Bake and Shark

Our itinerary was changed up a bit so that we could accommodate everything in good timing hence that’s why we went to the Caroni Nature Sanctuary last night. Think our original schedule would have meant we were there when the ibis were out feeding and wouldn’t have seen them come home to roost.  We started off on time this morning but had to go to a pharmacy for one group member – not sure why and wasn’t polite to ask.  But as soon as the bus pulled into the pharmacy parking lot, our guide said – “Oh, we can take 15 minutes here.” much to Chris’ dismay I think.  People started exiting the bus rapidly so we did too and ran next door to the grocery store.  We haven’t had a chance to visit grocery stores on this trip and that’s one of my most favorite things to do.  I was hoping to find some fresh fruit but it seems that fruit must be sold at fruit stores or vendors because couldn’t find a bit of it.  At least I found some diet cokes which have been in short supply this trip.

            Back to the bus and we weren’t the last ones back so good on us.  Then we are driving through Port of Spain again to see some of the same buildings that we saw last night and couldn’t get photos of them.  We couldn’t get photos of them today either – too fast in the bus, too many cars in the way, and too much dust on the window, surrounded by scaffolding or fences.   We are going to head over the hill to the beach.  I had beaten Gil to the front seat this morning and its good I did because think I might have gotten a bit seasick on the drive otherwise.  Very windy roads up and down the hills. 

            Stop at an overlook and saw wonderful orange flowering trees which our guide named as Immortalle trees which were planted to shade the coffee plants.  As we looked over the hillside, you could see these brilliant orange trees peeking through the evergreens.  From our viewpoint, we could see Port of Spain in the distance and looking in the other direction; we could see the Caribbean Sea.  According to our guide, Trinidad is hit by four different bodies of water around its shores.  I only recognized the Atlantic and the Caribbean.  Didn’t see the other two on a map either so maybe it’s a Trini thing.

            Now we are heading down the other side of the mountain to the beach area.  When we arrive, we pass by some small buildings on the parking lot side that says Bake and Shark.  Wasn’t quite sure what that meant but it is apparently a great food snake that the Trinis love.  It is shark meat that is inside some kind of bread and baked.  Sounded rather like a shark Panini.    My hubby and one other are the only ones who are prepared to go swimming but when they come back from the changing room, it was closed and they have to find another bathroom to change.  Plus there are red flags out saying the beach is closed due to rip currents.  There’s no way I’m going to agree to let hubby go out in the water but the other guy does and gets quite far out and body surfs back in shore numerous times.  Hubby gets about chest deep but I didn’t like that either.  We are firm believers in paying attention to the local information regarding diving and swimming and such. I looked for sea glass and only started finding some when we had about 5 minutes left. Had to take off my shoes and socks to get to the good shells.  Since I spent all my time looking for sea glass, never had a chance to get a Bake and Shark.  Nobody else did either.

            Back over the mountain to Veni Mange restaurant for our lunch.  A very quaint place with numerous paintings on the walls, all of which are for sale.  Plus a pile of paintings to look through if interested.  And the tables were painted also.  I had to get other members to hold their plates off the tables so I could take photos of the tables.  It was very good food though.  Quite tasty.  Another one of our better meals.

            After lunch we go to the Botanical Garden which is right in town, across from the huge park, Queen’s Park Savannah.  This dominates the middle of the city, practically.  It is 2.5 miles around it if you are walking, I think she said.   In the middle is their performing arts center which was roughly modeled after the Sydney Opera House.   You always see people jogging and walking around the park plus usually you see people playing cricket and other games and having picnics and such.  Around the perimeter are

Drink trucks which sell coconut water.  You see cages on these trucks full of coconut husks. 

            I digress though.  We stop at the park and hop off the bus quickly so that we can get into the gardens.  Another set of trees to admire and learn.  And yes, some of them are quite fascinating but I couldn’t tell you anything about them 10 minutes after I walked out of the gardens except for two that really impressed me.  One was the bootlace tree.  It has pods that hang down in groups of two or three and look vaguely like the outline of a boot.  Then it also has long string-like leaves that hang off of it very much like laces of a boot, hence the bootlace tree.  And that’s the only one where I can remember the name.  The other tree I liked was a type of palm that was 150 years old and had bloomed this year at the top of it for the very first time.  It only blooms once in its lifetime and the fronds below the top were already dying off and falling.  We had only walked a short way away from the tree when two of the massive fronds fell to the ground.  Had we still been under the tree, they would have felled a couple of us at least. 

            I did like their national tree too which had scarlet blooms on it.  So they have the scarlet ibis as their national bird and the scarlet whatever as their tree.  They love scarlet.  And I am remembering a bit more.  We saw the Noni tree which we had seen also at Rust and Werk plantation in Suriname.  It is a pharmacy tree practically, for the colonials and workers on plantations.  It has a wobbly kind of white fruit with spots and smelled horrible.  Things that smell bad and taste bad are usually good for you in some fashion.  So the tree and its fruit were used for a variety of illness like gastrointestinal upsets, menstrual problems, as well as impotence.  I looked it up and it is used in some cultures for cooking as well.  Whew.  Definitely something you must grow up eating, like durian.

            Finally the bus comes round to get us and we are back to the hotel.  We are on our own for dinner so my hubby and I had pizza at the restaurant downstairs.  Most of the rest of the group appeared to be dining here as well but there wasn’t room to sit with them.  The pizza was good.  Sad to say, my husband’s streak has been broken.  He had been able to eat some pizza in every country he has visited but we didn’t get to it in Guyana or Suriname so he’s down two countries now.