That next morning I slept in and didn’t head out until about ten. I wanted to take some pictures of some cliffs at the end of the street and a few of the surrounding area. Back by the dock, a guy asked if I wanted to take the tour out to the reef. Every morning at 11am they have a glass bottom boat that leaves out of Buccoo Bay. At first I thought no, concerned on recovering some of the taxi./Euro expenses. Today, the water had cleared and was such a calm day that I figured why not. It was $15 and lasted only two hours. I had no real check out time and had a place to stay lined up so I signed up for the tour. Around 11am a few more people showed up and we ended up having 10 people. The tour was rather uneventful having taken quite a few trips to different reefs in my time. It was good to get out in the water and regretted not having a fishing pole instead of snorkel gear. The guide gave us a run down on the bays flats, the mangrove swamp nesting area, the section of coral sands, the sea grass area, and the different sections of reef. We anchored up over the reef where we got to do a little snorkeling. The tides there were supposed to be heavy so he requested only strong swimmers go. Myself and an English couple were the only ones to go. An Indian lady tried but quickly got pulled in when she couldn’t keep up with the boat. We then went to an area called the Nylon Pool where it was about three feet deep, sparkly clear, and had soft coral sand. There, everyone got into the water for a bit of swimming. The sand was great for its defoliating capabilities. Soon there was the ten of us covered in sand rubbing our bodies down. The ladies even commented on how this was better than any spa that they had been to. The stuff actually worked because my skin was the softest it had ever been. I was silky smooth. After a little over two hours we chugged back in.

Back to my room I met a girl dressed in what looked like a black formal gown sitting in the common area. I was kind of taken a back but figured whatever. That prior day the landlord had me move to the upgraded room that had its own kitchen and bathroom. They apparently had a long term tenant so I had got bumped to a better room for the night. Once I got cleaned up I was planning to grab some lunch. On the way out, she was still there so I asked if she wanted a drink. She asked for a beer so I added that to my order. When I got back we talked for a while and she explained that she was on vacation from Trinidad and that she just liked to look good even when she was lounging around. I figured it was kind of like the backpackers from the big cities who need to have the top of the line brand name everything in order to feel accomplished. We talked some more and I invited her into my room which had a fan. She accepted and came inside and hung out on the bed. We talked and watched some tv. We got a little touchy feely when I brought the subject of the sand scrubs I did earlier. She started hinting about wanting to hook up that night and possible for the following day as there were some clubs she wanted to go to. My schedule was a little different so I played the game. She said she was hungry so I offered to get her a plate of what I had so I took off to the food stand. I came back and she said she wanted to eat it at the table later. So we talked a little more and she kept insisting on hooking up that night. I finally told her that I was moving out that day and going to Scarsborough. She ended up giving me her cell number and telling me that we could hang out that night if I called her once I got settled. I knew at that moment the game was over so we said our goodbys, I gave her the “sure, I’ll call,” and off our separate ways we went.

It was already about 4:00pm so I packed my stuff up and headed out the door. The nice old lady was there so I bid her a good day, she wished me good luck on my travels, and off I went. A older lady pulled over as I was walking down the street and asked if I needed a taxi. I told her yes and jumped in her car. As we were driving, there was a point where she let some cars pass by on a turn rather than forcing through her right of way. Just out of conversation sake I asked her how long she was driving. She sort of took offense and questioned me on how long I thought she had been driving for, and if I thought she was a bad driver or something. I was like whoa lady, easy there. I back tracked a bit and explained that one, she pulled over to me to see if I needed a ride rather than me waving her down, plus she was a considerate driver where she was not overly aggressive like most other taxi drivers. With that explanation she calmed down and went into her feelings about her job, life, her family, and the way people should treat each other. We had a good conversation for the next twenty minutes. She thanked me for the talk and wished me good luck on my journey. A real nice lady whom I will remember.

At the Guest house, I met the owners wife who was questionable about me having a room. Luckily the owner came in and told her that in fact I had come in the day before and put in a reservation. They quabbled over rooms for a while until he told her to fix up some room. She had me sit and watch tv while she went and cleaned/built this “room.” About twenty minutes later she told me it was ready and took me to the room. It was another nasty ass room, one that you would find in any big city for $10 when regular rooms go for hundreds. The first thing I did after dropping off my stuff was to go down to the shopping stalls and pick up some sandals that I could wear so that my feet didn’t touch the carpet on the floor. It was gross and sticky. Yea, that’s right, sticky carpet. The only things in the room was a bed, a fan that buzzed at 10,000 rpm but puffed out baby fart’s worth of breeze, a broken down dresser with missing drawers, two ropes strung across the room to hang stuff, and 8 stick-up air fresheners. With even that many air fresheners, the musk could make you gag. Anyways, that was home. It wasn’t the sex hotel clean, but it would have to do. I got settled, took a walk and stopped by the Doubles booth. Anne had told me to have a Double when I got to Trinidad. She gave them eyes rolling back yummmm look. I saw a older Indian lady selling them so I asked her for a couple. I had no clue what they were, but with Anne’s expression I figured they were some modified banana split. What they are in my layman’s description are a fluffy corn tortilla, sort of between a pancake and a tortilla, with a dollop of a corn/hominy stew, a spoonful of a spicy pepper sauce, and a spoonful of another cream sauce, covered with another tortilla. They are built on a piece of wax paper which is then halved over and the two sides pinched and the whole thing spun making kind of a tamale. Well, they were good. Not sweets good, but what a great flavor and texture good. I sucked them both down quickly. At street cost they were $.33 each.

After dinner, I headed back to the room to relax and catch up on blog duties. I planned on getting as much done as possible the following day. That night I stayed up late transferring my handwritten notes to the laptop. Since it was going to be a big day, I ended up burning a cd with the written stuff, as well as all my pictures. One other thing I did that day was play hunt the mosquitos. There were about a half dozen of them that kept munching on my legs so I ended up laying down cut pieces of white plastic bag on the floor and then pulling the light colored bed sheets to the floor to cover the dark red sticky floor. I would then wait for the mosquito to fly by where I could now see them and then smack them down with my little shower towel. It was actually kind of fun and brought back memories of hunting. I doubt that there will be many PETA members angered over that part of my experience.

That night it was a little tougher to sleep because it had rained all day and now it was humid hot, but after a while with the fan on high, the sweat evaporated and I cooled down enough to fall asleep.