A Pictorial of Jim's Visit to the Islands of Trinidad, Grenada, Carriacou, and St. Lucia

Sunset off Trinidad

Chaquaramas, Trinidad

Customs Dock in Trinidad


Chef from South Park

Fishing Village - Trinidad

Severance in Grenada

Annie, Scott & Friend on Annie's Deck

The $1,000,000 View from Annie's Deck

Grenada Beach

Georgetown, Grenada

Leaving Grenada - passing by Annie's House

Carriacou

Severance in Carriacou

Captain Scott waiting for lunch

Scott's Lunch

Jim's Lunch

View of Carriacou

Leaving Carriacou for St. Lucia

Update

Just to bring everyone up to date. Danny, Rhonda, and Madeline stayed on in Brazil for an additional 2.5 weeks after I left. They had a wonderful time and Madeline has some incredible pictures which I intend to share, even though it was sans Severance. Rhonda has promised to write the blog for the additional adventures of Brazil. Think lily pads as big as a house!!

I left Brazil on April 5th. After staying on an additional 2 and a half weeks, Danny & Rhonda returned home and Madeline joined me in Treasure Island. We have had a wonderful time. Madeline has passed the test by bonding with Harpo whom she describes as a very naughty dog, but she loves him anyway. She is teaching him to dance.

In the two weeks Madeline has been here we have come to know Anna, a Brazilian neighbor of mine, very well. She has taken Madeline shopping at the "Brazilian Store" and has taught us how to get into a hammock without flipping out and has cooked us a traditional Brazilian meal.

Now Madeline and I are preparing to leave tomorrow (actually today since it is 2am Saturday, May 9th now) for St. Lucia. In the time since I left Brazil, Scott & Bill sailed to Trinidad, Jim Sexton met them in Trinidad and as Bill returned to Michigan, Jim, Armando & Scott sailed to Grenada where they visited Robyn's cousin and dearest friend Annie who recently accepted a position as a professor at the university there.

Armando is staying in Grenada where he is hoping to find another boat to sail on.

Scott & Jim left Grenada a few days ago heading to St. Lucia where Jim returned home and Scott met up with Eduardo. Eduardo (I know it is getting hard to keep up with the cast here) is married to Scott's cousin Janice. They are Canadians from Toronto. Eduardo and Janice flew to St. Lucia to meet up with Scott, where Eduardo will finish the journey with Scott. Scott was late meeting up with them, but at least Scott got a chance to see Janice and Jim made his flight.

Madeline and I leave tomorrow for St. Lucia. It is 2am and I decided that nearly a month after returning from Brazil it was time to finish my story before the next one begins. Scott will be home by early to mid June and the adventure is nearing an end. It was incredible, but I do believe he is ready to come home.

Good-bye Brazil

The next day was devoted to business. Madeline had decided to stay on in Brazil and travel with Danny and Rhonda. They wanted to go back to the island nature preserve that the guys had briefly stopped at on their way in. They also wanted to see some of the Amazon. Danny, Rhonda, and Madeline met with Armando’s travel agent friend Cecilia to plan the rest of their trip.

Armando had a number of things to take care of, doctor and dentist appointments.

Armando had also arranged for a doctor to treat Scott’s back. Actually Scott’s back had been in very bad shape since they left the Canaries. Armando’s parents had a doctor arranged to see Scott the minute they arrived in Fortaleza. Scott was treated and was now going for a follow up. Armando also had a job interview, so it was a very full day.

At 5:00 Armando’s parents had invited the women (Rhonda, Madeline, Sonia, and myself) to tea. The guys were going to hang out and meet up with us after the tea. Armando was going to pick up Bill and me at 4:30 and take me to the tea and Bill to join Scott & Danny. As Bill and I sat in the lobby at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, 6:30, I started to worry. My concern was nothing compared to the others who were in various locations waiting to be picked up. The doctor appointments ran over , etc .. you know how it is, and Armando never did make it to his job interview.

Anyway we did eventually make it to the tea, which was lovely. Armando’s parents have a lovely condo on the 14th floor with a wonderful view. They showed us pictures of their family and after the tea we enjoyed liquors on their balcony. Armando’s mother is an artist and she showed us some of her lovely paintings.

After that we met up with the guys at a local restaurant that boasted the best green beans in Brazil. Armando kept talking about the green beans. We were rather unimpressed, how much can you do with green beans? Well, these green beans were more like black beans (except they were green) and they were served in a cheese sauce in a cast iron pot, with the cheese boiling away. They were very good.

The next night, my last night in Brazil, we went clubbing! Armando and Sonnia took us to one of their favorite clubs in the city. Sonia’s mission was to teach us how to dance in the Brazilian style. Good luck with that!!!!




Of course Rhonda and Danny already knew all about Brazilian dancing.

The Group!!

Saturday – my last day in Brazil, we took Armando’s parents sailing. Armando’s mother, Eloisa, father – Armando Sr., his uncle, Eloisa’s brother, and Armando’s 2 year old daughter Linda (Linda means beautiful in Spanish, and she was).

It was a lovely sail and Armando was so proud of Linda – she was a natural sailor, at ease with the boat and wanting to steer!

It was a wonderful visit and we were so fortunate to have Armando, Sonia, Eloisa, and Armando Sr. to show us the real Brazil.

The Mountains

The next day Bill arrived. Bill is a friend from our college days. He is a commercial real estate agent with his own agency in Traverse City, Michigan. The economy being what it is, this seemed like a good time to get away from it all. He was replacing Danny and doing the leg from Brazil to Trinidad.

Once again we hired Gladstone’s services and this time headed for the mountains. Scott had been suffering back pains and decided to forego this trip.

