Thursday, November 23, 1995 THANKSGIVING DAY - Trinidad

The Thanksgiving dinner at the yacht club was scheduled for five o'clock, so I talked Roy into taking the day off and going to the tar pits with me. We took the 10:30 free bus to town, walked over to the new City Gate bus terminal, and caught a "Super Express" bus to San Fernando. Trinidadians seem unable to pronounce "three". At best, it comes out "tree". This morning, it sounded like "two". When I handed the driver two two-TT bus tickets, he kept saying what sounded to both Roy and me as "Two dollars each." This confused us, since that was the amount we were giving him. (They say "dollars" for "TT's", which always confuses us.) Finally, a customer showed us a three-dollar (TT) ticket. Then we realized he meant "three", not "two", so I gave him another two-TT ticket. It was a long, uncomfortable ride to San Fernando. A wizened old man next to me kept saying in French, "Un, deux, trois" (one, two, three) and holding up three fingers. I told him I understood, but he kept on, so I had to just ignore him. Towards the end of the ride, he kept trying to tell a young man who was standing to sit down, but the young man was busy flirting with a young woman, so he continued to stand. This annoyed the old man. Everyone was laughing at him. It was a relief when he finally got off the bus. By the time we got to San Fernando, it was nearly one o'clock, and we still had to get to La Brea. I was worried about running out of time. We caught a maxi and got to La Brea in about half an hour. We scarcely had time to get off the bus before a self-styled tour guide pounced upon us and began leading us on a tour of the pitch lake, which he said was the largest in the world. He gave an interesting tour, spoke good English, and knew a lot of facts and figures, some of which we were skeptical of. He had two assistants, whom he referred to as "demonstrators". They presented me with fresh-picked flowers and pulled up chunks of pitch to show to us. The guide said that 300 to 400 tons of pitch a day were collected from the lake. A nearby processing plant boiled the pitch at 330 degrees Fahrenheit, filtered out the impurities, poured it into barrels, and let it harden into asphalt, which is shipped all over the world. He claimed that 75% of all the asphalt in the world comes from this lake, which we doubted. We both considered 100 TT's would be a generous amount to pay him, so we were shocked when he demanded 300 TT's for himself plus another 100 for the demonstrators. We tried to reason with him, but he insisted. He was a large young man, had his two assistants, and was in his own country. We were two small people, no longer young, and the only foreigners for miles around, so we ended up being intimidated into paying him what he demanded. We were glad it wasn't more. We felt ripped off, but just wanted to get out of there. By the time we got back to San Fernando, it was 3:30 and we were afraid we'd be late for the dinner, so we took a maxi instead of the big bus. It was a lot more comfortable and much faster. It only cost five TT's each, so we kicked ourselves for not taking a maxi to San Fernando. When we got back to Port-of-Spain, we caught another maxi to West Mall, where we had to catch another maxi to the yacht club. It was nearly five o'clock by then. Several maxis went by, but they were too full to stop. Finally, one stopped and we leaped on. Got to Linda's Bakery in five minutes and picked up the pie we'd ordered for the pot-luck dessert. Reached the yacht club restaurant at one minute past five. Then, of course, the dinner didn't start for nearly an hour. We were lucky enough to get a table with a compatible couple, so we enjoyed a pleasant conversation as well as a delicious meal. Roy and I have so much to be thankful for. We're thankful we're still healthy and agile. We're thankful our brains are still functioning normally (some people might question that). We're thankful we're able to explore exotic lands. We're very thankful we're citizens of the United States of America. Above all, we're thankful we have such wonderful children. Each and every one of them has turned out so well. We're both as proud as can be of all our children.