It's actually "the Republic of Trindad and Tobago," but that's too long to keep typing.
Also that day, we detoured slightly to have an ill passenger airlifted from the ship (pretty exciting) and arrived later than our scheduled time. Some shore excursions had to be postponed until the next day, including my visit to the Asa Wright Nature Center, which is on the site of an old plantation, almost at the top of a mountain directly inland from Port of Spain.
The city (and Trinidad in general) is not very tourist-y, since they struck oil about 30 years after gaining independence from the UK (in 1962) and have relied on that as a source of money rather than tourists. While we didn't feel downright afraid anywhere we went (walking around a bit on on the 1st), the city feels somewhat grubby. Lots of properties not well maintained, lots of low-quality housing. As Bibb put it, many small groups of young men who look as if they are auditioning for the part of "thug #3" in some film. People we met were all nice, though.
Today's trip to the Wright Center was about 1 1/2 hour drive in a van. Our driver and tour guide, Marlin, pointed out sights and gave a little history along the way. On the tiny, winding road up the mountain he frequently stopped in the road to let people take pictures or see the plant or animal he was pointing to. Once he jumped out and plucked some leaves for us to smell -- turned out to be fresh bay. We saw the Blue Emperor (I think) butterfly, a flat gorgeous electric blue HUGE butterfly, many smaller yellow and white bflies, and, on the Center grounds, mango, cashew, tamarind, powder-puff and palm trees. Frangi-pani, lipstick plants, bougainvillia (spelling?), trumpet flowers, bird of paradise, and many many flowers I don't recall names of. And the birds!!
The Center is famous as a birding center and research site, and it was amazing. I'm not a serious birder, I just like to look at them, but even I could tell this was something special. We saw hummingbirds in several different brilliant shades, lots of finch-sized fellows, several large yellowtails. Heard some toucans but I didn't see any. Another "jungle" walk on a well-defined but steep and muddy trail. Some of our elder campers turned back and opted to stroll along the paved road.
While I went to the Wright Center Bibb did the "Trindian experience," which focused on the island's East Indian heritage. There is a substantial Indian population b/c after slavery was abolished in Trinidad but it was still controlled by the British, Indians were brought over as indentured servants and given land on Trinidad at the end of their five-year terms. (Or they could go back to India, but many chose to stay.) There are still a significant number of Hindus on the island -- we saw homes with little temples in the yard and/or flags whose colors honored particular gods.
We pulled out at about 5pm and are on our way to Dominica (doh mi NEE kuh). From now on each stop is only one day, and we have an outing scheduled at each stop. Dominica, St. Kitts, St. Croix, the Dominican Republic, and then a day's sail "home" to Florida.
