Not your traditional Thanksgiving! No turkey for us, but what turns out to be a really fun 1/2 day touring the island with our own guide. We were originally scheduled to arrive at 8am, but they changed that to 10a a while ago, so we’ve had to trim down our tour schedule, which didn’t please us, obviously. And we are getting even more irritated as we sail into the harbor – we are here around 9, making us hopeful we will be early, but they dock so slowly, it was painful. It took over 45 minutes to come alongside – and it’s a big, commercial cruise terminal dock! It’s not like some little backwater place! Then, once we are docked, and we watched the “port officials” come aboard, it takes forever to let us off the ship. We have rescheduled our tour to start at 10:30, and with these delays, we’re fearful we’ll even be able to make that (this is reminding us of Adelaide!).
Finally we are allowed off, and we rush off to the Hyatt Regency, fortunately right next to the cruise terminal, to meet our guide. We weren’t 100% sure if this was a private tour or we’d have others with us, but when we arrive, it is just us and Jenelle, our wonderful guide for the day. We set off immediately, driving out of Port of Spain and heading toward Chaguanas to tour a local market.
On the way Jenelle talks about Trinidad, explaining about immigration and how many Venezuelans are coming across – some legally,some illegally – and how the government is favorable to this and helping what I’ll call “refugees” get established and get jobs. As we drive through Caroni, where the sugar and rice used to be grown, she explains that Trinidad is the 3rd richest country this side of the Caribbean due to the oil and the gas, and how the working population turned from agriculture to oil and gas work because it paid so much more. Tourism, which is growing and could be a huge industry, is never advertised (which is so different from most other islands, heck, most other cities around the world…..yes….I’m referring to Asheville as I write this!).
Entering the town of Chaguanas, Jenelle expertly navigates through car and people choked streets, going around slower drivers, letting others turn in and out in front of us. Its an exercise in patience and skill, of which she has an abundance. The sidewalks are lined with retail stores selling everything under the sun, and there are people everywhere – it is crazy busy. I ask Jenelle if it is always this busy, and she says this isn’t busy, Saturday is busy! Oh my gosh!
We pass the market, then circle the block to wait in line for the parking lot. We are fortunate in that there are spaces available, otherwise we would have had to wait in the street until someone leaves. Probably due to the time of day, it’s a little late for most shoppers here in the market. This place is huge, too. There are maybe 100 or more vendors with everything from farm fresh fruit to vegetables to fresh caught fish, and these great “hairy” crabs! As a matter of fact, that’s the first stall we come to – the hairy crab stall, where they have these things bundled up in bunches, tied together with stalks of thick grass. They’re amazing! And the ladies of the stall are so sweet, they show us how to take the hair off the crab, then cut the legs off and crack open the shell. They’re just like blue crabs, only in miniature – and with all that hair!
We progress from the crab into the main seafood hall where there are baby sharks and tons of other yummy looking fish, then head through rows and rows of produce, with Jenelle giving us a commentary on everything, what it is and for what recipes it is used. We walk by sorrels, which look like a purple star fruit or something. These are only seen around the holidays and are used to make a special spiced drink for the season. Then there are breadfruit looking fruits, huge pumpkins and squash, tons of yummy cabbages, peppers , potatoes, cassava -well – you get the point. If you need any produce, this is the place. It makes us crazy that we can’t just start shopping and then go somewhere to cook everything. There is an upstairs level (which is good for photos of the market below) which houses clothing and other supplies, including this great little stall that is one-stop shopping: Instant passport photos, gifts, commissioner of affidavits, Lasko fans, brooms and mops. What more could you want?
Circling back downstairs, we pass through the fruit section with all sorts of citrus and odd rose apple type products.. One of the vendors sweetly hands us one of his Pegs, a little tangerine type fruit, for us to try. It’s excellent, just like the ones we have in Chiang Mai, actually. Then we move back to the sweet section, where they are selling Jalebi! Yes, my favorite Indian snack – Jalebi! Along with some other delicious looking snacks called Kurma. After taste testing the Kurma, it’s like fried pastry dough doused in brown sugar glaze (oh yum), we can’t resist it and buy a 5TT bag (less than $1 US) of the Kurma, and then a Jalebi for $1 US. The girl also throws in a piece of what they call fudge as a gift. So sweet.
Next stop: the Hindu temples of Trinidad.
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