A few shots of Trinidad

kgd

kgd

Joined
Feb 28, 2007
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I was in Trindad last week on work and am now suffering in St. Lucia :) Anyhow, I'm having a bit of rest in my hotel today having took a bit of a sunburn on my arms yesterday and decided to post up a few pictures. We were staying at the Crews Inn which is a yacht club in Chaguaramas. The city is a bit on the rough side and we were shuttled back and forth to different destinations to avoid some of the not so friendly places. On one day we went out to a bird sanctuary and took a tour boat to see the mangrove swamps. Most of the pictures are from the mangrove where there were numerous scarlet Ibis' nesting. The scarlet ibis is the national bird of Trinidad and this is its only nesting place.

The Hotel:

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A few pictures of the town from the car

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The bird sanctuary

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climbing crabs

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Some kind of boa in the tree

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Some shots of the scarlet ibis - sorry I didn't have my zoom lens with me

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A landscape shot of one of the mudflats during a calm in the rain

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Oh I almost forgot - my disposible EDC. I have too many Island hops on this trip and need to keep my luggage carry-on. So this was my solution. Found this tactical baby at the mini-market for $2.00 US. Fine quality China stainless and plastic handle. Beats the heck out of trying to use plastic cutlery! Probably won't baton that well but oh well - at least I'm packing steel!

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Excellent pictures ,Thank you for sharing....On a side note in the pic with the people gather outside the Hotel is that bear grylis ,looking away from the picture... LOL
 
My first question is, what do you do and are they hiring at your company?:eek:

I got to spend 3 days in the middle of no where Sweden of nothing but meetings and presentations at my company.

Those are some great pics you got there:thumbup:

Thanks for sharing.
 
mneedham said:
KGD, Spot any machetes?
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Actually the gardener at our hotel was hacking away at a palm this morning with a Tramontina. However, I haven't seen anything for sale in a market area yet. Just lots of souvenir-ish type of stuff.

Yesterday our collegue here on St. Lucia was nice enough to take us on a driving tour of the St. Lucia. Beautiful island - I think I can see myself coming here with the wife and family for a vacation. Very much more friendly, small population of 160,000. Not much crime, very safe place overall, reasonable cheap food and very cheap hotels ($130 US/night). Trinidad had this local paper where they had a death count thermometer. They were up to 239 this year - not really much more then you would get in Detroit (comparable size) but there definately is a bit of undercurrent happening there in the more destitute areas.

St. Lucia has an active volcano and we toured the vents. Anyhow, I will try to post up those pictures next week. My next stop is Kingston, Jamaica between Wed-Fri. We have arranged a fishing vessel and will be sampling some fish - yippee!


tonym said:
My first question is, what do you do and are they hiring at your company?:eek:

I got to spend 3 days in the middle of no where Sweden of nothing but meetings and presentations at my company.
Click to expand...

I'm a University prof and study contaminants in aquatic and coastal systems. I have an adjunct status with United Nations University which is part of the reason for this trip. Last week we were engaged in a workshop trying to get a fish contaminant monitoring program off the ground in the Caribbean. The trip to the mangrove was arranged by the Institute of Marine Affairs who co-hosted the workshop and gave us a nice little field trip to break up the meeting a little. I'm part of 3-person team now visiting labs in each of the participating countries to see if they have analytical capacity to measure the legacy pollutants and to try and standardize protocols. We will be evaluating the mainland labs (Honduras, Belize, Mexico) in Aug. I was really impressed by the University of West Indies in Trinidad though - very top notch researchers there with credentials as good as anywhere in NA and Europe! I'm working my way into getting a real project off the ground in the Gulf of Honduras. I really need to start taking Spanish lessons!

Anyhow, I think Sweden would be a great place to visit, although as I understand it - it can be quite expensive. I'm sure you will have other meetings in interesting places. I really enjoyed Germany when I was there in Feb.

Glad you guys are enjoying the pics, and I'll keep you updated with other trip picks..

Ken
 
Nice pictures, looks like a beautiful country- especially the wilds. The stark contrast between the tourist destinations (the hotel and the marina) and the urban residential area- are sort of shocking...we all know they exist, but seeing the pictures side by sid like that sort of hits me harder.
 
Yes the contrast of people making $5000 a year and others making $500,000 per year and living next to one another is striking. Lots of security guards and barbed wire act as the buffer. Its not nearly as bad here as what I've seen in other areas though. Haiti is not on my list...
 
Damn I wish I studied books in school more than the girls. That is a great profession you have there. You get to see some beautiful places and make difference at the same time.
I hope the younger guys on the forum are paying attention.

All in all Sweden was beautiful. I just wish I had more time to my self to enjoy its beauty. Yes it was expensive there. Purchasing things in small towns were the same as purchasing items in Upper East side of Manhattan.
 
Great pictures, kgd.
Actually the gardener at our hotel was hacking away at a palm this morning with a Tramontina. However, I haven't seen anything for sale in a market area yet. Just lots of souvenir-ish type of stuff.
Click to expand...

Don't be too quick to write off the touristy stuff. A friend brought me back 2 machetes from Jamaica all done up in wooden caricature sheaths - the machetes were Martindales!

Doc
 
Doc - I'll be keeping my eye out when I'm in Kingston in two days
 
Gorgeous shots, kgd! Being nearly perpetually sun-deprived up here in the Pacific Northwest, tropical scenes can pretty much cause my mouth to water! I'll take my girly-drink with the umbrella down by the pool, thank you very much!

-- FLIX
 
Hey kgd, these are the ones I'm talking about.
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They need a little maintenance - they were stored under an entertainment centre. Also the forehead was broken off one of them, but I think it makes it look better, so I am going to do that to the other.

I'm sitting here with a bad back - screwed it up yesterday, went to the chiropractor tonight and am licking my wounds thinking how much I would like to be in that party scene. :(

Doc
 
really nice shots kgd! thx for sharing ;)

maybe you can get some custom blades from the locals while your there, ask the cab drivers, they know everything, and don't forget to haggle!
 
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