Does it hurt when I do this?

Everything is not always blissful down here in my own little tropical paradise.  Sure there are little quirks that drive a lot of ex-pats crazy down here, but that's not what I'm talking about.  Actually most of those things don't bother me much at all.  What I'm talking about isn't about the country at all.

For the last few months, I've had a kind of a dull, annoying pain by my top back tooth.  One day, not quite sure when, it got to the point where I couldn't really chew on that side of my mouth anymore.  So I decided I should probably get it checked out.  I asked around and found a dentist to go to in St. James (a neighborhood about 5 minutes from my house and just outside Port of Spain).  I made an appointment, showed up at my scheduled time and about 45 minutes got called in to see the dentist (I guess some things are universal, no matter what country you're in).  Within about 30 seconds of talking to me and taking a quick x-ray, which took about another 30 seconds, he concluded that I needed a root canal.  Great.  I waited until I had got crappy dental coverage with my insurance and until I moved to a third world country to get my dental work done.  Perfect.  

But he told me "...not to worry.  It would be a difficult tooth for me [him] to work on because it's in the back of your [my] mouth, but that's not anything that you [I] should worry about."  Huh?  That's absolutely something I'm going to worry about.  I'm the one who's going to feel it.  But I needed to get it done, so I gotta get it done.  We made a follow up appointment and I was on my way.  I don't know if it's common in the states, but I guess they do root canals in 3 phases down here.

Phase 1: I showed up and he sprayed on some topical anesthetic.  It dripped down into my throat, so the back of that was also numb.  That was a weird feeling.  It actually felt like I had a hold in the back of my throat.  Anyway, the drilling started, and the picking, and scraping, and all the other good things that go along with a root canal.  But part way through he said, "Wow, look at that?"  Never something you want to hear as a dentist is digging around in your mouth.  He called in some of the other dental assistants and showed them too.  Apparently I am one of 10% of the population that has 4 roots in my back tooth.  So I get to have more fun during my root canal than 90% of everyone else does.  Woo hoo!!  

The procedure goes fairly well, with my only complaint being that the dental assistant wasn't too good at sucking the spit out of my mouth.  I felt like I was choking on it a number of times.  But there wasn't any pain after the anesthetic set in.  It also gave me a chance to practice my yoga breathing.  Did I mention that I started doing yoga down here?

Phase 2: They go in with another set of files and a drill and scrape out a bit more inside the roots.  My understanding of the whole process is that they have to go in and dig out what would be like the marrow of your bones, but it's inside your tooth, as well as any of the decay.  How do they do this you ask?  Well that's a great question.

Put your thumb and index finger so the tips are touching.  Now stick a tiny file that looks like a thick tip of a needle between those fingers and start moving them up and down.  That's what it is.  And surprisingly this is done without anesthetic.  I stopped him before he started, and then asked another couple of time..."Are you sure I don't need any?  Positive?"  And he said that I would be fine.  But before he can start digging around, he has to make sure that he doesn't go too deep into the tooth's root.  Apparently this is why no anesthetic is needed.  What he does is take different files of different lengths and thicknesses and sticks them in the tooth's root to see if I can feel it.  So he'll stick something in there and if I wince and start making noise, he knows I can feel it and not to use that tool.  And since I'm that lucky 10%, I got to go through this 4 times instead of just 3.  Lucky me.

Most of the filing went well with a couple occasions where he went too deep.  Then he busts out a drill and starts drilling in there.  Talk about a feeling of panic.  What if he hits that deep spot that he's not supposed to?  I think every single muscle in my body was tensed up, but he did not hit anything with the drill.

I got some rinse, got some temporary filling stuck in there, and now I'm awaiting Phase 3, which comes in about 2 weeks.  I can hardly wait.

Holiday in TT

This year for the school's winter holiday, I decided to stay in Trinidad.  Initially, I was going to try to go to Peru, but due to issues with my passport and my multiple entry/exit visa, I stayed here.  Since I wasn't going away, Angie also decided to come down to visit from the 25th, December to the 4th, January.

My first week of break was pretty uneventful.  I did a bit of reading, a lot of napping, and some cleaning for Angie's arrival.  I really didn't feel like I did very much that first week, but that changed as soon as Angie showed up.  She wanted to relax on the beaches, but also wanted a tasted of what my life was like down here.  So we were pretty active and did a lot of great stuff.  I had made some notes of all the stuff that we did when we were sitting on a beach one day, and by the end of her stay, I had about 5 pages (front and back).  Feeling that writing all that out might get a little long winded, I'm going to do like Angie did on her Facebook page and just try to show it all in pictures with little tidbits here and there.  Shall we begin??

Angie showed up Christmas night after about 13 hours of traveling and layovers in airports.  So our adventures didn't begin until after sleeping in on the 26th.  Wanting to get out and see a bit of Trinidad, we decided to go on a hike to Edith Falls and Bamboo Cathedral.  Edith Falls is really only a waterfall after a rain.  We were fortunate to see some water, but sometimes it's kind of light.  Next we went to Bamboo Cathedral, where we ran into Aaron and Katie and Katie's family who were in for Christmas.  We also got to see some red howler monkey's crossing over the path in the trees above.  That was really cool.  Here's a shot of Bamboo Cathedral, so named because of the shape the bamboo trees make over the path.

