The Center for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Trinidad

Thursday, February 4th

Trinidad and Tobago are the southernmost islands in the West Indies. Trinidad is quite large, while Tobago is small. They are one country but our ship only visited the capital in Port of Spain, Trinidad. We went on a shore excursion that took us by bus through the downtown area, where the traffic was terrible. About 600,000 people live in Port of Spain. We drove by the Magnificent Seven: they are 19th century mansions, some of which are in bad shape. We also went to the Royal Botanic Gardens, where we saw a large variety of trees but not many flowers. They grow cocoa in Trinidad, but the main industry is oil and gas so it is more prosperous than other Caribbean islands. The tour also took us to the Maracas Bay beach, which was very pretty. The bus tour gave us a good overview of the island, but the bus was very small and cramped. We were happy to get back to the ship and the comfort of our cabin.

Friday, February 5th

Today was a sea day, but we stayed busy.  After breakfast we went to a lecture about Devil’s Island, which we will see tomorrow.  We spent some time reading by the pool, but it was a little windy and we had a brief shower.  After lunch we went to the lounge to see the movie “Papillon” with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.  The movie is about the French penal colony in French Guyana.  We are still enjoying our six wonderful dinner companions, although we’ve met some very annoying people in our first week of the cruise (also some very nice ones).  All the passengers seem to have traveled extensively.  At the captain’s reception tonight, they gave awards to the top three cruisers with the most days at sea.  The winner was a lady who has sailed over 1,200 days with Princess.  Yikes!

It was warm again today--about 80 when we went ashore and it got warmer later in the day. We had a few sprinkles while we were at the beach, but that was okay as we’re still a little uncomfortable with the heat and humidity.

© Jay 2020