Trinidad- Sue's View

After a working "holiday" if you could call it that in both Florida and South Carolina, I flew into Port Of Spain. I owe Damon and Melanie big because they endured picking me up at 3am and taking me for my return flight also at 3 am. They are REAL FRIENDS!! I spent a lot of my time in their home and even gave them what we called the Puerto Rican flu or funk. I was surprised that they let me return again for my return flight out of Orlando. My Mom and I spent "quality" time together cleaning the filthy mess that the renters left in our house. She also saved our cat Blackie Chan from the gas chamber and in doing so she now has two cats. Doug is thrilled and promises to take care of them. So I owe Mom and Daddy Eddie big, too! Seems like we owe everyone because it "takes a village" to help the homeless vagabonds. So thank you everyone. We will be forever in your debt! I also owe a big thank you to Rosanne and Wes, Ben Jansen's parents. My mom and I stayed at their house for a weekend. It was so much nicer to stay with friends than to camp out in a hotel room! While I am thanking everyone I want to thank Heidi and Kevin, (Doug's other parents), and Pat (another Jansen kid) for all of their help! We miss ya'll!

When I arrived here I was worried about clearing customs because I had all of Mike's medication with me. I also had a 64 pound box of books for Phillip's homeschooling. They were only interested in the box. So once again I got to empty all of its contents for inspection. Apparently they were looking for boat parts. So I passed. It was much easier than my St. Croix experience.

I arrived to a sparkling clean boat, a bottle of red wine and a banner welcoming me back. I think the crew missed me!



I missed them, too. I had forgotten how loud we are since I have been in homes with no kids!
It was raining and the rain continued for a week. In fact there has been only one mostly sunny day. I should not complain. It is hot here and without the rain it is really hot here, like hotter than hades. I know how hot it is because the boat is on the hard. It is 95 degrees in the cabin and the mosquitoes have had plenty of water to breed in since it is rainy season here. The fan I bought in West Marine on my trip home is a god send. It pushes the hot sticky air all over the cabin which helps, well sort of.

Mike and the boys are busy trying to fix the boat and I am here in the air conditioned Internet cafe. I haven't seen Mike this grubby in a long time. The boatyard is very dirty. I will have a lot of laundry to do when the job is done.

Meanwhile we did get invited to a pot luck. We met up with some boaters that we had sailed with on our trek down island. We also met several new people which was fun.

We are planning a trip up the Orinoco River in Venezuela where the people have limited contact with outsiders. The wildlife is supposed to be incredible, too. We have to find others who also want to go because it is so remote that if you do run into problems there will be someone there to help. We have to shop for supplies to trade with them. Phillip can't wait. They also do not speak English and speak only a little Spanish if any. So we have a list of Indian words to try to communicate with them. It will be an awesome experience. Unfortunately, the older boys will not be with us as they are flying home August 2nd. We will try to be as descriptive as Andrew in our writing!

We are hoping to have the boat repaired before Mike's parents come in on Thursday. Hopefully it will not be as rainy as well!