A Caribbean Escape

If there’s one thing I’ve learned on Semester at Sea, its how bad I am at procrastinating. We were in Trinidad and Tobago on Thanksgiving, and here we are in mid-December, I’m just giving you the dets. It may have been a little while ago, but I figure better late than never, so hold onto your seats, we’re in for a wild ride! (Also, I just finished my last final (yay!), so expect a few posts over the next few days!)

We arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Thanksgiving, which was pretty weird. We had a Thanksgiving meal the night before, so that made the fact that we were in the Caribbean on Thanksgiving feel a little more normal. I had a field program that day with Habitat for Humanity which felt pretty fitting for it being a holiday of thanks for us. There were 2 groups, one built a septic tank, and mine painted a house… I can’t complain. Either would have been super rewarding, but not having to be digging holes in the mud and direct sunlight for the whole day was pretty nice. We learned a little about the family whose house it was: a mother with five children who had been struggling for a while, and to know that all of our work, even thought it might have been a small contribution, would eventually create something that would be so appreciated felt pretty dang good. If you ever come on SAS or just have the opportunity to travel, I would definitely try and do some non profit work while your abroad. It was probably one of the most rewarding things I did this semester and I wish I had done some other ones along the way!

Later that night, the tourism department of Trinidad put on a carnival for us and some of their university students. We went to a steel drum yard and watched an amazing drum performance by one of the countries top teams, ate local food and danced for hours. I have such a new appreciation for the steel pan, it makes some pretty amazing music, some you wouldn’t expect too! The food was also great, I didn’t try the shark because I couldn’t get past the shark part, but I heard it tasted like chicken, so I guess that gives you some insite… It was an amazing night and something that I’m not sure I would have had the chance to experience anywhere else!

The next day was kind of a chill out day. We went to one of the areas we had passed the night before on the way to the carnival and had some pizza and went and looked at some shops. We found a little pharmacy with snacks that had advent calendars, so naturally I bought one. We started them the day we got them even though it was in November, but it worked out that there was only 24 days left from that point, so we’ve just been counting down to the day we get back to San Diego (only 3 days left!!). In the spirit of keeping up the streak, it rained on our last day in Trinidad, so we headed back a little early and just used the wifi in the port to call our families!

Overall, I’m not sure about the Caribbean. The people were so kind and the whole island was very laid back, but I think we didn’t have enough time there to really do much or immerse ourselves in the culture. Would I go back? Probably, I mean it is the Caribbean, but there’s just so much in this world to see I’m not sure if I’ll be there again in the near future.

Thats all for Trinidad and Tobago, get ready for Costa Rica, it was a pretty action packed port, coming soon (I promise this time for real!)!