Trinidad with Jesse James

Anchoring west of Chaguaramas

Unripe Brazil nuts

Chaguaramas, (shah-go-RAH-mas) Trinidad. What I did not know about Trinidad before this visit would fill a book. What I still don’t know, volumes more. Chaguaramas sits on a quotation mark of a peninsula that extends out from the northwest corner of Trinidad. 

Local fishermen sleep near their boats in huts

It was once an American Army post, back in the WWII days. Now the old Army post is used for Trinidadian Coast Guard, Police, Special Forces, Fish and Wildlife Service and a few other Federal departments.

Called a "Double".  Best breakfast food ever!

It is an area where there are no homes.  But, many people live there, on their sailboats. A series of marinas: Peakes, Power Boats, Crews Inn, and Coral Cove, all welcome international boats.  

Canadians, Aussies, Brits and Americans on this bus.

This week alone, I have heard these languages spoken: French, German, Dutch, Afrikans, Spanish, Australian and British English. American English is heard most frequently as well as the Trini English which I’m afraid I am no better at understanding now than when we arrived.

Power Boats workers who made
our beautiful new sole (floor)

Boats from Europe making their first landfall on this side of the Atlantic often go to Trinidad.  The trade winds are helpful for that destination. And Trinidad is known in the cruising community as a fantastic place to get any kind of boat work done, and at a more reasonable rate than many other places in the world. We have certainly been pleased.

Cow-heel soup tastes like
comfort food.

One downside of Chaguaramas is that it is some distance away from most of the other sorts of things that cruisers want to visit, such as grocery stores, museums, entertainment, etc. 

Furthermore, the road from Chaguaramas is a long and winding, narrow, two-lane with potholes large enough to play hide and seek. The bus system is somewhat hit or miss. Schedules are made to be broken. 

Two lane road from Chaguaramas to
Port of Spain

We did utilize what the Trini's call their Maxi Taxi system to get around a bit--white vans that accommodate 13 passengers. There are horror stories of a 20 minute drive taking 2 or more hours to complete because of roadwork, potholes, accident or because school got out and all means of transportation are filled with children getting home after school. 

This street seller was curious to see white
people on the east coast of Trinidad.

One should allow several hours to drive to the airport, just in case things go south. Plus driving is just plain scary in Trinidad.  Drivers pull over to chat here and there, suddenly requiring a two lane road to turn into a three lane road. Drivers accommodate to this quite quickly.  That and all of the other swerving around potholes makes for an interesting transport.

Birds' nests hanging from Immortelle trees
Species?

Now add to that picture, Jesse James.  Not a caricature of the Old West but rather a man who has recognized a need that cruisers have and has tried to fill it. Jesse has a few Maxi-Taxi-sized vans and uses them to cart people like us around in groups of 6 to 13 people.  

Buying oranges at market

He schedules weekly events:  Saturday morning at 6:00 a van leaves Chaguaramas for the huge fresh Market in downtown Port of Spain, one of the largest in the Caribbean. On other days of the week he provides transport to the grocery stores or other shopping areas.

Violaceous Euphonia

This week, for example, Jesse was taking a group to see a Pan Demonstration--really a practice session for musicians, including steel drums in anticipation of Carnaval. Carnaval is a few weeks away yet, but people here like to work up a good fever in advance. 

17 species of hummingbirds on Trinidad

Next Jesse was taking a group to meet a ferry to go out to a tiny island off of Chaguaramas called Gaspar Grande where they will have a tour of some amazing caves.

Jesse on right dividing food for us. Carl
riding shotgun to help distribute.

We took two tours with Jesse.  The first was called, “A Taste of Trinidad.”  This was a very unique kind of tour from 8 AM to 9 PM. He drove us across the island from west to east, then south and back west and north again.  

Amazing machete skills!

Every few miles, or less, he jumped out of the van to pick up tasty foods from various little street markets, and food stands throughout Trinidad. 

Young men talk about their roti lunch

Trinidad has an amazing abundance of foods owing to its many cultural influences all converging on this big island. 

Muslim residents put up prayer flags

People of every hue and religion reside on Trinidad. Folks from the Far East, from India, Africa, North and South America, and Europe. 

Miles of watermelons grown along
east coast of Trini

A fresh chocolatey
tasting 

River flowing into the Atlantic.  Next stop, Africa

The foods are rich in flavor—they feature the curries, ginger, chutneys and Scotch Bonnet peppers. Over the course of the day, we ate bites of some 80-90 different foods. We were stuffed.

Hundreds of Orange-winged
parrots gather nightly on
Chaguaramas

The second tour with Jesse was a birding tour.  Asa Wright Sanctuary lies high up in the mountainous jungle. 

One of 425 species on Trinidad

To enjoy it more thoroughly, we could have stayed overnight in one of the lodges onsite so that we could watch for the birds all day. 

Purple Honeycreeper

Bearded Bellbird has a beard of skin

But as it was, we saw many species of hummingbirds, tanagers, and a rare species called a Bearded Bellbird.  We could hear the toucans nearby but did not see them.

Species?

Later in the day, he took us to the Caroni Swamp where we saw hundreds of pink flamingoes, snakes sleeping in the trees and iguanas. 

Pink flamingoes appear to walk on water

The highlight was seeing the National Bird of Trinidad, the Scarlet Ibis. We feared we wouldn’t see any but in fact, we saw thousands of the bright red birds, all flying to one specific island just before sunset where they gathered to roost.  A breathtaking sight!

