Although the country is actually Trinidad and Tobago, they are two islands separated by 25 miles and we only saw some of Trinidad. Every island we’ve seen thus far has been a colony or posession of England and/or France during the last few hundred years and this one was no exception. They all speak English as the primary language, drive on the left side of the road, and make rum. Today we toured the city, which is very large, the botanical gardens and finally the Angostura Bitters plant. Little did I know that Angostura also makes rum! It was actually pretty interesting since they didn’t spend much time on how to make rum, but more on the Bitters side of it. Every drop sold in over 160 countries comes from one room at the plant, which we got to enter, and only 5 people know the secret recipe. Naturally there was sampling and shopping opportunities, but we learned our lesson. We did see one fellow who bought a clear rum and replaced the water in his Dasani bottle with the rum. Bet he had no problem getting it on board.
Another commonality to all the islands is that there are no McDonalds here. There a a few Burger Kings, a few more KFC (although apparently with a different “secret recipe” than in the US) and LOTS of Subways - complete with the $5 footlong.
Trinidad’s primary industry is oil and natural gas. They are a little concerned about the price drop in oil, but we all know that won’t last, so no worries. They pay about $2.50 a gallon here with government subsidies, whereas the other islands are paying upwards of $5-6 a gallon, which is down recently of course.
So completes one week of our trip. Tomorrow we begin our 5 sea days to cover the 2,500 miles to Salvador. Unless something very exciting happens, I probably won’t post again until our next port.
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