LSCC Caribbean tour: Day 12 – in the Carina

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Steve Keenan

Breakfast at the Port of Spain Hilton is a sumptuous affair, with what’s on offer varying slightly each day. Today we had Trini black pudding, served with red and green peppers as well. Bury’s position as BP capital of the world may be under threat.

Talking about such mundane affairs shows that not much happened on the second Sunday, after a planned extravaganza fell through for various reasons. For some, so too did a trip to the Carina swamp bird sanctuary after they, quite rightly, refused to pay the outrageous tariff charged by the guys who run the hotel taxis. Some taxis proved to be more reasonable, but for the last four going to Carina, the day was saved by quick thinking by Reg who truly lived up to his title of King of the Cabs with an alternative arrangement. (I don’t think I’d have been allowed to say that had Robin not gone home.)

The main attraction at Carina is the plumage of the Scarlet Ibis, and indeed it is spectacular. However I think I’m in a minority in suggesting that if the bird had been just plain white, it would have been a lot of effort just to see another flock of sea birds, and there was more of a ‘wow’ factor in the basking tree snakes and the four-eyed fish (two above water, two below).

With a further reduced party, just nine of us made it to the downtown nightlife. With an early start planned, even earlier for those with a tarring job to do first (more tomorrow!), DT decided against too early a night and selected one of the All Out bar’s more exotic offerings as a nightcap – joined in this endeavour by Psycho. Due to a misunderstanding of barman Richard’s accent, we thought it was a salted prawn in a glass of tequila. “You drink the liquor, chew the prawn and the spit out the shell” said Richard. Well it didn’t look like a prawn but Where’s John thought he saw it move, and maybe it was still alive – obviously impossible, but we did look just in case! What was left clearly looked more vegetable than animal, and an examination of the drinks menu showed that what they’d eaten was in fact salted prune. Maybe you just had to be there, but Richard saw the funny side as well.