Trinidad Carnival 2020 Recap

I survived Trinidad Carnival.

This should be on a t-shirt that I proudly wear, especially since I came back last Wednesday and my legs/back/ankles/knees aren’t back to normal.

What an amazing experience. I went to the greatest show on earth and lived to tell about it in what is about to probably be a lengthy blog post. So much happened and the week went by wayyyy too fast for me.

I’ve done Cropover in Barbados three times and I’ve done Carnival in Jamaica once – but truly, Trinidad Carnival is the mecca of Carnivals in the Caribbean. Although all the Carnivals have something wonderful and different to offer their diaspora and foreigners like myself, Trinidad is the top.

Being the top also came with certain expectations from me. I have many friends who repeatedly return to this week of extravagance and I wanted to see it for myself. This week is also really costly, as I showed in my popular Trinidad Carnival 2020 Budget Breakdown. If something is going to cost me over $4000.00 for a week, you better believe I’m coming into the experience with a HIGH expectation of awesomeness.

The week delivered for me. Within a day of being in Port of Spain, I understood why people spend so much and keep returning. My week in Trinidad really came down to five things: food, the wonderful locals, food, soca, and did I mention food? Yeaaaah.

I broke it down day by day so I could organize my thoughts better.

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Before Trinidad

On this adventure to Trinidad and Tobago I was blessed to go with my three best friends. Jummy, Sherry and Lorren. Although I knew I’d run into a bunch of other people I know while in Trinidad (heyyy Flexx, Kyra, Sajae, Martika, Sergei, Wanna, Vanna and Andrew!) – my three besties would be the housemates and squad for the week.

Planning for Carnival began a year ahead when we booked our flight with Caribbean Airlines. If you’ve been to any Carnival you know the three priorities are always FLIGHT, STAY, COSTUME. If you have those three handled, you already ahead of the game.

Flight we had, and thanks to our friends Vanna and Andrew who live in Trinidad, they helped us navigate the committee system for getting a costume with the famous band Tribe. All four of us got into our respective sections with the band pretty easily.

The ‘stay’ portion though? Well, that didn’t come as easy. In retrospect, it was actually a pain in the ass. I have been doing itineraries for Trinidad Carnival for a couple of years now and I knew that finding a place to stay can be tricky. People book up places MORE than a year ahead and the costs associated can be astronomical. Unlike Barbados and Jamaica where I found accommodations to be very simple to find (last minute even), this wasn’t the case in Trinidad. The greatest show on earth also had the greatest scramble to find a well-located and decently priced place for the week. Again, we were fortunate to have Vanna and Andrew help us with this search.

Through some connections, an impeccably-located place was up for grabs.

47 Cornelio Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain.

I may not know much about Port of Spain prior to going there, but I damn well knew this Woodbrook area was where you want to be during Carnival. Our location would be like twenty seconds away from the busy Ariapita Ave (aka, ‘the Avenue’) and about the same distance from another street that proved to be important during our stay there, Tragarete Rd.

We had to have it. We got it. Long story short, sending wire transfers to a foreign country is a really annoying process when they have to also go through the United States. The process the owner wanted for payment was Canada —> USA —> Trinidad. PayPal and e-transfer just wouldn’t do. We went the wire transfer route, and big shocker, it somehow fucked up because of the million numbers you have to get right to transfer the funds. In the end, guess what happened? Yep, an e-transfer. Which we could have done from the beginning, and saved ourselves the worry and headache of ‘shit, I hope we get this place‘.

So by January, we had all three of the big items. Flight paid for. Costume balance paid off. Stay secured.

We were grateful we did get the place we wanted, especially because of the location, but holy banana bread I have to say for myself it didn’t set me up for the best mood before Carnival. If this is how difficult things were before, was this how the whole experience would be?

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Thursday, February 20th, 2020

Arrival in Trinidad

We landed in Port of Spain at 4am on Thursday, February 20th. We took the red-eye flight from Toronto with Caribbean Airlines.

