Trinidad

Today’s port was Trinidad, located just off the coast of Venezuela.  Trinidad is not your typical Caribbean port.  Cruise ships dock right next to Port of Spain’s downtown, which has an urban feel, with skyscrapers, a financial center, arcade malls and lots of traffic.

 

The city is a regional financial and business center and has one of the fastest-growing economies in the Caribbean.  Oil and natural gas production, not tourism, is the island’s biggest industry. 

Trinidad was “discovered” by Columbus in 1498 and controlled by the Spanish until the British navy showed up in 1797 and took control.  Although the nation gained independence in 1962, remnants of British rule include the use of English as the national language and left-hand driving.

Other than that, Trinidad’s culture is mostly influenced by the Indians (India), Africans and Chinese brought over in the 19^th century to be indentured workers in the sugar industry.  The multi-cultural society is quite harmonious and we saw signs while driving through town that read:  “For each creed and race, we are all in an equal place”.

There were dancers on stilts entertaining the cruise passengers at the port terminal as we left the ship.  I think this is similar to what we will see in Brazil for Carnaval.

Knowing that venturing away from the city can put the tourist in a not so safe way on this island, we booked a tour through the ship.  It was a hike to Maracas Waterfall.  Our tickets said there will be slippery rocks and you MUST be in excellent physical condition.  Hiking and waterfalls sounded like a great tour to us, so off we went.

On our way up into the rainforest we drove through the outskirts of the city.  It seemed like each house had a tall cement wall surrounding it and then topped with coiled barbed wire. Again, some houses were neat and tidy; others looked awful.  There was trash littering the sides of the road all the way across the island. 

We passed elementary school children running a race UP the mountain.  They were working hard and their classmates were alongside the road cheering them on.  We opened the bus windows and encouraged them on.

When we were almost to our hiking destination, our bus pulled over and stopped at a police station.  We waited there for our police escorts to show up.  That was a little unnerving!  I guess a group of people, especially tourists, walking around in the wilderness would be a good target for robbers.  Our policemen stayed with us the entire time; they carried machine guns!

When it was time to start our hike, our guide briefed us on the following:  The hike is uphill, wet, covered with fallen leaves, and the rocks are very slippery—don’t step on them, try to step on the loose gravel around the rocks.  Oh, and we do have snakes and they are poisonous so don’t touch.  Oh, and by the way, there is poison ivy along the trail.  With that, our group of about 30 headed up the hill.  It definitely was slippery and we had to watch every step we took.  One man went rogue and didn’t follow the path led by our guide.  Down he went into the rocks.  He was a big guy and it took 2 guides to stand him up. 

We finally reached the waterfall and looked up!  It was 300 feet tall and more of a misty water falling down than a rush of water.  It was very nice and cooling.  We like to take a photo standing under the waterfall, so Terry volunteered to head across the rocks and take position, arms outstretched, while I snapped a few pictures. 

 

Right after I took the pictures, the guy that had fallen on the way up to the falls walked by me and slipped.  He knocked me down like a domino right into the rocks—I didn’t have a chance against a big guy of at least 250 lbs.  So my souvenier from Trinidad is going to be a nice big black & blue bruise on my leg.  I’m thrilled!  But a bruise is better than a broken leg so I’m thankful that’s all it seems to be.

I had hoped that once we got back to the ship we could walk over to Queen’s Park Savannah and the Magnificent Seven, which is a group of 7 old sea captain houses.  But walking is a little uncomfortable for me right now so we passed.  I’d say we’ll save that for next time, but I doubt this is a port we will visit again.  Only ships sailing to South America would stop here.

The next 4 days are sea days before we reach Fortaleza, Brazil.  According to the Captain’s Log, we have travelled just over 1600 miles from Fort Lauderdale and have 14,500+ miles before we reach San Francisco.