, very sparsely populated, surrounded by coral reefs in the water and full of lush forest reserve in its belly. Over 420 species of birds!

Culture… Music… Food? The steel drum was invented here, it’s serious business not tourist background noise in Trinidad! The Carival and some other festivals are world famous. The mix of races is crazy, almost like Brazil. And I have to admit one of the “decision” moments was watching one of my few regular TV shows – Bizarre Foods. He went to have this unique Trini specialty: the bake’n’shark sandwich. I had to have it.

I do have some jitters at the moment, which I find strange considering what I’ve done in the last year, and especially since this is the first mostly English speaking country I’ve visited since, uhhhh, 2004?

But no need to worry bout me on this trip…. I’m just hangin with my homies Hammerhead and Manta Ray.

No, I’m not joking. and yes i’m taking pictures.

This has been one really horrible week from start to finish, sprinkled with a few little nuggets of good things. But mostly utter shit.

I know it’s cliche, but vacation cannot come soon enough.

*thinking warm, sunny, salty, wet thoughts* … and reading…

Such bullshit, not to mention an enormous waste of MY tax dollars – all for a photo op. That’s the bottom line, all that matters is a photo Op.

Highway patrol just called it on live TV the “decoy plan at the Embarcadero.” Ooops.

What a joke. Was it worth it??? When there’s such an outcry over a stupid symbol going through the streets of a city, that they have to dupe everyone for it to be a success, with a military level escort? Kind of defeats the purpose huh? Why are we doing this? How can they say this was a positive experience?

‘I have every reason to believe this was a well developed plan by Gavin Newsom and his chief of police in conjunction with the government of China and the US State Department,” City Supervisor Peskin continued. “It was designed to please the government of China and give them the TV footage they want to portray to their people. The bottom line is that Newsom has deceitfully and repeatedly misled the public. Frankly, these are the tactics that the Chinese government uses on its people.”

So here’s my photo op you bastards:

Snapped a few photos on my way to get coffee. Hundreds of Chinese and Tibet (and about 10 Darfur) supporters already out and yelling. At 10 AM, they are just getting warmed up, but this should be an interesting day here to say the least.

“- The Olympic flame arrived in San Francisco from Paris early today under cover of darkness amid security typically reserved for head-of-state visits.”

Can you believe this shit?

In case you don’t know dear readers, the notorious Olympic torch on its arduous journey around the world will pass right by MY OFFICE TOMORROW at 1pm!!!

We’ve got water balloons and super-soakers cocked and loaded. Just kidding, but I will have my camera. I see almost NO WAY this doesn’t get cancelled. There’s no way we’re not going to see a similar scene as in London and Paris. I do not expect it to pass through San Francisco quietly. One of the runners has already backed out due to safety concerns. What a joke this has all become. Nonsense.

For the record, my stance on this whole issue is the same as most protests. I think it’s good to bring worldwide attention to China’s long and illegal occupation of Tibet, and their human rights violations. Is it going to change anything? Probably not. And is this really any better than the Bush administration’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and human rights violations by the CIA? Not really. Why don’t people put some energy into that?