Scarlet Ibis roost on this island. Immature birds inside,
and adults (bright red) roost on the outside of bushes

Unashamedly, this post has become a promo for Jesse James. What he offers is truly a unique glimpse of the real Trinidad.  The cruise ships do not offer tours like his. Basically, only the people arriving by sailboat are enjoying these tours and they are spectacular. Bravo to Jesse James.

Scarlet Ibis gather by the thousands at end of day

Roti, Ackee and Christophene

A rare sight---a garden in a backyard in St. John's, Antigua

I’ll give you three guesses.  Roti, Ackee and Christophene……what do you think these are names for?  

The man with the knife is removing the outer husk from the sugar cane.

Nope, not a law firm. Not a Roto-Rooter type thing, nor a septic sucking company. Good guesses though.  Give?  These are foods we have been eating recently.  Some with greater appreciation than others.

A Pork Roti that I couldn't wait to dig into.

Roti (RO-tee) is sort of a Caribbean version of an empanada or of a Northern Minnesota pasty. It is filled with curried chicken, pork or beef and potato, and sometimes filled with a combination of veggies only. I haven’t found one yet that I didn’t like! 

Roadside vendor in St. John's

There are little restaurants and small portable stands alongside the roads that sell hot rotis.  

This is the "famous" Roti Sue

One place nearby that we like particularly is called Roti Sue’s.  I’ve watched Sue roll out the tender floury dough to a very thin and stretchy circle that is then placed on a griddle by her helper. After it has been cooked and flipped over, it is placed onto a plate, upon which is piled your choice of filling and then the roti is “sealed” up and turned over to make a delicious little “package” for lunch. 

The helper that flips the roti

I noted with interest that a long, narrow,  smooth-edged stick is used to handle the roti on the hot griddle. Watching her flip the roti  reminded me of making potato lefse at Christmas time in Minnesota. In fact, roti does look like lefse before it is filled with the curry.

Another roti restaurant--5 small oilcloth-covered tables with bright green chairs.  St. John's, Antigua

We can buy a roti for lunch that will cost somewhere between 10 and 20 EC.  (EC=Eastern Caribbean money).  Divide the ECs by 2 1/2 to calculate the cost in U.S. dollars.  At Roti Sue’s, we can buy a delicious, filling roti for only $3.70 US.  

Roadside truckload of coconuts.  The coconut water is
being funneled into a plastic bottle for sale.

Along with the roti, we may choose one of her freshly bottled juices such as starfruit, pineapple and ginger, or mango for another 5 EC.  Sometimes folks who make roti will peddle them in the mornings where there are a lot of people around. They come wrapped in aluminum foil and just need to be reheated closer to lunch time. 

Two small christophene and a dragon fruit

“Christophene” is the name that Antiguans use for this next food.  In other parts of the Caribbean or Central America, it is called Chayote (chah-YO-tay).  It’s an amazingly useful and very versatile food, and although I find it hard to think of it as a squash, that is indeed the family to which it belongs. I’m shaking my head though……it tastes nothing like any squash I’ve ever had; it has a negligible outer peel which does not have to be removed before eating raw.  

Open air market

We have found that we really like raw chayote in a hearty salad. Using chayote, I can make a salad that keeps well for days. I start with some cooked brown rice, black beans, a chopped orange or yellow pepper, green pepper, chopped red onion and instead of using apple which I always did in the U.S., I chop up a couple of chayotes instead.  When I’ve served the salad to others, they’ve think they’re eating apple or cucumber or some kind of fruit.  The taste of the chayote is mild and blends perfectly with whatever it is paired with.  I top the salad with the juice of a couple limes, or a mixture of some olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper and maybe a little cayenne. 

One of our favorite salads aboard Northern Star

Chayote can be cooked too, of course.  It can be sautéed with onion and garlic, or boiled and used in place of a starchy vegetable in any kind of dish. I’ve seen a recipe using it in lasagna in place of the pasta!  It keeps very well for several days as long as it’s out of the sun.  And once it’s cut up into the salad, it does not turn color like apples tend to do. Oh, and it’s an economical food too.

Ackee within their rinds.  Below them, starfruit.

Ackee is a quite unusual food in my book.  When we saw it in an open air market, my guess was that it was a fruit because it’s pretty and has a thick outer rind.  It is, however, a vegetable.  Hmph! So, we bought some while in St. John’s, the largest city on Antigua because we just had to try it.  

A woman bringing her purchases home from market.

The friends we were with bought some ackee too, and wisely stored theirs in the refrigerator until it was used.  Inconveniently for our ackee, we were in the midst of equalizing our batteries (meaning, we shut down the freezer and fridge for several hours) and our ackee grew fluffy white foam after the second day without refrigeration.  In short, it became quite icky…..or ackee. It was dead.  

The black "ball" is the ackee seed. The vegetable
itself is only ~ 1-2" long

Our friends had us over for dinner and served us a pork dish which used slices of cooked ackee.  Here is our friends’ report on the process of working with the ackee.  “The seed (big black ball thingy on top) did not come off easily, like one might have expected.  Then, the yellow ackee had to be sliced thinly.  It did not slice easily either.  It was tedious,” she said.  I believe I heard the word “tedious” repeated another time or two.  The taste was uninspiring.  I actually have no idea what it tasted like because I really couldn’t discern the flavor within the dish.  The general consensus of the four of us was, “Meh.”  

Public market in St. John's.  In the foreground, many different root vegetables.

I’ve only come across ackee that one time and I won’t look for it again.  It was not inexpensive and I’m banning it from my galley.  No ackee. Huh…..that’s what I used to say when I wanted one of my children to spit out something that should not have gone into their mouths,  “No….that’s ackee!”

Pickled pork snout and pork tail were a Christmas "special" in Jolly
Harbour, Antigua. We did not try any snout nor tail.