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Diane's Diary11/2 Friday Well, we still don't have our dinghy in the water but our friends on S/V Just Deserts were nice enough to pick us up in there dinghy & bring us to their side of the anchorage. It's only about a 15-minute walk around but in the hot broiling sun the walk feels a lot longer. I went to Shari the sewer & Larry went to Just Deserts to borrow their charts on CD. We had bought a CD burner at home so he's copying all the charts he can. This is illegal but we are not in Kansas anymore! All the cruisers do it since charts are so expensive. I stopped at Alpha Canvas to see when he can start the canvas work. We also went to Budget Marine & got back to the boat around 1:30pm. Dazzler is coming over for dinner tonight & I'm making penne ala vodka & homemade brownies. We had a great time with Dazzler & they stayed till around 9:30. 11/3 Sat Larry worked on rewiring the engine; I cleaned the bathroom & reoiled all the interior teak. Larry played chess with Autumn Wind. We watched TV & I updated my logs. 11/4 Sun Carrie & Wally each came over separately today- Wally to play chess, Carrie for help with her computer. It didn't rain the whole day today so it was particularly hot. I worked on the computer updating my logs. 11/5 Mon At 10 am I took the maxi bus to Lutchman's Upholstery to get the materials needed for the canvas worker. He said I could bring my own supplies & it was definitely cheaper for me to get them - they cost around $60 USD for canvas, textaline, & zippers. Then, I went to West Mall, the big shopping mall, for a haircut. For a plain cut, no wash or blow dry, it's about $7USD. Someone recommended me to Nisa & I was quite pleased with the cut. I also went to McDonald's for lunch, the Hi-Lo supermarket, made a reservation for a rental car ($20USD per day for a rent a wreck) & to visit Asa Wright. I got back to the boat around 2pm. 11/16 Tues I walked over to Shari's the seamstress, to check on the status of my work. I also did the laundry, called the US for a French boat, Janteck, to check on their photo equipment order. I made a meatloaf for dinner- we haven't had that in awhile. We watched a horrible movie rental tonight Navy Seals 2. 11/7 Wed Today I volunteered to teach kids at this remedial school. These kids failed their high school entrance exam so they are in this remedial school. If they pass the test, they can go back to high school if not they eventually drop out of school. The cruisers stated this program a number of years ago & I really think it helps the kids. I had a 15-year-old girl who was reading "Pooh Bear". Unbelievable! Her reading was on a 5 year old level. The kids were way behind their American counterparts. It's obvious education is not valued here in Trinidad. I really enjoyed teaching the kids. I think I'll go every week. I think the kids get a lot out of the cruisers being there also. All the kids were really very far behind academically. I donated a plastic globe to the school & taught a geography lesson to the kids. They had never seen a globe before although they had seen an atlas. They couldn't identify where Trinidad was on the globe. After, S/V Autumn Wind drove us to Price Club so I bought some more things. With 4 people in the car & provisions, the car was bottoming out! Dazzler had a rental car today so we went to TGIF with them & Amadon Light for dinner. 11/8 & 9 Thurs & Fri We rented a car today by ourselves to go up to Asa Wright Nature Center. It is world renowned for all the various species of birds. The famous oilbirds are only found here & in Venezuela. The number of bird species found here is unbelievable. Just to name a few we saw toucans, parrots, tons of hummingbirds, mots mots,& bellbirds. See Larry's log for a complete listing of all the birds we found. We had been spending so much time working on the boat; we haven't had a chance to see Trinidad. We got the car at 10am & had to stop at Power Boats to go to Fortress Work working so we didn't get going till around 10:30 am. The first hour the road is a regular road 7 part is a highway but then for the next half hour it changes to a twisty mountain road with blind hairpin curves barely big enough for one car. Larry did an excellent job driving. We arrived in time for lunch, which was pretty good. We were lucky to get the local Trini rate for $100USD for the both of us, which includes an overnight room, 3 meals, rum punch, afternoon tea, guides, & free rein of the place. If you are not a Trini (we qualify because we are currently living in Trinidad) the normal rate