We wound through beautiful scenery with quaint sights such as children playing in streams along side the road, a man riding a donkey with handmade baskets hanging off the saddle, and huge fields of banana trees. As we drove endlessly through these sites there seemed to be an animated conversation in Portuguese going on in the front seat between Gladstone and Armando. We learn later that Gladstone’s short cut added some time to our journey, but … so what!
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Sights along the route.

A small bar we stopped at to get some water and take a break. It was here that Rhonda and Danny (wine connoisseur’s extraordinaire) purchased a bottle of cashew wine. (Cashew wine??? How do they do that?)



Same town. You tell me what it says?

Refreshed, we continued on to our ultimate destination … the top of the mountain.
Left to right – Danny, Rhonda, Madeline, Diane, Bill.

Madeline & Bill getting a closer look. It was very overcast and we were above the clouds in spots.

We started back down the mountain going through a number of lovely towns. We had a pretty full car. We came to a town that had some very steep roads. Gladstone, for whatever reason, tried to power up the hills, slipping and not quite making it on the mossy wet cobblestone. People were coming out of their houses and scowling at us.

With much discussion between Armando & Gladstone, we headed to our next destination.

A waterfall. Everyone changed into swimsuits and took a dip.

It was agreed, the water was very cold.

Madeline was the first to make the dive.

Danny, Madeline and Bill all swam underneath the waterfall. Rhonda chose to enjoy it from a warmer place.

Brazilian plant life.

Seeds from a palm.

Bird of Paradise.

We headed home. On the way Armando had one more treat he wanted us to experience. He was looking for a place to get something called (and I may not spell it right, but this is what I thought it was) Tapioca. It is not the pudding we know. We made a few U-Turns as we came into the city, but we ended up in a little bakery where we got these pastries that were like little crepes with cheese on the outside. Hard to explain how they got the cheese on the outside and normally they have the cheese on the inside, so these were unique even to Armando.

As we were eating and talking and laughing, the young son of the proprietor was very interested in these exotic English speaking people. He ran away and brought back a whole group of friends to show them the strange people. We saw them peeking through the window at us!

Our last and final adventure before arriving back at the hotel was when we were actually back in Fortaleza. We were on a 3 lane divided highway and as we are all slightly dozing in the car, Gladstone suddenly swerves to the right. As we look up we see what he swerved to miss, a donkey walked off the side of the road right in to traffic. As Rhonda looked back she saw other cars swerving and braking. Only in Brazil!

The Beach and the Barbeque

Tuesday Armando made arrangements for us to go to Lagoinha, a beautiful beach with sand dunes about 100 kilometers outside Fortaleza.

He found a cab driver named Gladstone who had a vehicle big enough to hold 6 passengers. We were able to hire Gladstone’s services for the full day for 120 reals, which is about $70 US. We ended up using Gladstone as our driver for the rest of the week.

This beach was not crowded and much safer than the city beaches. We ordered large bottles of beer which they brought in insulated containers. As we finished a bottle, we removed it from the insulated container and put it under the table. At the end of the day, the beer bottles were tallied and we paid based upon the bottle count.

Rhonda and Madeline playing in the surf.

Armando arranged for us to take a dune buggy ride. The driver asked Armando – “With emotion or without emotion?” Armando said “With emotion, of course.” I sat up front with the driver. Rhonda, Danny, & Madeline sat perched on the back hanging on to the roll bar.

Goats in the sand dunes.

View from the top of one of the sand dunes.

Donkeys were roaming free and grazing in the dunes.

The driver took us to a little waterfall that we had to cross to get over to a fresh water lagoon. I was concerned about crossing the falls with my camera, so Danny volunteered to hold it. Halfway across the current became very strong and I felt bad about the responsibility I put on Danny. Just then the current swept Rhonda off her feet. As she grabbed for her husband to save her, he backed away and said “Don’t touch me! I have the camera.” Poor Rhonda! She was able to regain her footing and we had a good laugh.

The other side of the falls.

The falls from the top.

On the way back we crossed over the top of the falls. There was no current there and it was an easy, calm crossing. If I had lost my camera – and then learned about this easy crossing ….. then you would seen the real meaning of emotion!

At the start of the trip we came over the top of this huge dune and plunged straight down. It was unexpected (part of the “with emotion” version of the tour), and like a roller coaster. There were screams from the back as they grabbed hold of the roll bar. And Rhonda’s hat went flying.

On our way back to the beach we passed the roller coaster hill and there was Rhonda’s hat. Danny raced up the hill to get it (probably trying to make up for not saving her at the waterfall!!). You can barely see on the left side of the hill, just across from Danny, a blue jacket or sweater. Apparently this is an area where items often go flying.

Danny redeemed himself!!

This beach had a lot of fishermen, all fishing from these traditional, very old style boats. The mast and boom were made from branches, as was the helm man’s seat. The rudders were carved everything was lashed down with cheap blue nylon twine.

These boats are still built as they were in the old days. The sail is just cotton and they throw dippers of water on it to tighten the fabric to perform better as a sail. The mast is a series of tree trunks lashed together to taper it and also to give it shape and flexibility.

Launching these boats is a major effort. The crews from several boats all work together to get the boats past the waves that are breaking. They roll the boat down to the water on logs, very low tech. They then, run, push, shove, angle and maneuver until they get the boat past the breaking waves. They then anchor the boat out past the breakers and go in to work on the next man’s boat.

These fishermen were going out overnight. See the bend in the mast.

Portuguese Man O’ War.

After leaving the beach Armando took us to a Barbeque restaurant called Gaucho, at the little village of Cumbuco. Look at the size of those ribs!! And they were incredible, juicy and crisp and a great flavor.

Bones picked clean.

Group shot with the owner (middle) and Gladstone (back row, left).

What a wonderful day.