Day 2 consisted of going to the market.  Wandering the streets of the shopping district in Port of Spain and meeting up with Aaron and Katie for a hash.  This was something that Angie was very anxious to do and she really enjoyed hiking through the rain forest, rivers, and all the excitement that hashes provide.

Day 3 we went to Maracas Bay.  The waves were rough, so we moved to another, nearby bay called Las Cuevas, where we spent the next few hours.  Here is an overlook of Maracas (a bit cloudy) and Las Cuevas (where Angie got her first taste of TT's dreaded sand flies).  She seemed to be a major attraction for the sand flies and mosquitos.  That was kind of nice for me, because they left me alone and all went to her.

  

Day 4 was an early wake up and a ferry ride to Tobago.  The waters were incredibly rocky and Angie got pretty sick.  I normally don't get motion sickness and even I was feeling a bit queazy.  The rest of that day was spent waiting for our hotel room to get ready and recovering from the ferry.

Day 5 we went to Pigeon Point.  One of the most beautiful beaches on Tobago.  It's a private beach and you have to pay an entrance fee to get in.  We stayed there from about 9:30 AM until about 6:30 PM.  The day was perfect.  We swam, slept, went for walks, read, and really just relaxed the entire day.

And let's not forget about the sunset.  It was incredible.  Oh, we also saw Queen Latifah vacationing there.  Not an actual queen for the older folks - she's a actress and hip hop artist.

 

Day 6 we headed up to the northeast coast of Tobago to a small town called Speyside.  Along the way we stopped at a place called Argyle Falls that has 4-5 tiers of waterfalls.  We hiked up to the waterfalls and hiked and c

limbed to the top of the 4th tier.

 

At the top of the 4th tier, you could see the down the waterfalls and out past the trees to the ocean.  It was an amazing sight.  Then down at the bottom tier, the pool was deep enough that you could jump in from the surrounding rocks.  That was really fun and felt like we were diving from the tops of the waterfall, although in reality, it was only 6-10 feet up.

 

After Argyle Falls and a dip in the pool at the bottom of the falls, we finished our trek to Speyside, where we would go to a local Old Year's party (what they celebrate instead of New Year's Eve) and bring in the new year SCUBA diving.  This was where we stayed in Speyside, a place called the Manta Lodge.

Here is a view from our balcony.  The Manta Lodge is as peaceful and cathartic as my aunt Jane and uncle Mike's cabin in Hayward.  No tv's, no phones.  Just the peaceful sounds of the water to put you at ease.  Of course Jane & Mike's has a phone and tv, but they are rarely on.  Yet I digress...So we took ourselves a nap, had dinner, and went to the Old Year's party.

Day 7 was New Year's Day.  We got up early and had a big breakfast.  Angie got a shotgun course in the pool on how to use the SCUBA equipment and I tagged along for a quick refresher.  We were geared up and ready to go.

What an experience SCUBA diving was.  At times I had a hard time keeping my breathing regulator in my mouth because I was smiling so much.  Angie felt the same way.  It was an incredible experience and a first for us.  A couple years ago, I decided that I wanted to try to do, see, or experience something brand new on New Year's Day.  This fit in perfectly with that.  SCUBA diving was so incredible, that it will get a post of it's own.  As a matter of fact, I'm going back for more diving in a week, so I'll put something up about my first few dives then.

Diving apparently burns a lot of calories and really takes a lot out of  you.  When we finished, we went back to the Manta Lodge, ate, took a nap, and immediately ate upon waking up.  We played cards with another couple there in the lodge, snacked a bit, and called it a night.

Day 8 we're heading back to Trinidad.  We got up, Angie took a dip in the pool while I read, and we headed back to Scarborough to catch the ferry.  Angie doped up a bit heavier on motion sickness pills for the ride back and slept the whole time.  I didn't sleep, but the ride was considerably smoother.  Apparently on the way back, you're moving with the waves instead of against, so it makes for a smoother ride.  We got some take away Mediterranean food and finally got back to my flat around 6:00-ish.  Promptly upon finishing dinner, we were both asleep on the couch and didn't wake up until about 9 AM the following morning.

Day 9 was a pretty low key day just hanging out at my flat.  I taught Angie canasta and she kicked my butt the first hand.  I may have found a natural here, because we both crossed 5000 at the same time, but I had about 200 points more in the end to just barely win.  After cards, we went out to a place called Bombay Duck, which was excellent Indian food.  Then we went to Aaron and Katie's house and also met up with Ryan and Meredith and traded vacation stories for a couple hours.  But we didn't stay late, as we had an early start the next morning to get Angie to the airport.

Day 10 we were up by 5:30 to get some breakfast and to get Angie to the airport in time.  It was great having her down here and it was sad to see her go.  But we both had a blast with all the stuff that we did and even though it chocked full of activities and experiences, there was also plenty of relaxation.

This is the way that vacations should be.