Bush Fires Rage in Trinidad

We've been waking in the morning to heavy, grey skies, not because the sun isn't shining, but because bush fires are raging in the hills above the marina. The smoke is so dense, it burns your eyes within minutes. Combined with temps in the 90sF/30sC and high humidity, it's hard to breathe. It's stifling. This is all too vividly reminiscent of the fires in Tasmania while we were there. The decks are gray with soot and smoke.  

March is traditionally the driest month of the year here, and bush fires are nothing new in Trinidad. Officially the “bush fire season” runs from December 1 to June 30 each year. The latest Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service Dry Spell/Drought monitor at the end of March 2016 shows that rainfall this year was less than 50% of average in most parts of the country. They're blaming the current declining El Niño for influencing drier and hotter local conditions and it's expected to continue during April and May. Lord knows we saw plenty of bush fires burning on our recent trip around the island.

In the meantime, there's a severe water shortage in the area. Tobago, Trinidad's sister island, is harder hit to the point of crisis. Here in Trinidad, water conservation rules are in effect, not so different than we experience in Las Vegas or Colorado during the dry summer months.

Most of the fires are started by locals who routinely burn their fields. With so little rainfall, everything is tinder dry, but still they persist in the burning thinking that they can control it, but obviously in many cases, they cannot. There's a helicopter that makes routine runs over the marina dropping sea water on the fires, but we wonder how effective it is based on so many areas of concern.

It will be good to be back to the sea, away from cities and fires and soot and smoke, where the salt air is fresh and clean and we can breathe in deeply without coughing. All the more incentive to get our jobs done and get back into the water. Soon … very soon!

Walking in Port of Spain

Our Trinidad touring was coming to an end … already … and we hadn't even spent any time in the capital city of Port of Spain. Lin had Marriott points and we camped out for a couple of nights at the Courtyard close to the city center. What a lovely change from the musty room at Salybia. Let's face it … we can and do adjust to third world accommodations, but first world hotels are really wonderful … especially when they're free. Sounds snobbish … and it is. We had a map of Port of Spain, our trusty Maps with Me app and a new free app I'd found, GPSmyCity, which had several interesting walks in Port of Spain. We were all ready to go.

We took the local transport, a Maxi-Taxi (shared van ride), and got out at the Red House, Trinidad's historic Parliament building, which unfortunately was under renovation and pretty much covered up. Judging from newspaper articles, the building has been deteriorating for decades and only in March was serious renovation begun. It was painted red in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and became popularly known thereafter as “the Red House”.

The Old Police Headquarters is pretty much across the street from the Red House. Built in 1876, its limestone Gothic style architecture with traditional arches and tower are quite handsome. It still houses several police department offices, as well as the T&T Police Museum. We passed on the museum.

The old Fire Station was picturesque and a good example of how building preservation and restoration can work and how old and new can blend. Built in 1896/1897, it was restored in 2000 and is now part of the National Library complex.

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is the oldest Anglican church in Trinidad. Built in 1818 for the British troops that lived on the island, it's a combination Gothic/Georgian architecture and very impressive as cathedrals usually are. We stepped inside to admire it and get out of the heat.

The cool interior was lovely and peaceful with lots of stained glass windows to let in filtered light. It has a particularly ornate ceiling of carved mahogany supported by graceful hammered beams.

The streets of Port of Spain are bustling and crowded. Buildings, shops and street scenes caught our interest.

We wandered in search of souvenirs in the shopping district, but were always on the lookout for interesting things to see. Fabric shops are plentiful in Port of Spain and we browsed at the rich, colorful, glittery, sequined materials perfect for carnival costumes and saris. Lots of “bling appeal”, but no souvenirs.

For lunch, we stopped in a roti shop. Lin had never eaten roti and was intent on trying it before leaving Trinidad. She chose veggie and we chose chicken roti … chicken curry with veggies (potato and pigeon peas) wrapped in chapati (flatbread). It's messy and watch out for the chicken bones!

Back out into the heat of day, our feet were getting tired and our bodies longed for A/C and cold beer. We'd hoped to get to the Botanical Gardens and the zoo, but after finding very few acceptable Trini souvenirs, we gave up and headed back to the Courtyard for some pool time, a cold drink. We needed time to rest and get ready for a special evening.

