TUESDAY 1st FEBRUARY

7.30 alarm – 9am start for an 80km ride to Trinidad a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site so no doubt it will be very busy. Our journey took about 90 minutes travelling inland for a while passing a huge area of pink blossomed mango trees. In the distance we followed a mountain range with more turkey vultures filling the sky. The road Enrique took eventually brought us down to the Caribbean sea where again the surface was covered with white tops. Small holiday complexes had been built in the nicest coves with more building taking place but Humberto said it was too early in the season and the water was far too cold for local people to go swimming so we saw very few holidaymakers.

As usual Mary Jane gave a run down on the loos stating the best was in one of the houses where the lady would be sitting outside ‘with a saucer’ we replied before she could finish. “No, with a bucket!” Finally we reached the cobbled streets of Trinidad set in a hillside and once again traffic was not allowed in the centre so when Enrique had found a suitable stopping place we quickly left the coach. We were a short distance from a ‘Ration Shop’ and called in to take a look and also take photos. A couple of people were collecting some of their allowance, namely rice and fresh bread but again the shelves were very sparse, the staff doing their best to display certain tinned food.( Humberto had shown us his family’s old ration book with a list of items available to them throughout the year. He said each year the list gets shorter and this year rum and tobacco have been removed.)

We paid a visit to a lovely house that was once the home of a wealthy Sugar Cane Plantation owner, and was also the loo stop. (The lady had a bucket because there was no running water!) The ceilings were very high and very ornately decorated. In one room the boarder around the ceiling had a portrait of a man with very unruly curly hair cascading from what looked like an upturned gold goblet. Signs that the family had been Catholic were seen in a bedroom where on a cabinet beside an iron bed a religious statue stood with a rosary hanging from its arms. There was also a private Prayer Table with a statue of Christ on the crucifix along with a well padded kneeler. Keith had disappeared to climb the tower adjoining the house and had not returned when it was time to move so Mary Jane said she would wait for him and give him a good smack. “Please don’t do that as he might get to like it!”

As we walked up the steep cobble streets we were again pestered by the women to buy their necklaces now being offered at 4 for 1 peso when we refused to buy. Some of the group went to visit the large Church, which was open at a time suitable to the priest so one never quite knew when it would be open, and the rest of us followed Mary Jane to the ‘Troubardor’ bar passing several other bars en route some blasting out loud jazz music. The ‘Troubador’ as well as showing its patrons how the Salsa should be danced also produced a cocktail made of rum, lemon and honey and was, according to Mary Jane, good for a cold. Funny how many people suddenly decided they were showing signs of an oncoming cold! I stuck to a mojito, the drinks being delivered by a lovely young lady with large flowers in her hair. Keith said he hadn’t noticed the flowers as he hadn’t got past her fishnet tights! Whilst we had our drinks we were entertained with dancing to the music of a combo stood by a wooden wall plaque in the shape of a very large guitar, the male dancer wearing as much mascara as his female partner. However they were very good and soon had us joining in. Once again Ellen was been threatened with UTUBE. Mary Jane asked Keith to dance and he got off lightly as I didn’t know where the start button was on his camera.

Back on the streets Mary Jane and Humberto lead us to the Plaza Mayor Restaurant for lunch. Once again I observed all the female staff were wearing decorative black tights and I made our waitress laugh when I complimented her and the staff on them.

We were now left to wander on our own but had to back in the Plaza Mayor for 2.30pm. We escaped from the centre and ceased to be pestered and I took some lovely pictures of life in the old place.

4pm and 31C we were back at the ‘Hotel Jagua’ where down by the pool would be nice but most of the beds in the sun were already occupied so we took our balcony chairs out the back to sit in the sun. The wind was still blowing and every now and again I got up to retrieve Bob’s underwear that had blown off the chair which he was using as a drier.

6.30 cocktails and happy hour in ‘The Castle’ where Carmen was playing but as soon as the cameras came out she stopped playing and proceeded to try and sell her CD – I don’t think there were any takers. The sun had now set but there was a deep crimson glow along the horizon and the wind at last had disappeared making it a very pleasant evening. I managed to take a photo of the ‘three amigos’ before we returned to our hotel for dinner. Mary Jane had organised a long table for us as a sort of farewell dinner and the chef had some wonderful huge fish that he expertly filleted for us. No idea what the fish was but the meat was a very heavy texture and it tasted good which was the main thing.

There was no entertainment in the bar tonight even though I had earlier seen 3 of the guitarists in costume and assumed they would be playing once again. In one of the large rooms a local 15 year old girl was having her special coming of age party. This is an important time in her life and the parents are expected to give her the party of a lifetime, better than her wedding day, and so we watched the young guests arrive as we chatted to Tony and Angela.