Warriors vs. Peru

the chief


the crowds


the carib girls (we picked the best seats in the house!)


even if it was a tie...

 

La Divina Pastora

La Divina Pastora herself...


the awesome sound system of de fete


burger shop

 

Borough Day (a day late)

May 7 - Point Fortin

Michel and I made our way down to Point Fortin in hopes of catching the tail end of their 'mini-carnival', in order to sample what we had missed (grrrr.) in February. Unfortunately all the festivities were held on the Saturday, so we decided to head to the Clifton Hill Beach lime - as you can see, we decided not to stay long and made our way to Siparia.

Point Fortin is one of the industrial centres of Trinidad and this once pristine sandy beach is an example of how the landscape can be changed (for better or for worse) through development. Lower down is an example of an as yet completely untouched and deserted beach, of which southern Trinidad has many...

Bring your towel and relax on the rocks!

A quieter spot

A completely deserted beach


Words of wisdom in Siparia

 

rest in peace gilles - you've left behind a lot of love.

Cocoa, a monkey and a Yogi

May 6 - Aripo

Below are a series of photos taken during an afternoon visit to the gorgeous mountain village of Aripo. I began the afternoon by visiting my friend Thompson - we tramped through the dry leaves (just like home in autumn!) of his cocoa estate, accompanied by his ever-present dogs Sheba and Sheldon, and he told me much about growing cocoa, processing cocoa, the demise of the industry in Trinidad, the ill effects of the CEPEP program and his refusal to sell his land to a Canadian Hotel developper so that he may will it to his children. I like this man.

Afterwards I stopped at Aripo Cottages to check it out as a potential place to spend the weekend with my parents during their upcoming visit. Great views, quaint cottage and even a red howler monkey as a pet!

Lastly I stopped at the yoga ashram that I had been meaning to visit for a long time. As one might expect in a place like this, it was a somewhat spiritual and auspicious visit as the resident yogi showed me around an invited me to a sunday morning teaching session. The ashram is located on a beautiful spot at the confluence of three rivers - the combination of which is reputed to supply water resembling the spiritual qualities of the holy Ganges in India.

Door detail at the Aripo Cottage


Ganges-like water at the Datta Ganga Ashram

Cocoa, a monkey and a Yogi

A cocoa pod


Banana (?) leaf


Thompson and Sheba


Dried Cocoa

 

Sadness...

I haven’t been in T&T for very long, yet I have had the good fortune to meet some fantastic people here. As in all most places that I have lived or visited, there exists a group of people who are creative, enthusiastic, loving and joyful. It did not take long for me to become attached to some of these people here and on May 6th I learned that one of the very people that I had grown close to was badly hurt and in a coma.

I had last seen Gilles on May 4th and while we limed his wife Terry reminded me that I had promised to take her to Aripo on Saturday. That morning I realized that I didn’t have their phone number and so I stopped by the Tattoo Farm on my way out of town – it was ten after twelve and the shop normally opens at noon, but I decided that it would not be completely unusual for a tattoo parlour to open late on a saturday morning and made my way to Aripo alone.

Upon returning to Port of Spain I decided that I should stop by the shop to see Gilles and apologize to Terry for not hooking up for the trip to Aripo. I fought through a considerable number of traffic jams and considered giving up several times however I felt a certain amount of conviction in making my way to the shop.

When I finally arrived I entered the shop but did not see Terry or Gilles. I was greeted instead by Gus who seemed much less energetic than usual – I asked him how he was doing and he explained that Gilles had been in a bad motorcycle accident while returning home early Saturday morning. He had suffered significant head trauma and was in critical condition. At first I did not believe Gus and tried to think of some sort of reason why this might not be true, but left the shop sad and taken aback.

This is tragic for so many reasons – Gilles is a loving husband, father and friend, he and Terry were in the midst of moving to a new home and he is a central figure in the creation and fostering of a great community.

My thoughts are with Gilles and his family and my fingers are crossed that his resolve will pull him through this one – so many people are counting on it.

