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Diane's Diary11/22 Thurs Thanksgiving Day S/V Jantek left for Guadeloupe today. We had helped them a lot with phone call to the US. They gave us a whole bunch of charts on CD to copy as long as we made a set for them also. We went on a tour of Gaspary Island today to see the underground caves with a bunch of other cruisers. We had never been out there before. It's a long dinghy ride from Chaguaramas plus, there is no place to tie the dinghy to so I'm glad we took the tour. The cost for the 2 of us including ride & guide was $18USD. I think it was worth it. Unfortunately, we got stuck in a horrible rainstorm & got soaked. We enjoyed seeing the caves & the rock formations & found it quite interesting. We got back around 1:30pm & I called Mom & Dad & Aunt Mary for Thanksgiving. Phone calls are very expensive so this was the first time I spoke to them since we returned to Trinidad in October. It was nice to hear their voices. I came back & made the mashed potatoes. Then Just Dessert picked us up in their dinghy, as there were no way we could walk with all the food we had to bring. They had 10 people on their boat, 3 of them, us, Dazzler, Amadon Light & 2 local Trini's. Just Dessert cooked the turkey on a big propane outdoor grill. Unfortunately, they cooked it to long & the turkey got dried out. I can see how it would be very difficult to cook a turkey that way. We all had a very good time. Since we all couldn't be with our families, it was nice just being with friends. We left around 9pm & took the free shuttle bus back to CrewsInn. There was a big organized Thanksgiving dinner at the local convention center but it was about $20per person plus drinks & transport. Larry didn't want to go to a big organized affair anyway- Thanksgiving is more for close friends & family rather than strangers. We were glad Just Dessert had asked us. Autumn Wind asked us also but Just Dessert had asked us first. All in all, we had a very nice day. 11/23 Fri We've rented a car with Jacobite for the next 3 days. We actually got the car early - for Trinidad that is - 10am. We purposely rented the car a day early so we could get up to Asa Wright much earlier this time. We picked up Jacobite at West Mall where they had gone to the dentist. Then, it was off to the Price Club - about 45 minutes away from Chaguramas. They are building a new Price Club in Port of Spain that should be opened shortly that will be a lot more convenient for us. But, it probably won't open till around the time we leave Trinidad. We wanted to do a big grocery shopping here as the prices are very good & they have lots of good American & Canadian products. We spent over $250USD! We had the pizza for lunch there & it was actually quite good. Then, since we were only about 20 minutes away, we stopped at the Wildfowl Trust again. Lena & Ron had not seen it & we enjoyed it so we went back. We really enjoyed the place again & they did also. We were going to go out to diner tonight since we had the car, but it took us awhile to unload the groceries & then we were all exhausted so we stayed home instead. Tomorrow we want to be up early to get to Asa Wright. 11/24 Sat Well, we got up at 6am, picked up Jacobite & were on the road before 8am. We arrived at Asa Wright at 9:15am so the drive took about 1.5 hours. Larry felt more confident driving now since he is more familiar with the road. We were able to check into our rooms even though they weren't ready yet. At first they gave us separate rooms but we asked if we could have adjoining ones so they did. Room 19& 20 were large & had a nice big screened in porch that was private except we opened the connecting doors between them. Room 14 they originally gave us was closer, but the porch was shared with the adjoining room & the room was very small. So, it turned out better that we switched plus, we were closer to Lena & Ron. Unfortunately most of the rooms seem to have single beds & that is what we got. We relaxed with a quick beer. We started to take the 10:30 tour except it really started to rain hard so the guide brought us back to the house. Due to the heavy rain, we didn't get to resume the tour until 11am. We got to see the ornate hawk eagle & its nest with the help of the guide. We would never have seen it on our own. Larry was very excited as he wanted to see an eagle the last time & we didn't. We got back at 12:40 in time for a quick lunch. At 1pm we were able to join the oilbird tour. Normally, they don't allow people staying just one night to join the tour, but they knew we had been to the center before & wanted to see them so they allowed us. Normally, this extra tour is $12.50USD per person, but the local Trini rate is 12TT or $2USD per person so we were able to get that rate. The hike was long & tiring