IMAGE – the show – PAN MUSIC
On Saturday 3rd we joined a small group of sailors for an early afternoon hike on one on the trails through the close-by Chagaramas National Park and beautiful cool-off swim at Maqueripe Beach on the north coast. The Hike through the rainforest was wild and a tough climb at times – but the view through and from the mountains made it all worthwhile. We had been warned about the mosquitoes – but they were ferrous, and not put off at all by our extra strong Aussie Aeroguard. The hike path passes through massive cathedral bamboo and beautiful wild orchids, and of course we could hear many different bird calls. Apparently on this hike others have seen in the past howler monkeys – but they didn’t come out to play for us today. The beach at Maqueripe was not much of a beach, but the surroundings were special – thick green rainforest, and the water was chilling and refreshing – especially after our hike. Many of the locals were also out on this Saturday afternoon enjoying the surrounding park for picnics and BBQs and the waft of ganga filled the air – thankfully not too much loud music (which usually accompanies any get-together) was disturbing the wonderful atmosphere.

PAN, PARANG AND PORK – all the essential ingredients – food, drinks and music - all combined with newly made friends to prove a great evening out on Sunday 4th November.
The PAN was the Steel Bank orchestra called the Caribbean Airline Invaders. We were entertained by two different groups – the junior invaders – male and female pan players from 5 to 18 started the evening’s entertainment – and they played to have fun – it was great to watch and hear them.
The PORK dinner was excellent, and whole organisation of the food and drinks was very well done. Each entry ticket had 2 drink tokens, 2 different cutters (starters) tickets, 1 meal ticket for 2 different pork main course items plus side dishes, and a dessert ticket. We grazed our way through the evening, eating and enjoying the entertainment. We chose to get 4 different cutters – 2 pork and 2 non-pork:- The hot and spicy Sweet & Sour pork was more for the local taste, but still enjoyable, our 2nd Pork cutter was the traditional Gerga Pork – dark meat spiced with cumin and ginger. The sweet & sour shrimp and fish balls were also so tasty. Later in the evening as we lined up for the extensive main course buffet we knew we were in for more tasty treats – cold honey roast ham, creole pork, jerk pork and roast pork all served with a choice of plantain, rice and peas and potato. The dessert was a small pot of ice-cream.
The PARANG is a pre-Christmas thing here in Trinidad – basically the lyrics are in Spanish because of the Venezuelan origin and the guitar music has a Latin rhythm. Other musical entertainment was reggae, more pan from the adult group and then later in the evening the locals livened up when the soca and calypso started up.