Trinidad and Tobago

To be honest, I've only been to Trinidad. I had a job doing Unix security for TSTT, Telecommunications Services of Trinidad & Tobago, the T&T telecomm company. And due to another work commitment, I couldn't stay on very long after the job was done. So no Tobago, and only very little Trinidad — just Port of Spain and the surroundings. I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere if you need Tobagan information...

To the right is a map of Trinidad and Tobago. Below is a map showing where Trinidad and Tobago lie just off the Venezuelan coast at the south-east corner of the Caribbean.

Now for my pictures. The images are thumbnails, click on them if you want more detail.

View from a top-floor restaurant in a hotel — Trinidad is tropical and parts are mountainous.

Killarny, a colonial mansion along Maraval Road beside the Queen's Park Savannah, one of the "Magnificant Seven". Of this one an architectural critic said, "A German built a bit of an untypical Scottish castle in Trinidad and called it by an Irish name. He must have been by that time a Trinidadian, because only Trinidadians do these things."

Whitehall, a colonial mansion along Maraval Road beside the Queen's Park Savannah, one of the "Magnificant Seven". Prime Minister's office. I saw his motorcade leave work one afternoon, he waved to everyone along the street. Very much the friendly Trini attitude!

Whitehall, a colonial mansion along Maraval Road beside the Queen's Park Savannah, one of the "Magnificant Seven".

Coconuts! Get your coconuts! On Maraval Road beside the Queen's Park Savannah.

Queen's Royal College, a colonial mansion along Maraval Road beside the Queen's Park Savannah, one of the "Magnificant Seven". The authors V.S. Naipul and Shiva Naipul graduated from here.

A little pub along lower Maraval Road that always seemed a bit like it belonged at the Mos Eisley spaceport. But extremely friendly.

The ride to work, photographed through the taxi windshield. Leaving Port of Spain to the west.

The ride to work, photographed through the taxi windshield. Coming into the village of Carenage.

The ride to work, photographed through the taxi windshield. Caranage.

The ride to work, photographed through the taxi windshield. Caranage and the Gulf of Paria.

The ride to work, photographed through the taxi windshield. The Gulf of Paria and the ferry to Venezuela, and arrival at Chaguaramas Town.

At the work site.

At the work site.

The maxi-taxis I took back from work in the evenings, and to get everywhere else. Shared vans running fixed routes, about like Turkish dolmuşlar.

Inside the maxi-taxi

Pearl's Guesthouse, a great place to stay. Just US$ 15 outside Carnival seaon. 3-4 Victoria Square East, +1-868-625-2158.

And, of course, also see the Toilets of the World page, where its plumbing appears.

Bake and Shark breakfast, at The Breakfast Shed.

The Red House, home of the Trinidadian Parliament.
Trinidadian and Tobogan.
Trinboganian.
Trintobagan.
Trini.
Whatever.

In front, beyond the tropical snarl of cable, is an eternal flame and monument to the government workers, policemen, and security forces killed in the 1990 coup. Yes, coup.

On 27 July 1990 the Islamic fundamentalist group Jamaat-al-Musilmeen stormed Red House, took hostages including the Prime Minister, and announced on television that they had overthrown the national government. Looting, state of emergency, siege of Red House, etc., and six days later it was over.

Win bar bets by asking non-Trinidadians if there was ever an Islamic fundamentalist coup in the western hemisphere, and if so, where.

Street scenes and markets, downtown Port of Spain

Music vendor, in the red-black-and-white shirt. There are vendors at least every block with these mobile music stands selling bootleg CDs, with stereos powered by car batteries.

There is kaiso, which is the Old-Skool traditionalists' word for what pretenders like Harry Belafonte call "calypso". And soca, sort of modern dance-kaiso. And reggae. And lots of steel pan. Pan is not one steel drum as a novelty addition to a band, it's an entire band made up of steel pan drums. Large range of sizes. And larger pan bands include "the engine room", manned by players with a sense of rhythm if not tune, beating out the percussion on all sorts of scrap metal and car parts. Above is a place you can learn to play the pan.

Street notices about music

Mas camp is a place that the mas bands prepare for Carnival. "Mas" being short for "masquerade". Loads of music, costume preparation, etc.

Typical menu. Tropical, creole, Indian, all mixed.

One of the more preposterously named businesses — Alaska Restaurant & Bar. Roti is a sort of Indian-creole-tropical food. As if burritos had been invented in India.

Cow heel soup is popular

Pet supplies and a social club, one-stop shopping

Hanging out at a pub downtown for a casual lime. "Lime" can be used as a noun or verb, to refer to a party, happy hour, relaxing with friends, the end of the day, whatever.

Many pubs enclose the bar in iron grillwork, and with the crossing grill like this one shown above, you have to tip your bottle at about a 45-degree angle to get it out from behind the bars.

A casual lime with the regulars at the Universal Bar, in western Port of Spain. Just vertical bars, so you can reach through and lift the bottle out in the vertical position.

Casual liming next door at the 52 Bar.

And, of course, also see the Toilets of the World page, where its plumbing appears.

It's about Puerto Rico, but The Rum Diary, by Hunter S Thompson, might give you some idea of island life. It's great writing, whether you're headed to the tropics or not.

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© Bob Cromwell Oct 2008. Created with /bin/vi and ImageMagick, hosted on OpenBSD with Apache.    Root password available here