Hiking to nowhere

We have gone out hiking the last two weekends in search of the Covigne River trail.  It should not be this hard to find, but we're 0 for 2 right now.  It's supposed to be a great rugged hike in the national park near us, ending at a waterfall and bathing pool deep in the woods.  Cool, huh?  I'm sure it would be, if we could find it.  We're also thinking this is complicated by the fact that we're in the dry season right now, and so landmarks like stream beds and waterfalls may not actually be there anymore....

Last weekend we did a very hilly 3 hour hike, up to a ridgeline with absolutely no views, due to the dense foliage.  I think we actually found the mythical North Coast Trail, and might have been able to follow it all the way up to some of the northern beaches if we had had time, energy, and more water on our hands.  We did run into a pack of monkey however, which was pretty neat.  We also found some interesting remnants of the American military presence in the park.  Nothing like stumbling upon a creepy ammunition bunker in the middle of the jungle.

Today, after a brief interlude to wander around an old graveyard and church, we found a whole network of trails that led along a dry stream bed.  On the positive side, these trails are totally run-able, and I'd be so excited to do real trails again!  On the negative side, we don't think this was the Covigne trail.   The search continues....

Turkey Day and the TSA

It's that time of year again, when we engage in a time-honored Foreign Service rite:  scrounging up ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.   This practice can take several forms, depending on how exotic your current location happens to be.  I rather hope that nothing will top our first post of Mongolia.  In the year before we got there, the community was actually raising live turkeys in the garage of the Deputy Chief of Mission.  Sometimes, I really miss that place.

Overall, we were not in bad shape in Mongolia, because things were so hard to get there that the State Department allowed us to ship a certain amount of food to post, so I carefully planned for enough cranberry sauce, spices, and pumpkin pie filling to last 2 Thanksgivings and 2 Christmases.   I did have to put a bounty out for any form of celery that might have been lurking in Ulaanbaatar, and the community came through with a lead in the end, to my stuffing's relief.   Which brings me to this year....

On the whole, American products are much easier to find here in Trinidad.  Turkey?  It took 3 stores, but we finally snared one.   Cranberry sauce?  If you're wiling to pay $2.50 a can, it's yours!  Canned pumpkin?  That one was proving a bit more challenging.  But one of our friends was heading to the states last week, and he said he'd pick up a few cans for us.

The issues arose when he went to check in for his flight, and was only traveling with a carry-on.  The TSA flagged his bag for liquids and opened it to find our 2 rebellious cans of pumpkin.  Agent #1 was not sure if these cans of pumpkin constituted a threat to our national security and to the plane full of passengers, so he got a supervisor.  Supervisor was also not sure if pumpkin was allowed.  Our friend was asked, is this liquid-y pumpkin filling, or high quality solid pumpkin?  He assured them it was the highest possible quality.  They ran it through the viscosity machine (! seriously, this exists), and determined it could pass.  Victory!  It's the little triumphs that make this life so entertaining....

Tobago Take Two

Sunset over Goat Island and Little Tobago

We've been up to Tobago twice now since we got here.  Though we spent much of those two weekends underwater getting scuba certified, on our last trip we had a chance to enjoy some of the island as well.  Tobago has a completely different feel from Trinidad.  Relatively few people live there, there is little infrastructure, and the water/beaches are much nicer because we're further from the silty Orinoco River currents that hit Trinidad.    We took a day and drove the 15 minutes from Speyside to Charlotteville on the North coast to enjoy Pirate's Bay, one of the nicest beaches in Tobago.  As seems to be the rule here in the Caribbean, we had the place basically to ourselves!

We had a fun mini-hike over a hill and down lots of stairs to the beach.

Backyard bounty

Not only do we have a mango tree in our backyard, it turns out we also have banana trees.  I'm not even sure how many pounds of bananas this is, but I know it's a lot.  Hopefully they ripen at some point....

Run in the Sun

Best race swag ever - doesn't everyone want an ugly sweatband-cum-clock?

Running in Mongolia was hard.  Running in Trinidad is even harder.  This could be why the Caribbean produces so many great sprinters, but has no one above the 400:  you feel ready to drop dead of heatstroke after about a half mile.  I think I have adapted about as much as I am able to after 4 months here, but my family just doesn't run well in the heat, and I am a prime example.    Our running has been pretty minimal since we got here - it's a banner week when I manage to do 4 runs.    All of this is to say that we found ourselves on the start line of a half marathon last weekend rather by accident, and certainly the least prepared that we've ever been before a race.  I blame my boss.

What happened was this:  On a rather slow Friday 3 weeks before the race, my boss came charging into our office and said, "Let's go sign up for a half marathon!  What else do we have to do?"  My colleague and I could not muster up an objection to this, so.... we signed up.  Like a good wife, I roped Andy in as well without his knowledge. 

3 weeks later, we were standing on the starting line at the University of the West Indies at 6 a.m., feeling rather anxious.  At least I was.  Already at 6 here the sun is full up, and we had heard that the course had not a scrap of shade on it.  As an out-and-back, the first 6 miles weren't bad, but we all started to cook as we turned around and headed back under the brutal sun.  Thankfully, the race was well run and had lots of water stops.  Everyone was dousing themselves with bottles of water at each stop.   I was so tired it was tempting to stop and walk, but the longer you remained on the course the more time you spent in the sun, so I kept going.  There were a fair amount of men out racing, but much fewer women.  I ended up 9th among all women with my slowest half marathon time ever, so that tells you something.     As generally awful as the race felt for all of us, by the next day we were already planning for more races.  No one ever said that runners were rational people....