downhill on the way there but all uphill on the way back. Because the center does not want to scare the birds, they only visit them a few times each week. We got to see them in groups of 3 but only for a quick few minutes glimpse. It was nice to see them but I don't know if it was worth the long hike to get there. But these special birds can only be viewed here & in Venezuela so I guess we were lucky to see them. I just would have liked to spend more time viewing them but since they have to use a flashlight on them since they are in caves, they don't want to frighten the birds. We got back for the tour around 3pm & rested in our rooms till 4pm afternoon tea. Jacobite & I went back to our rooms to rest about 45 minutes later but Larry stood on the verandah looking at the birds. We got together around 6:15 for drinks - we brought our own. We had a kingfish dinner at 7pm but the fish was too dried out so wasn't that good. On Wed & Sat nights only, they have an evening walk so we decided to join even though we were all tired. Unfortunately, we didn't see much on our hike & I don't think it was worth it. But sometimes you see things, sometimes you don't. We got back at 9:15pm & all of us went straight to bed. The intense heat definitely wears you out quicker. Larry woke me from a dead sleep around 2am to see if I had any aspirin but I didn't have any- only my Imitrex so he took that instead. I had been sleeping so soundly too. 11/25 Sun We woke up at 5:30am & Larry was the first one at all on the verandah before anybody. Unfortunately, the guide did not arrive till 6:30am so the birds were looking for the food but he wasn't here. They usually feed the birds around 5:30. I did say something to the manager on this, as we were all highly disappointed - the guide was supposed to be there earlier & he was not. There was no sense getting up early if we couldn't see the birds. Also, this guide did not stay on the porch identifying the birds as we had the previous time. I don't think he was as knowledgeable about birds as the guide we had the last time. We had breakfast at & 7:30 then went back to our rooms for a little while. We took another hike & got back to our cabins about 10:30. We packed, took showers, checked out of our rooms, & went to eat lunch at12. We were really only entitled to 1 lunch but they didn't say anything so we just stayed for this one & didn't have to pay for it. After lunch, we went on the porch & took a short walk to the swimming pond. Wish we had time to enjoy it! We decided to leave around 2pm as the skies looked foreboding & we wanted to get off the mountain before the rain started. It was a good thing we left when we did as the rain started just as we got down to the highway. We drove to Ft George to see the magnificent view of all of Port of Spain. The view was outstanding. The visibility was not too good from all the rain but we were able to see as far as Chaguaramas. We got back around 6pm & left Lena & Ron off. We saw Dazzler getting a talk on Venezuela from another cruiser so they invited us to stay. We left about 7pm & went back to the boat. We were both tired so we just had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. We had a wonderful time & enjoyed Lena & Ron's company. We loved Asa Wright - it is definitely one of the best things about Trinidad as long as you like birds. We were glad we went back a second time. 11/26 Mon We had the rental car until 10:30am so we went to Fortress woodworking to pick up the wood, then to Budget Marine & Alpha Canvas. S/V Dazzler was going to leave Trinidad & since we had the car, we lent drove them to the supermarket in Crew's Inn & back so they didn't have to walk with heavy groceries. The electricity went off in most of Trinidad & Tobago today for about 6 hours. The boat got very hot without the AC running. We keep it on 24 hours a day. I did another coat of clear Cetol this afternoon but I am not happy with the way it's coming out. With the high humidity here, it's just not drying well. I will have to sand it down & put on another coat when we get up island where the humidity is lower. I took a quick swim; we had shrimp for dinner, watched some TV & went to bed by 9:30pm. 11/27 Tues We were up early by 7am this morning. Larry worked on moving the water maker from beneath the port settee to the forward head. This will make it easier for him to access it & will free up a tremendous amount of space beneath the settee. I continued on updating my food inventory list by putting it into an Excel spreadsheet. It's amazing how long this takes to do. I have about 17 pages total - we have a lot of nooks & crannies to store things in! My friend Rex Stollmeyer from the US Embassy gave us a huge mahi mahi fish he caught. It was fantastic! There was so much fish we had it for 3 meals. |