Carnival Monday

Yesterday, I picked up my cousin Andrea from the airport.  She's been teaching in Brazil for 5 years and decided that she wanted to see how to really celebrate Carnival.  Ok, maybe she didn't say that.  But it will be interesting to hear her comparison of Carnival in Brazil versus Trinidad.  I know there are some differences that make each one unique, but it will be cool to hear from her after all is said and done on how the compare and contrast.  Maybe I'll have her write a 2 page report that will be due by the time she leaves.  If we can dish it out every day, we should be able to take it too.  (She's a former teacher and current co-principal for those who don't know her).

FYI - the things that were most exciting for Andrea since she has arrived is the fact that we drive on the left side of the road (complete with the steering wheel in cars on the right side) and all the things that we have in our grocery stores that they don't have in Brazil.  I've never seen someone so excited to see Ragu before.

Anyway, today was the first official day of Carnival, although the celebrations have been going on for weeks.  We didn't don our full costumes today, so it was really more like a dry run.  I just wore my shorts and she only had her sequined top and bottom on.  The full headdresses, hats and other accessories come out tomorrow.  So no pictures today, but definitely some for tomorrow.

We basically walked up and down the streets of Port of Spain with incredibly loud music being played.  There are about 5 tractor trailers pulling flatbed trailers with stacks and stacks of speakers.  And as you would probably expect, they are turned on full blast.  But that doesn't really bother anyone too much because everyone is busy dancing in the streets and enjoying lots of water and various adult beverages.

The temperature was probably in the upper 80's and it was overcast for the first half of the day.  It did rain for a bit, but that was actually quite a relief because it was so hot, the rain was actually quite refreshing.  However, with heat and sun, there comes sunburn.  We cut our afternoon a little short because the skin was starting to get a little too red and we wanted to be able to participate the entire day tomorrow.  

But here's a little tidbit for the family members who are probably rolling their eyes at us.  We had sun block on before we left and reapplied 2-3 times throughout the day.  The other thing that I feel I should point out, is that I was NOT the one one to get sunburned this time.  Maybe I built up a bit of a tolerance or my skin has become some kind of thick, leathery substance.  Or maybe Andrea is just not quite used to the sun a bit closer to the equator.  Either way, even though I know she's hurting just a little bit, I am still gloating a bit that I didn't succumb to the sun and that I don't have funny tan lines the shape of my hands.  Of course we all know that I've just sealed my fate for tomorrow.  Oh well.  It was nice while it lasted.

Kings and Queens

As previously mentioned, probably the one thing about Carnival in Trinidad that stands out from the rest is the costumes that the revelers wear.  But that is just for the commoners; the peasants.  The REAL costumes come out for the King and Queen competition.

I still haven't figured out exactly what makes a contender for King and Queen.  I believe that each band competes.  Bands are the different groups that you sign up to walk with in the parade - which is what most people believe is the only way to celebrate Carnival.  But I also think that there is a competition open to the public to submit their costumes for judging as well.  However, as with most competitions, those entrants with deeper pockets and sponsorship from bands are over the top and tend to take the top prize.

Here are a few of the highlights...

Believe it or not, this is one of the individual costumes which are much smaller than the sponsored costumes.  This particular one had an underwater theme.  She was dressed as a fish and there is a giant fish on her head, with very large fins.

Here are a couple more of the smaller costumes that I liked.  Not sure what their themes were.

The sponsored costumes also consist of things worn by the individual, but they are also usually wrapped or pulling some kind of cart which brings the rest of the costume.  Some of these bigger costumes range in size from 20' x 20' ft to the biggest that I recall from the night, 30' x 35'.  Here is one of the smaller of the sponsored costumes, also an underwater theme.

This last one was one of my favorites.

Aaron, Kate, Meredith, and I went to the semi-finals for the kings earlier in the week and are hoping to make it to the finals tonight.  Kate took all of these pictures except for the blue one, which I took.  She asked if she could go up to the front of the stage and take pictures with the rest of the press photographers, and they let her.  That's why all of her pictures don't have heads in front of them.  She was standing with this group when she took all her pictures...

The anticipation builds...

Those who know about Carnival, know that it is one giant party.  Whether you are in the states (New Orleans), Colombia (Barranquilla), Brazil (pick any city), or Trinidad, the party is well known.  However, Trinidad has one thing that sets it apart from the other Carnival celebrations, and that is the costumes of the thousands of revelers.  

Some of you may have been privy to e-mails and links from me, giving you a hint of my costume.  Some of you may know from other sources.  Some of you may have no idea what the costumes are like.  All I will say at this point is that the theme this year is Persian Empire (not quite sure what that has to do with Carnival, but when in Rome...or Persian...or Trinidad for that matter...) and that I picked up both mine and my cousin's outfits today.

