Chaguaramas, Trinidad
10.40.822N
61.37.899W

Jesse, our guide, and about 8 other drivers he recruited, picked up over a hundred of us cruisers to ferry us to a Hindu temple in Felicity, Trinidad, to witness the celebration of Divali, the Hindu New Year and the Festival of Light. This was like a cross between Christmas and the Fourth of July. It appeared that the whole town dressed in traditional Indian attire and deyas (clay lamps) were lighted at sun down to show the triumph of light over darkness. They reminded me of our luminaries on Christmas Eve except for the occasional bamboo rockets being set off throughout the evening.

We began by entering the temple gates to the music of drums and cymbals being played by only 3 people but loud enough to hear throughout the village. We removed our shoes before entering the temple itself and were captivated by the beautiful colors displayed in the artwork and statutes depicting their various deities.

The Pundit (the temple priest) described the five day festival as beginning on the date of the new moon with a thorough house cleaning and opening of windows to welcome Mother Laksmi, the goddess of light. Kali, the goddess of strength, is called upon so that laziness and evil can be abolished on the second day. The lighting of the deyas takes place on the third day (the last day of their lunar year). The fourth day is the first day of the New Year and a time for old business accounts to be settled and new books opened. This is also the day that participants are encouraged to removed anger, hate, and jealousy from their lives. Finally, there is Balipratipada, when the life of the ancient king Bali is celebrated and everyone is encouraged to look for the good in others, including their enemies.

We were also entertained by a young Indian dancer. Many of her moves reminded me of the South Pacific dancers. Some of her hand movements reminded me of the gentle hands of Hawaiian dancers and other dance steps more akin to the Tahitian dances. At the end of the program, we were encouraged to join in the dancing but I prefer to keep all of my belly dancing behind closed doors, it keeps the laughter to a minimum.

We ate a traditional Indian dinner with our fingers from giant leaves the size of placemats. We used something akin to shredded pie dough to pick up curried beans, plantains, mangos, coconut burfi (like dried cookie dough), and a few other things I didn’t recognize but certainly enjoyed the taste of.

After our dinner, we walked along the streets of the village enjoying the displays of deyas and the beautify saris the women wore and the traditional garb the men wore. We stopped and talked with a retired customs officer who explained the symbol his deyas were placed in. It represented the trinity of his religion. Again, it reminded me of how similar this was to ours.

We finished our tour of the village and returned to catch our bus back to the marina and made it back before Elaine arrived with her son-in-law, David. Roger was too ill from his chemo and radiation to travel.

Clearly this was a difficult task for her to undertake but she wanted no assistance from outside her immediate family and we abided by her wishes. Dale and Dennis were able to lend a hand by replacing all of the canvas that had been removed for the season and shuttled them and their belongings back and forth a couple of times but other than that, she preferred to work alone. Surprisingly, she was able to accomplish everything she had set out to do in the single day that she had allotted herself. She gave Dale some wine and her conch horn that she blew at sunset and me some rum and her Mexican Dominos that we had learned to play in Luperon.

Life has dealt our friends a terrible blow and in turn, anyone who knew them. The most frustrating part is knowing that there is nothing we can do or anything we can say, that will change what’s happened or ease their pain. I was glad to hear Elaine comment that she had been able to sleep the first night she was with us, attributing it to the rocking of the boat and being back home on the water. I wish we could provide the same comfort to Roger.

Jesse picked Elaine and David up at 4 am for their return trip to the airport. Once again, Jesse amazed us with his dedication; I don’t think the man ever sleeps.

Just when I thought the crime spree had ended, Tuesday we had another mugging of someone heading back from the bank. On Wednesday, a restaurant located a couple of hundred feet from the back of our boat and one we had planned on going to that evening, was robbed by 3 men brandishing machetes and hand guns. We had changed our minds about going because we were running late from all of our shopping. The thieves approached the owner just before closing and robbed him of the nights’ proceeds. They were apparently surprised to find so many customers still in attendance but then quickly relieved them of their cash and credit cards and fired off a couple of rounds just to make their point. No one was injured seriously; a few cuts from the machetes. Again, it took a couple of hours before the local police showed up. The hired security never saw them or heard the gun shots.

We finished our week with preparations for leaving on the 1st of November. I’ve overstocked again and am in the process of precooking several meals for those days when we pull into an anchorage late; I’ll save the laundry until the very last day to make sure we’re as fresh as possible. Dale is running through all of the systems to make sure they are in working order, as well as coordinating a few last minute details for the transfer of DocNoMore to the new owners.
So once again, we’ll take off on a new adventure next week. Hopefully, we’ll meet up with Gerry & Nicky in December and there will be wonderful things to write about.