We had arranged for our Yoga Champion’s friend to pick us up at the marina at 0900. Inevitably at 0830 we were asked to swap places with another boat, imminently leaving. By 0930 it had transpired that they were waiting to load water which wasn’t available at the time and there wasn’t enough depth at the proposed berth for us. However, as another berth was available, we moved to that one and then set off nearly an hour later than anticipated  for Trinidad.
We all squeezed into a relatively new chevrolet 8 seater and set off, driving past some landmarks we’d seen from the sail up, towards Trinidad, mangro  and sugar plantations but quite a lot of uncultivated land looking quite cultivable .  Also lots of pony and traps and manual labour using primitive tools to cut grass - sort of bent machete type things. We went first to some waterfalls along a few miles of rough track to a park entrance and paid our 10 dollars for entrance. We thought we may stop for a coffee but there was no power so we had a mango juice instead. Walking the few Kilometres up the path to the waterfall was pleasant and we spotted an adder like snake in the midst of trying to get himself around a biggish frog. The destination was great but when we  arrived, there were loads of people at the pool and waterfall but by the time we’d had a look around and got changed into swimmers etc were were almost by ourselves. We had a lovely swim in the pool which had big cave like overhangs to swim into with water dripping from the roof. We swam enjoying the water on account of lack of showering facilities for some time and dried in the sun before heading back down the hill. It was a lovely day, good temperature and dappled sunlight coming through the trees. There were also lots of yellow butterflies, butterflying around sometimes in small squadrons which was quite special.
From here we went to Trinidad, a Unesco world heritage sight on account of its cobbled streets, 500 year old colonial architecture  and pastel coloured houses. It’s on a hill, we did some touristy things after a lovely lunch pottering about, it’s a real shame there are too many businesses for the number of tourists around. We had sundowner on a rooftop bar with church belfry in the foreground looking a little like a mexican one from a Spaghetti western. Sue had had her eyes on a Tee shirt which went beautifully with her new necklace but none of her credit cards worked and they wouldn’t take dollars. On the way back to the car at the end of the evening we tried again with my credit card but the electricity was off but we were allowed to pay cash now because of the electricity being off. We then piled back into the taxi and came back to the marina, about an hours drive during which most of us managed some sleep despite it only being about 2130.
Back at the marina, we paid off the driver only having only been charged about twice the going rate (Graham had witnessed a similar tour bing booked by another boat at the marina office). Sue managed to leave her prized new tee shirt in the car along with another shirt but the driver came back with this after a phone call. We then all had a cup of tea and went to bed.
Slainte
Jock and the gang