EATING OUR WAY AROUND TRINIDAD

We had heard that Jesse James of MEMBERS ONLY MAXI TAXI service was the man to see for a tour so signed up for his Taste of Trinidad tour.

Well we certainly saw some interesting parts of Trinidad and had a chance to taste what the locals eat. Not at 'fancy' restaurants like KFC [ believe it or not the local meal of choice for many! ] but roadside shacks and vendors working out of their houses.

This is us trying pigtail very tasty!

Many of the place names were Spanish, there is a big Hindu Indian population and a vociferous Moslem minority.

I think the final food tally was in the high 20s for number of different dishes we got to sample, everything from just picked watermelon to souse to fresh cocoa from the pod to chicken feet and yes I tried everything except I passed up on the chicken feet.

I was surprised how clean nearly all areas of Trinidad were with much less roadside litter than I have seen in other islands but we stopped at viewpoint to check out the river mouth and we had further evidence of the Colonels popularity.

We got a chance to swim in the Atlantic as we made it to the east coast where the water is clean, clear and surf was up. The Atlantic coast has an area of brackish mangrove behind it and a specialized eco system.

At a roadside shelter in the middle of nowhere we came across these. They are called Black conch and come from the mangroves but looked like a giant version of the winkles I would collect and eat on the west coast of Scotland in my youth.

Jesse regaled us with stories of Trini life and as he is a keen birder he spotted some interesting birds including this pair of toucans, the first I have seen in the wild.

We got back to Chagouramus late, tired, full up but with memories of a fascinating trip around around part of Trini.

As the forecast was favourable we cleared out on Saturday and left for Grenada in the evening. It is an 80 mile sail from Chagouramus up to Clarks Court Bay in Grenada. I had timed it to arrive in Grenada at 10am but the weather and Elephants Child running on a clean bottom conspired to set my plans agly. We were flying at 8 to 9 knots with the odd 10, even after I rolled the genoa away we were still hitting 8s. So we had to heave to of the south coast for 40 minutes and waited for the sun rise. I will not enter a reef strewn anchorage at night. There are too many stories of wrecked boats and some deaths associated with those who chance it.

We dropped anchor just after 6 am and went to bed.

It is good to be back in Grenada friendly officials greeted us at customs, the water is clean and litter free, there was no loud music, noisy 24hr generators and no oil rigs to spoil the view.