Marvellous vacation in the Tropics!

End of January (on Liza's birthday!!), we went to the Carribean for a week. We've stayed with Krishan and his family on Trinidad&Tobago. Krishan is a former fellow-colleague of Bas, who went back home last July '09 and then he invited us over. If you tell us something like that... we will come for sure! Bas has given a lecture at Krishan's hospital (the San Fernando General) for specialists, residents and students of several surgical specialities. The Friday-morning rounds were quite busy! Bas also separately talked to the urology-staff & residents on how to build and work with databases as they want to set up their own research. But besides the medical part, the main purpose was of course: relax!!! We were invited to stay at Krishan's home and we had a great time there with him, his wife Reshmi and their two sons Viresh (5) and Vrishin (2). Liza connected very well to the boys and was constantly teasing and challenging them into playing and running around. Trinidad is more the residential island and Tobago is smaller and more about beaches.
Trinidad has beautiful beaches as well on the north coast and we visited one of them: Maracas Beach.

Liza absolutely loved it: she ran into the water and fell down many times because the undercurrent was quite strong.

First time in salt water: not so tasty! But it all made her laugh her head off!

Reshmi arranged for ice-creams.

Liza had her first popsicle ever and loved it!

And she loved to run and play in the sand with Viresh and Vrishin.

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At the end we had local food: shark&bake which is fried shark of a bun and Liza loved that too!

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Because of our visit, they had decided to take us a few days to Tobago. We arrived after a trip with this fast-ferry of about 2.5 hours.

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They had rented a great vacation-home for all of us with a private pool in which we had a lot of fun.

The next day we went to Pigeon Point: a beautiful beach with a lot of entertain-ment and activities.

We took a glass-bottom-boatride to see Bucco Reef.

This reef does not have very colourful corals because the water here is quite warm and therefore the corals are more grey, brown and green.

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After returning from Tobago we visited a few attractions on Trinidad with Krishan. First, we went to Pitch lake.

This is a surreal place: it is a lake where natural pitch (asphalt) comes up from within the earth, because Trinidad lies on the faultline of the Carribean tectonic plate.

The pitch is constantly moving. If you remove it (which is done by a company that exports the asphalt) it will slowly 'grow' back again.

The lake is in most parts hardened but some spots are soft and if you go in without a guide, you might step into it and if you're unlucky you might get stuck and sink slowly into the lake.

A specific lotusflower grows close by and the village next to the lake is also in constant movement. Wooden houses are able to take the movement but if you built with concrete it will break and crumble.
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We also visited a bird reserve (Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust) where they breed rare birds and release them into nature.

We saw -among others- the scarlet ibis which is the national bird of T&T. Interesting-ly, this reserve is based on the premisses of a large refinery!

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And we visited the Temple in the Sea. This is a Hindu temple built by one man -Siewdass Sadhu- and it is used for cremation and burial ceremonies. It is a beautiful and peaceful place.

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On the last day we visited Port of Spain, the capital of T&T. When we were there it felt like a nice city but Krishan tells us that every medical resident has to learn to treat shotwounds because there are several incidents every night.

The lookout-point that is nice at daytime is a very dangerous spot at night, especially for careless tourists!
Port of Spain also has the stadium in which Leo Beenhakker trained the national team for the Worldcup of 2006. Leo is of course the best known Dutchman in T&T!

For anyone with hawk eyes: find the stadium-lampposts on the lakeshore, far right.

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The parliament is located in the 'Red House' This is where in 1990 a coup took place. The prime minister and most of his cabinet were held hostage. After 6 days the hostage-takers surrendered and got amnesty based on a declaration signed by the prime minister.

Currently the Red House is being restored and because they had to renovate the roof, they've built a temporary one above it.

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The 2 towers of the ministry of finance are built by French engineers. They are built on one sollid concrete stick so that in case of an earthquake the whole building would move with the ground in one movement.

We were happy nothing happened during our visit especially since Reshmi told us that specialists predict an earthquake for T&T later this year...

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Unfortunately the week went by far too fast! We really loved it: the beautiful beaches, the Caribean food (prepared for us by Reshmi's mother) and the warm weather. But most of all we loved the hospitality of Krishan and Reshmi: thanks!!

When we flew back to Toronto we had to withstand a 40 degree drop in temperature: +30°C to -10°C...