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Feb 25, 2004

By 10:00 a.m, the route to Maracas Beach turns into a parking lot, every

year, on the Wednesday after carnaval (Ash Wednesday). The is the

semi-official Beach Day on the island. From the city center, it takes as

long as four hours to drive to and from the beach area, a 10-mile trip.

Despite this activity, Ash Wednesday here, in Trinidad, is not a holiday.

Therefore, it is not unusual to meet children in school uniforms and

adults in corporate gear, a few hours after fete-ing with them in much

less consersative outfit.

At 7:30 a.m., this Wednesday, we were already at Maracas. We moved to Las

Cuervas, 3-mile away, on the insider trading tip that the big party (with

the band, the radio FM station reporters, and all the dream women of our

lives) to Las Cuervas.

The party at Las Cuervas was not unforgettable. We drank coco juice, ate

corn, swam, and engaged in world-saving discussions. In the afternoon, on

the way home (to the Hilton), we stopped at Maracas to have our bake &

shark dish, a must for the visitor, as much are the curry goat and the

roti.

This has been a necessary post-carnaval relaxing day. It will end tonight

with a dinner at Veni Mange, the time-honored creole eatery in

Port-of-Spain. Another must.

(The Traveller, Wednesday, February 25, 2004)