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Trinidad and Tobago

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Well, it’s been a year since our last post and a lot has happened since then.  Shelly and I finally decided to settle down and start a family.  On May 28, 2009 Shelly gave birth to our daughter, Gabrielle (Gabi) Kurtz.  Her name, and the implied disposition, could not be more perfect for her.  She loves to talk (at this point just make sounds) and definitely has the gift of gab.  In her brief stint on Earth, she is already a frequent traveler and has visited New York City, Disneyland, and recently the country of Trinidad and Tobago.

On January 21st we flew 11 hours to stay with our friends Bruce and Julia who live on Trinidad.  We toured Trinidad and Tobago for 10 days and had an amazing adventure.The trip was divided into two halves and we spend the first 5 days in Trinidad.  This island is the economic powerhouse of the country and home to 1.5 million people.  The streets are crowded and traffic can me a mess.  We rented a car and I was able to successfully negotiate the hectic streets in a right hand drive car.

The morning of our first full day, Bruce and I went fishing for Wahoo and managed to land a 40 lb and 65 lb fish.  The fight was intense and I needed a few Caribs (the local beer) to replenish my strength after the battle.  That night we cooked an amazing dinner with our catch and I even attempted making ceviche.  It was a little acidic but overall edible and nobody got sick.

OUR CATCH FROM SEA TO TABLE…

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The next day we went to local beaches and had the famed, Bake n’ Shark sandwich at Richard’s fish stand.  It was easily the best thing we ate on our trip and looking back I should have opted for a second sandwich.  Keeping with the epicurean theme, over the next few days I also tried Doubles, which are curried chickpeas on fry bread, and chicken feet souse. The Doubles were very good but I’m probably “one and done” on the souse.

On our sixth day we took a ferry to Tobago and spent three days on the island.  Tobago was the opposite of Trinidad and had the laid back island feel we needed to make this a restful vacation.  Our friends owned a beachside villa, which we rented for our stay, and it was amazing.  We spent most of our time just sitting on the covered porch reading, napping, and playing with Gabi.  It was also the first time on our vacation that Shelly and I were able to spend a few date nights and had good, but very expensive, dinners and the local restaurants.

GABI GIVING THE THUMBS UP ON TOBAGO…

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OUR VILLA AND THE BEACH…

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On our second to last day, we traveled back to Trinidad and went on a jungle hike with two guides named Snake and Mountain Lion.  Snake earned his name serving time in the T&T military.  Mountain Lion earned his name on our hike because Shelly felt he needed a handle if he was going to successfully guide us through the jungle.  Shelly dubbed our day hike a cultural exchange adventure, I thought it was more a slog up a semi-dry river bed.  The place we chose to hike was an old coco and nutmeg plantation so there were nutmeg seeds all through the hike, which made for some interesting foraging.

SNAKE AND MOUNTAIN LION, OUR FEARLESS GUIDES…

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Overall, it was a successful adventure and we managed to avoid the pesky mosquitos.Our trip to Trinidad and Tobago was a fun adventure and a worthwhile travel destination.  The country speaks English and the prices are reasonable unless your talking about food and wine.  A bottle of Yellowtail red, which retails for $5 in the US, is about $20 in Trinidad.

So what’s next on our travel adventures?  We have the obligatory Las Vegas trip in March to watch the NCAA basketball tournament.  This summer we have a trip to Japan planned to revisit my favorite country on our 2008 round the world trip.  And in the works is a trip to Tuscany in 2011 where we will meet up with Bruce and Julia again.  Our plan is to rent a villa and attend a school to sharpen up our Italian cooking skills.  Bye for now…