A wedding in Trinidad

 

What do I feel about my Trinidad wedding experience?

On the first day we had an organised tour to the north coast of the island – had Bake and Shark which was fresh and tasty and then drove on to a little fishing village near Blanchisseuse – a beautiful beach at the end of a river combining ocean waves and fresh water swimming.

We went for a walk to a waterfall. What it turned out to be was a walk, wade, swim as we swam/ scrambled up the three last pools to get to the waterfall.  At the end, four of the brave jumped off a giant rock face into the pool.

The bride was busy preparing, but the Trinidadian men were impressive. These were young guys who have mostly left to find work abroad, but have a knowledge and empathy with their home environment they were keen to share.  I was so impressed when the moment we left the coach they took their shoes off and did it all barefoot.

What did I like about the wedding over and above a lovely couple committing to each other? Steel pan drums.  I didn’t know they originated in Trinidad.  People were very welcoming to the London team.  I found Soca music a bit repetitive – an age thing?

What else did I learn? Taxi driver 2 who drove me with some effort on his part to a hair salon without signage for my ‘up do’ and pointed out ‘no go’ roads where bad people were.  He also said he wasn’t marrying a Trinidadian woman second time around.  He wanted an English one.  A Jamaican female colleague told me this is because Caribbean women don’t take any nonsense,

A guest at the wedding and taxi driver 3 (trumpet playing ex policeman) who took us back to the airport said that there were gangs – Muslims and Rastafarians involved in drugs that were killing each other. He also told us that Trinidad has no public transport system.  There are a lot of cars on the roads and a lot of drink driving.

The day after the wedding we had a boat trip to the islands. One thing that would frustrate you long term about Trinidadians is their terrible time keeping.  We only sailed 30 minutes each way before stopping on this amazing yacht with a jacuzzi because the last couple arrived at 2.30pm after a 10.45am agreed start!

We got little boxed cakes and cacti to take home with us from the wedding and mine imploded in my suitcase on the way to Orlando.