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Alrighty then - Where was I....
One week had gone by and we
still didn't have our supplies so we were basically just sitting on our
thumbs for 6 days, pulling staples from documents, fixing folded
corners, pretty much just wasting time since we would have to re-prep
all the documents once the patchcodes arrived. The first week actually
wasn't too bad since we could take an hour or more for lunch, walk
around down town and try some of the local eateries. I found an arabic
place that had the best Gyros I've ever eaten - spicy, meaty and
delicious. All the local places seemed to serve up lunch buffet style,
with pans of different things laid out for you to choose from. Sadly,
after the first week our outings to the tastier places were greatly
curtailed. Instead, having only a half hour to eat we were reduced to
eating across the street at Elaines Cuisine or around the corner at KFC
or Subways. There was almost always a long wait at KFC and Subway
though so just getting lunch often consumed your whole half hour.
Elaines was digestible, but I wouldn't call it good. It consisted of a
couple old ladies serving up a daily menu which they printed a week in
advance. If you went in early you could place your lunch order and they
would have it waiting for you. That was nice, but the food was often
cold. YUMSK!
So, my first official day off I had decided to go
to the zoo and botanical gardens since they were right next door to the
hotel. An easy walk that I felt safe doing alone, despite the
admonitions of Peggy that we do EVERYTHING as a group. I was my own
group - me, myself and I. I was up early and ate a nice breakfast in
the Tiki Lounge (more on that place later) and headed out to be at the
zoo when they opened at 9:30. I was out the door, heading down the
block when I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses in my room. As luck
would have it, as I was leaving for the second time I ran into Peggy
and Kevin in the lobby. They were waiting on Olivia (who I think I
mentioned earlier) to go down to the Port Authority and get a ferry
schedule etc. Exciting stuff let me tell ya, but first they were going
to walk down the block to a little shopping center to get something for
Kevins sore tooth. I waited for Olivia and gave her the option of going
to the zoo with me, or putzing around with Peggy all day. Olivia chose
the zoo. We left word with the concierge to tell Peggy (the old blond
woman) where we had gone.
The zoo was pretty pathetic. I think
my photos tell the story of how confined the animals were. There were
lots of birds who seemed to be relatively well housed although you
could tell the scarlet Ibis were not getting enough shrimp in their
diet. Their color was washed out and faded. The primates fared much
worse. Small, concrete floored cages with nothing to entertain them.
The snakes were nice with several anacondas and other native snakes and
the south american mammals were interesting to look at. It took about
90 minutes to 2 hours to casually see the entire zoo. After that Olivia
and I headed to the botanical gardens with a huge array of trees and
plants as well as a cemetery holding the former governors of the island.
We were met about 20 minutes into our walk by a little man named
"David" who said he worked at the park and commenced to show us each
tree, plant and flower that grew there, telling us a little about it
and letting us smell the various herbs, grasses and tree leaves. He was
a little sketchy looking but we made sure to keep in sight of other
people in case he was looking for an easy american mark. Well, he was as
it turns out but he just wanted $100 for his time of showing us around
the gardens. He was actually quite knowledgeable and made the gardens
more memorable for us.
After that we were pretty tired, having
walked in the heat for about 5 hours and were ready to go back to the
hotel for a cool drink and a shower. Olivia and I both has messages
though telling us that Peggy wanted to know where we went and why
Olivia went off without her, blah blah blah. She was like that the
entire time we were in Trinidad. She expected Olivia to be here little
girl Friday, following her around, hanging on her every word, when in
fact Olivia essentially became one of the guys and hung out with us
most everywhere we went on our sundays off.
Tune in next time when the supplies arrive and we go to the beach....
11:24 AM
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