Sun 13/10-2013 Day 534

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6C2RYxfTL-c/UlvHF8pb1pI/AAAAAAAAXmU/flUQO70-KMc/s144-c-o/PA130048.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5934555838983952018″ caption=”Simon, Glenn’s son, played the box base” type=”image” alt=”PA130048.JPG” ]

 

An overload of socializing 🙂
Pos: here
Loc: Chaguarama/ Trinidad
Acc: Michel and Nevine’s house

I forgot to have breakfast on writing my long missing updates all morning. But no problem, I can write and work as long as I can paddle and eat at one time. We were invited to a Sunday afternoon barbecue at Jenny’s and Ricky’s house where two other international young kayak travellers were staying. Graham and Russell Henry from Victoria/ Vancouver Island in Canada are on a trip from Belém in Brazil up to Florida via the chain of island in the Caribbean. They have just also arrived and have been passing along the coastline I will now have to paddle, but the other, harder way against current and wind…. Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana and the beginning of Brazil, so I was keen to hear from them how it is like there.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh6.ggpht.com/-BH49X2NEF3Y/UlvHxiac68I/AAAAAAAAXl8/NjOqAFdaAcE/s144-c-o/PA130054.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5934556587856030658″ caption=”Peter, Michel, Russell, Glenn, Graham, Simon” type=”image” alt=”PA130054.JPG” ]

 

Graham was the more talkative one, and he gave me a lot of valuable information. Thanks, Graham! Russell was rather busy entertaining the young ladies of the house, he also came just back from a run when we arrived, so did he really put all of his energy into kayaking? I don’t even think of doing sports in my paddling breaks, must be the age 🙂 – the young guys are just 20 and 21. I also learned I have already been sleeping in Graham’s bed – when I was hosted by his father Brian Henry at his Ocean River Sports shop on my talk in Vancouver Island in February 2010! I didn’t know they were the same family, and the boys hadn’t been there at that time. The kayaking world is so small!

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-Al_G1YAyoEc/UlvGsRHGA_I/AAAAAAAAXl8/Fh8D07fch3w/s144-c-o/PA130047.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage16VenezuelaTrinidadGuyanaCaracasToGeorgetown#5934555397800461298″ caption=”The barbecue party band: Gerard and Glenn with their Quattros and Ricky on the guitar” type=”image” alt=”PA130047.JPG” ]

 

I really enjoyed the barbecue food Jenny and Ricky prepared and loved their well decorated house. Later the afternoon, Gerard, Glenn, Ricky and Simon formed a local music band with Glenn and Gerard on the Quattro (small four string guitars) and Simon at the box base, a simple local instrument made out of a wooden box with a large hole (I first thought it was a pet home…) and a broomstick with a string you stretch like a bow, more or less, depending of the sound hight you like to play. Amazing skills and music!

Unfortunately my focus was rather on looking with Graham over the maps of the following coastline, and I couldn’t enjoy the music as much as I’d have liked to, with maybe a glass of wine or two…but I will be staying a bit longer!

All in all I felt my sore throat after an afternoon with a lot of talking, as I am simply not used anymore to talk so much paddling by myself! But it was really a pleasure to socialize again, thanks to all people having been there to make it a pleasant afternoon!

5 comments on “Sun 13/10-2013 Day 534

Karen

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
We have so much to be thankful for. Good food, family, friends, an incredible planet, the air we breathe, the water we drink, support for adventures, easy times and difficult times, kindness, love and the flow of the universe.
The list goes on.
Thank you Freya for doing this adventure and bringing awareness to the beautiful oceans and bodies of water as well as the shore lines of many nations.

Karen

Glad you are in good hands and safe in Trinidad.
Change is as good as a rest they say. Freya I hope you can shift and hear some of the music Glen is referring to.
Happy to hear fellow Canadians are sharing their experience with you!
What a wonderful interconnected world we live in.

Randall Lackey

Thats great that youve run up on the guys who have just traveled where you are going. Hopefully youre loading up on good valuable info to help you along.Ive been blogging with two ladies doing the ASRT river trail that I completed in june.Ive been givingvthem my knowledge of the river and where is good to stay and such.Theyve nearly completed the trip now themselves.I hope Ive been of some help to them as well.Enjoy your stay.Take care.

Glenn Wilkes

The “music” yesterday could be described as a transition from what you heard in Venezuela, and reflects both our heritage as a former Spanish colony, as well as the continuing relationship with our neighbours across the gulf. I hope you can sacrifice a couple more hours from your well-deserved resting time to experience what is uniquely Trinidad’s music – the steelband, which comprises instruments made from oil drums.

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