arrived in the airport on time (earlier in fact). i was already psyched about being in TT from all the reading that i did during the weeks leading up to this trip. my quick glance through our exit row window made me feel like i was in india - the sporadic glimmers of light that dotted the city. another aspect reminiscent of india is the airplane culture of unfastening seatbelts a good 10 minutes before the plane comes to a complete stop.
my bro and i were planning on speed walking to the customs counter, but the camera bug got into us and we decided to take a pic of the 'welcome' sign. we then got in line and soon found out that our flight attendant misinformed us. she told us we had to fill out one form per family, but apparently each person had to have one. i guess it did seem suspect from the beginning. anywayz, tru to our style, we did a last-minute scramble for an extra form and filled it out just in time.
feeling extra chatty, my bro began discussin our travel plans with the customs agent and askin him what he recommended. as i heard their exchanges, i realized that our traveling styles are pretty compatible (with the exception of a couple major issues - to be shared on day 2.)
in any case we went through customs unscathed, grabbed our one check-in awaiting us at some undisclosed carousel, and stood in line to exit the airport.
during our $30 US cab ride to the courtyard mariott (where we were able to use a inconsequential AAA discount), i chatted with our driver about the weather, sites to see, and so on. he was of indian descent and maybe a mix....hard to say here because the colors do seem to run into each other down here, mon. we tipped him a little bit too much, mostly out of the sheer excitement of being in a new country, but whaddya gonna do, right?
after we got our room, i (in remembrance of the memphis extravaganza) promptly jumped up and down both beds for a good twenty minutes or so. my bro had no idea what had gotten into me, but soon realized that i was jumping on his bed too, and took action by trying to take me down. it's all good though - i was the victor! (also in the scrabble match we played that night :)
day 2
yes, i must confess. i did hit up the hotel gym first thing in the morning. call me nerdy, call me a freak - i've become attached to the routine of sweatin in up on the treadmill. also, the discovery we made the night before of zee tv and other channels featuring indian music triggered my tv addiction gene and i could be found watching these channels in my room or in the hotel lobby at different points in the day!
after a while i got bored and started trying to wake my brother - to which he responded, "we should have discussed what a vacation meant to each of us before we came here." in my defense, by the time we got up and got out of the hotel it was close to 12:30pm - a bit late, woudn't you say?
it was at this point that i made a bit of a conversion blunder. in speaking with the hotel staff, i asked about how long it would take to get to town and the rates. when the said $10, i was psyched that at last the advantage of conversion was kicking in. the reality check came as we were asking the driver how much it was and he said $10 US. another thing i was floored by (to a greater degree) was his statement that we should only ask questions about our whereabouts to people with similar skin color and hair texture.
we dined at Mangoes Restaurant & Cocktail Lounge (64 Independence Square - Port of Spain) and head north on frederick street through Woodford Square to Queens Savannah Park and walked past the Magnificent Seven. we ended up on the other side of town by hotel kapok - a place we looked into when making hotel reservations.
somewhere along this loooooooooooooong walk, it began to rain pretty hard. and since i'm such a good planner :) it all worked out b/c i brought along an umbrella and a poncho in our sack-ish bag. also somewhere along this walk, we heard someone calling out from a place of residence along the street. i wasn't sure who they were calling out to so i gave a curious look to my brother. he looked back at me and turned to where the sounds were coming from. the voice promptly responded, "not you boy!" in a strong caribbean accent.
it was a long and hot, but interesting walk along the queens park savannah and the magnificent seven. the fact that it was sunday and most everything was closed was a bit of a damper, but that's life i guess. at the hotel kapok we asked about rates because we didn't have accommodation for the third night of our stay in port of spain (POS) yet. since we were trying to budget the third night of our stay in trindad we decided stay at a guest house closer to the airport.
day 3 (in short)
through a hookup, we hired a driver to take us around the island a bit. we visited a couple temples that were pretty amazing given the length of time and circumstances under which indians were brought to TT (as indentured laborers.)
day 4
finally! - on the island for a few days already and we hadn't hit up any of the beaches. we headed to the infamous maracas bay....one of the few beaches that trinidadians are proud of esp. since the beaches there pale in comparison to those in tobago. after a few hours on the beach we went straight to the airport for our 20-minute flight to tobago.
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