Lin had read about Buzo Osteria Italiana in Trip Advisor. This gourmet restaurant, situated in an old, stone salt house in downtown Port of Spain, has been consistently rated as the #1 place to eat in the city and we were longing to splurge and try it. In Italian, “osteria” usually translates to a place serving basic meals and wine with a limited menu. Buzo was anything but basic and limited. We ordered appetizers to share and three different fish entrees as our mains … halibut for Lin, grouper for me and a zuppa di pesce (a top shelf seafood stew) for David. We sampled each others, ate our own, drank some wonderful Montepulciano, lingered over cappuccino and had a spectacular, most memorable evening.

Our touring vacation of Trinidad ended on an up-note, but all too quickly, it seemed. It was time for Lin to head back to the States and time for us to tend to Nine of Cups and get her back into the water. It's time to move on. Where to next? Let's see where the wind blows.

Afternoon Tea at Mount St. Benedict

It was a Brazilian Benedictine monk, Dom de Caigny, who originally purchased 240 acres in 1912 to establish the Mount Saint Benedict Abbey. Located 700' above sea level, overlooking the town of Tunapuna, the Abbey looked rather majestic with its tower and red roofs as we drove the tortuous, narrow, steep road below which leads up to it.

The motto of the Benedictine order is “ora et labor” (pray and work), but with only 10 monks left, they get some help from the locals to maintain the church, monastery, seminary, a drug rehab center, a yogurt factory and the Pax House. The Pax House, a guest house and lodge on the Abbey grounds, is quite well known for serving a traditional afternoon tea in serene surroundings. I'd made reservations on-line to take tea one afternoon and a breather from our whirlwind tour of Trinidad.

The Pax House (pax = peace in Latin) was built in 1916 and offers views of the sprawling city below. It's plain, as you might expect. From the front, it looked lovely, but on closer inspection, like so many other sites we visited in Trinidad, it is also regrettably in sad disrepair. We arrived a bit late due to traffic and our welcome was less than warm. We were left to wait on the porch for 10 minutes before being shown to a table in the tea room, though there were only two other young women taking tea.

The xeroxed menus offered three tea services … the Presidential, the Traditional and the British. We ordered one of each. What had enticed us to come to the tea room was this description: “A famous room at the Pax House is the Tea Room. The Tea Room was constructed during World War II and it is the oldest Tea House in the country. The Tea Room serves a variety of teas from different countries.” They were out of two of the three teas offered, so we settled on one big pot of Earl Grey (which I have every morning for breakfast, by the way...nothing too exotic there). After a short wait, the tea and accompaniments were served.

Lin poured. We drank and nibbled, unimpressed by the tea, the food and the tea room. It was, indeed, very quiet, almost too quiet. Our voices echoed in the near empty room. After delivering the tea, the server never appeared again. We had hoped to learn more of the history of the Pax House or perhaps which areas of the grounds were open for further explanation, but alas we found no information available, nor anyone to provide any insight.

We took a peek out the back porch overlooking the hillside where hummingbird feeders attracted the local birds. The adjacent porch was falling away from the house and we wondered about the one upon which we were standing.

David left cash on the table for our tea. We wandered through the small parlor, seeking more information about the house and the Abbey, but could find none. We left without another word to or from the staff, quite disappointed.

We spotted a small graveyard, overlooking the city below, and walked through.

We climbed the steep hill to see what we could see, but were reluctant to trespass in areas in which we might not have been welcome. We saw a monk in the window of the abbey above and waved, but he closed his window and walked away without a sign of acknowledgment. Otherwise, we saw no place nor anybody to query.

After the 1-1/2 hour trip in traffic to get there, it was a disappointing afternoon. It might well have just been the particular day we visited, but it was a letdown after having read so much about it. I guess I was expecting tiny watercress sandwiches on crust-less bread and clotted cream and fresh fruit on scones and a wonderful story about the Pax House and Abbey. I remembered having tea in England years ago and more recently the tea house we visited in Mauritius. Perhaps that's more of what I had in mind.

Ah, well … we survived our disappointment and moved on. Tomorrow we're heading into Port of Spain for a self-guided walking tour and look around. Put on some comfy shoes and come along.