is $180 per night low season & $240 high season. If you go for the day, you are not allowed off the verandah unless you are on a tour only given at 10:30 & 1:30pm. Plus, day visitors pay $10USD per person. So, it's definitely worth it to stay overnight. Also, they feed the birds at 6am so that is great to see all the birds coming to the feeders. We ate lunch, got our room, & joined the 1:30 tour. We hiked around by ourselves afterward. We went back for afternoon tea AT 4PM. They showed a video of Asa Wright before dinner, which was very interesting. Dinner is at 7pm & was very good. We went back to our room after dinner (single beds!), the Cocoa suite - a huge room. It had an excellent location but no porch, which most others had. We loved Asa Wright- the birding was fantastic & we both really enjoyed it. It was very peaceful & the birding fantastic. People come here from all over the world just for this place. We loved it so much we are sorry we didn't stay for 2 nights. We were tired due to the high heat in the rainforest we went to bed at 8:30pm. We were up at 5:30 the next morning to watch the bird feedings, which was fantastic. We stayed on the verandah watching the birds until breakfast was served at 7:30. After breakfast we went hiking some more. I went back to the room & rested around 11 but Larry stayed on the verandah watching the birds. I know he loved the place even more than I did because he's really into birds. We both loved the place so much we may come back. We wish we had stayed for 2 nights. I know my father-in-law would have liked the place even more than we did, as he loved birding. Even though he is not alive any more I know he was glad we got here. Anyway, we took showers, ate lunch & left at 1pm in order to drive up the north coast road. Well, the road was even worse to the north & was bad with blind curves for over an hour until we finally made it out to the highway. We drove past Maracas beach & had many beautiful views from the north shore except it took 3 hours to drive back to Chagaramas instead of 1.5 hours the way we came. We liked seeing the north shore for the fantastic views but don't think it was worth the extra ride. We arrived back home at 5pm & invited Dazzler & Amadon Light to come with us to TGIF for dinner. The unwritten rule is if you have a car for the day & you are going out to dinner, you invite others with you & they do the same when they have a car. Unfortunately, it was Friday night & just like the US, people like to party after the workweek, so it was a madhouse. Had we known that, we would not have come. The music was so loud we could hardly hear ourselves. Trinidad likes their music very loud. During Carnival, most cruisers need earplugs the noise is so loud. 11/10 Sat Well, we still had the car until 10:30 this morning, so we drove over to Budget Marine & took a drive around. I finally got a chance to put away all the food I bought at Price Club. I updated my logbook & unpacked. Dazzler bought me 4 lbs of shrimp from the market so it took me about 2 hours to clean all the shrimp. I finally got a chance to put away all the laundry. We rented the movie "Castaway"- it was the last movie we saw in the US before we left for this trip last year. 11/11 Sunday Today I went to a World Cup soccer game. It was the USA vs. Trinidad. I had never been to a World Cup soccer game before & found it quite exciting. Larry didn't want to go but I knew other people that went including Legacy & Mike from Just Deserts. I really enjoyed the game. The tickets were cheap- 50TT or about $8USD plus $3 roundtrip for the bus. The game ended in no score but it was a great game anyway. If I get the chance, I would definitely go to another game. I got home from the game about 6pm. I made chicken cutlet Parmesan & spaghetti for dinner & we watched the other movie we RENTED, Jurassic Park III. 11/12 Monday About 9am this morning, I was in the beauty parlor speaking to the rental car girl (I know, she was in the beauty parlor & not her office- she always hangs out with her friends there) when someone came in & said another plane had hit NYC. Of course, given the circumstances & what we had just been through, I was extremely upset & immediately ran to the boat & turned on CNN. At first no one knew what happened but now, Thank God it appears to be mechanical failure. However, NYC definitely does not need this right now. I'm glad it did not happen tomorrow on my birthday. We sold(traded) our 2 old walkie-talkie radios on the net held each morning at 8am for $20 each. We had bought new better models at home for around $70. |