François' Last Roti in T&T

François left for Venezuela and France on May 3 - so of course we had to go to St-James for one last roti and beer before his departure.

Amuse-toi bien François! À la prochaine.

François enjoys his last roti in Trinidad


Smokey & Bunty will miss you François! 

Lopinot & Guanapo Gorge

April 30

Our friend Jean-Stéphane was down for the weekend from Montréal and had said that he would like to do a hike. I had read a brief paragraph in my guidebook about the Guanapo Gorge and decided that it could be an interesting 'hike'.

We drove up the narrow gravel road towards Guanapo and came across three men from the Forestry service standing at the side of the road. We stopped and took advantage of the coincidence to obtain some more precise directions than those contained in the paragraph I had read.

We stopped at the bridge where the road crosses the Guanapo River and decided to walk directly up the river bed. At first we hopped from rock to rock to keep our feet dry, but it wasn't long before we were wading chest deep and swimming in the water to make our progress up river.

I was thankful to have a waterproof camera case as we swam/waded/walked up the river until we reached the deepest and narrowest section of the gorge. After about an hour of progress in the gorge itself we were turned back by an insurmountable barrage of giant tree trunks. Floating downstream with the weather-worn limestone walls towering above was quite an experience.

Upon exiting the gorge itself we were all quite happy to spend some time in the sun, having become quite cold from soaking in the water for so long. This would be the second time that I was cold in Trinidad (the first was standing atop Mt. Chaguramal in a soaking wet cotton t-shirt).

On our way back down the road we met some locals who were collecting Tonka (spelling?) nuts - they gave us some of the aromatic fruit. The scent reminds me of brown sugar.

From Guanapo we drove to Lopinot, a village tucked high in the mountains west of Arima. We arrived as the sun was going down and were treated to the sight of a cricket match taking place in front of giant (banyan?) trees, all basked in the golden light of the sunset.

Lopinot was celebrating its' 200th anniversary - it was formed as a cocoa plantation by a French Loyalist Count who was granted the lands by France. The village has a reputation as the true home of parang in Trinidad - parang is a style of christmas music played in T&T which is sung in French and Spanish and has its' origins in South America (I believe). A typical parang group consists of cuatro (think ukelele), guitar, shakers, percussion and box bass (think broom handle, one wire and a wooden box).

We treated ourselves to pastels (curried meat wrapped in a pastry which is steamed inside banana leaves) and geera gizzard (cumin spiced chicken gizzard - well actually, this was only Michel and Jean-Stéphane). Liming and conversing ensued, as usual. I spoke at length with Joe, a man from Barbados who lived for many years in Montréal. After much philosophising with him I joined the rest of the group in watching a local parang troupe ply their trade on the front veranda of someone's home.

Later on, François and I would meet Martin Gomez, whose name I recognized from my guidebook as being the local 'guide' and historian. He treated us to a great solo cuatro performance which I was happy to catch on video. We also met a local man who explained the history of the region and the music in near-perfect European accented French.

After things wound down we headed back to POS where we introduced Jean-Stéphane to the tradition of rotis and beer in St-James. He was even lucky enough to be treated to the bottle balancing prowess of one of the local entertainers...

Lopinot

Sunset at Lopinot


St. James entertainment

 

Guanapo Gorge

Brian takes a dip in the natural jacuzzi


François grows a natural moustache


The view on the way home from Guanapo


Cricket at Lopinot

 

Guanapo Gorge

 

Biking around the Savannah

Some photos from a cycling competition in Port of Spain.





 

Chacachacare - a third and final time

April 29

A third and final trip to chacachacare with François before he left for Venezuela and ultimately to France. This time we explored the nuns' quarters, the Coast Guard barracks and followed a road to the salt lake on the opposite side of the island. And of course, a final visit to the pharmacy. In the photos below you will also see our trusty sea-going vessel...

We capped off the evening with a lime at Tattoo Farm, a boutique owned by Gilles, a friend that I have made through the film club. Hopefully I will post photos later as he has created a really amazing space.

Cheers



 

Chacachacare - a third and final time