¡En el mar la vida es más sabrosa!

So, yeap... that's what we believe: in the sea, life is... tastier? (it sounds so much better in Spanish). Anyway, I live in a Caribbean country, the north coast of Venezuela is like a Caribbean swimming pool. That could be the reason why I don't get so excited when to Islands it comes. In December last year, I was dreaming -not planning, that's the thing- about so many trips and adventures, and I didn't know that the first of them was gonna be on an island that is just 45 minutes away from Caracas in airplane and that you could get there almost swimming from our north east coast. You can literally take a boat from Cumana and get there. So, you know... if you want to take the Southamerican tour, you can go to Venezuela and then jump to T&T. I know I don't sound very excited, and that's because I wasn't excited at that time either. We judge cities as we judge people... That city looks so hot and I prefer cold weather; oh, that town seems so small, what are we going to do there? Oh, is not London? is not NY? We are not going to Madrid? Let's stay home, then! n cities, just like people, may surprise us. This happened to me with Port of Spain, the Capital of Trinidad and Tobago.

I spent there four days. Two of them are not worthy of mention because I was staying in the Marriot Hotel, and you know... if you are in such a nice hotel you don't need to go out that much! We were staying there because we were in a super nice Geophysics Competition -see, I'm still a student!- and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists was paying for everything: transportation, food, hotel...!

However, in thenext two days we got to know the city. And here are a few things.

The first thing I noticed is that the transportation system is even worst than the Venezuelan one. There are not buses but small vans with 8 or 10 seats. You have to jump into them in like 15 seconds because they barely stop. There are many of them, so getting to places is not that hard; the ticket -cost is a better word because you don't actually buy a ticket, you just pay to the driver in cash- is 10 T&T dollar, that is about 1,5 American dollar. However, if you are in a group of four or less you may want to considerer the possibility of a taxi. We, students and young people, usually discard this option for its high cost, but here taxis are not that expensive (never more than 10 American dollars) and if you can share the cost is worth the spend.

About the tourism, T&T is mainly about beaches. There is no much to see around the city. In Port of Spain (Trinidad) there are come very nice. I'm not going to spend time telling you about the beaches when you can always find a very detailed summary somewhere else with directions and everything. I can tell you that there is a Mall, not very big nor worthy of going. The best beaches are in Tobago, and you can go there by plain for 40$ (round trip, Caribbean Airlines) or you can taje a Ferry that lasts about three hours and it's suppose to be a terrible experience (I would have taken it, but my rich friends made me took the plain. Anyway, this may've been the best because we were going to be only two days). There, we went to Pigeon Point and took a trip in a kinf of boat with music a so. In out two -by-ourselves-days we stayed at the Forty Winks Inn, that is small and certainly cute and the breakfast is really good. This Inn is very well located, near the few walkable spots in Port of Spain: there is a huge park and some churches cute buildings around.

To make it short. I enjoyed a lot the trip, probably because I was with very closed friends and also because I had two full paid-days. T&T does have thing to go and see, but not to stay more than three or four days and, being honest, I wouldn't choose to go again. Like most islands, T&T is a place to be in a nice resort, spend money and enjoy the Caribbean sea. But... we can go and just enjoy the Caribbean without the first part.

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