The interesting thing about the costumes at this point, is that they were given to me in two shoe boxes.  Have you ever tried to fit one of your outfits into a shoe box?  I didn't think so.  Not much fits in there and you will have to wait to see pictures of us in our get up.  But I will provide you with a glimpse to whet your appetite.

Panorama 2009

There are many kick offs for Carnival in Trinidad.  There are fetes (large parties that usually go from 10 or 11 PM until 3 or 4 AM) pretty much every weekend after New Years Day.  Some say that is the beginning of Carnival season.  I never made it to a fete (although I did try but my ticket got stolen) so for me the kick off has been Panorama.

This is an event where steel pan bands from across the country, and Tobago, come to compete to claim top prize as the best pan band.  Steel pan drums are one of Trinidad's claims to fame.  It is the only instrument that has been invented in the last 100 years or so.

There are small bands, which are bands with less than 50 players (called pannists), medium sized, which is 50-100 pannists, large bands, 100+ pannists, and single pan bands, where each pannist only plays one steel pan.  The small, medium and large bands, a lot of the musicians play more than one pan at the same time.  It's really quite impressive seeing all these pan players playing in unison.

Here's a link to a quick history of the steel pan if you are interested.  

The vibe of these steel pan bands is enough to get anyone ready.  Here's a short video that I took of a medium sized band practicing.

For Panorama, most spectators just hang out and watch the bands practice in the fields around the savannah instead of paying to watch them being judged.  I actually got up to the fence by where the judging was happening and the stands were completely empty, but the fields by the bands practicing were packed.

I have had some apprehension for Carnival because it's an event that consists of a lot of drinking and a lot of wining (a dance that is a lot like bumping and grinding on complete strangers).  Neither of these are my cup of tea - not to mention that I'm sure I will look like a complete tool in my Carnival costume.  But after going to see the semi-finals of pan a couple weeks ago, and stopping by the savannah tonight to see some of the finals, I am full on ready for Carnival.

Focus people. Focus!

I wish I could say that Phase 3 of my root canal came and went.  But it came and it's kind of stuck with me.  Allow me to explain...

Everything was pretty similar to Phase 2.  My dentist dug out the temporary filling and then started to fill it my tooth with the permanent filling.  I don't know why they couldn't just put the permanent stuff in the first time and make this a 2 part process.  I'm sure there are reasons, but those were not fully explained to me.  Of course I didn't ask either, but I will next time I'm in there.  Yet I digress...

I'm in the chair and all is going well.  He's digging out the temporary stuff and after that is all said and done, starts filling the tooth in with the permanent stuff.  Now it's important that all the spaces are filled, otherwise there is opportunity for decay from the inside again.  So he has to make sure that he gets that filling all the way up in the roots.  Basically, from what I can tell, this consists of putting the filling material on something small and needle like and shoving it into the empty spaces (ie - the roots) of my tooth.  All is well for the first 3 roots.  Ah, but I am one of that lucky 10% who has the 4th root.

Since the first 3 roots went so well, the conversation between the dentist and the dental assistants increased.  They were talking about carnival, who's playing and who's not, internet phone services (Skype vs. something called MagicJack), and the cost of various office items (gel tip pens) in Trinidad vs. the cost of the same item in the states.  All very stimulating indeed - although I will say that I was a bit intrigued about that MagicJack thing.

So Dr. Dentist starts packing the filling into the last root.  He went a little too deep and I winced.  There was pain but at least it was quick.  Unfortunately, I don't think he saw the wince because the next little pack of filling went too deep.  This time there was A LOT of pain and it was not so quick.  From what I can gather, or at least what it felt like, was this needle thing went a bit too deep and really felt like it went through the bottom of the root into my gums.  The pain was fairly intense and my hand shot out to the arm rest of the chair and my back arched up as all my muscles tensed up and as I tried to not jump out of the chair.

He says "Oh, oh.  Ok, it's all right."  But really it wasn't because whatever he was working with came apart in my mouth, with the needle jammed into my gums and him still holding on to the tool.  So now he's trying to get it reattached or dig it out with some kind of tweezers or something.  I don't honestly know how he got it out, but it did come out after a couple quick attempts.

Now, when I said in my last post that the root canal is kind of like digging the marrow of a bone out of your tooth, I think I was only partially correct.  The other stuff that is getting dug out is all the nerves.  So while this did hurt, it wasn't the kind of hurt that you have when you have exposed nerves or a chipped tooth and air gets on it.  This is more like you have that piece of popcorn or apple that gets stuck between your teeth so far that it hurts and you can't get it out.  Except that the popcorn, or apple if you choose, has a needle attached to it and actually imbeds itself into your gums for a minute or so.

I didn't really think that this was going to be eventful enough to have another post about my dental work.  But after that little mishap, I just felt the need to share the final phase.  Next comes the crown.  That should be uneventful.  We'll see though.

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.