The first thing you notice when you land in Piarco International Airport (which I appreciated very much) is that EVERYTHING is open. All the duty free, food and mobile phone spots were open and playing soca. I love that.

Our priorities at this point were to get a SIM card for our phones for the week and naturally, a bottle for the cooler fete we would go to later in the day.

The first phone stand we saw was for BMobile. I had never heard of them, as usually on my trips to the Caribbean I would use my Rogers Roam Like Home or get a Digicel SIM. But, when we saw the prices?

HELL YEAH. The plan we all got was the 7-day plan which came to $25.00USD. This included the international SIM, unlimited data and unlimited local and international calls and texts. The part that mattered to me the most was the ‘unlimited data‘ as anyone who follows me on Instagram would know, I love to post things on my IG story constantly. For $25USD for the week, this was a steal for me. Even my Roam Like Home would have come to about 3x this amount. I highly suggest getting this plan, for the week there was always a speedy connection and no service disruptions. Obviously, not when the actual parade was going on as there’s thousands of people trying to use the internet same time. Don’t expect much service at those times on any phone plan.

Jummy had arranged an airport pick up for us to come at 5am-ish. Nice big pickup truck to fit all four of us and all of our luggage. It was wonderful feeling the warmth in Trinidad after coming from cold ass Canada.

Clearing customs quickly and having no traffic on the road at that time of night to get to our place was great. We were ahead of schedule for everything.

We (eventually) were let into our place on Cornelio. There was two bedrooms, a living room, dining area and a bathroom. One bathroom for four women during Carnival wasn’t exactly our favourite option, but shockingly it didn’t end up being as big of a mess as we thought. Over the week, it rarely proved to be an issue. There was enough mirrors for everyone, even though two of them were brought in from Canada.

Transport in Trinidad

Because of our amazing location which was in close proximity to 95% of what we would be doing, we didn’t hire a driver for the week. Typically for Carnival I prefer having my own driver but it was just not needed this time. However, that other 5% of the time we needed a ride, we found great alternatives.

Before heading to Trinidad make sure to download the TTRideShare app. I never got my profile ‘verified’ but I was able to use it all week anyways. It is like a local Uber option, but they take cash upon completion of ride not charge your card directly. We had a ride out almost 45 minutes away to get to Soca or Die and the cost one-way was only 67.00 TT (which is $13.30 CAD).

For the women traveling, I highly suggest downloading the Pink Cab app. These are ALL women drivers who only drive women. We all LOVED this service. For the times TTRideShare was too busy and couldn’t find a driver, Pink Cab came through. Not only is it nice and safe as a woman to take this option, you can also pre-arrange your pick ups. If we knew we would have to leave for somewhere later at 6pm, we would book a pick up from like 1pm or 2pm. This would have you avoiding wait times finding a driver in the area. It came in clutch, and the cost was just as low as TTRideShare.

If you don’t intend on using either of these apps and want to take your chances with just grabbing a taxi on road, remember that the ‘P’ designation on license plates is for private vehicles and if it is a taxi then the license plate will begin/have the designation beginning with an ‘H’.

Soca Or Die

After a nice nap, it was time for us to book our TTRideShare and head out to Chaquacabana Resort in the Chaguaramas area for Soca or Die. We stopped by the Massey supermarket to grab chaser for our alcohol and also picked up some ice along the way. This was a cooler fete wherein you’re allowed to bring your own alcohol to the party. (YOU HEAR THAT TORONTO? YEAH LOOSEN THE DAMN LIQUOR LAWS SO I CAN DO THAT HERE AS WELL)

This would be the first edition of Soca or Die in Trinidad. All of us had attended the party many times in Toronto and we HAD TO go support Dr. Jay for his venture into Trinidad.

I thought the vibes at the party were awesome. It wasn’t packed and the location was beautiful. It was on the water and there was pools in the middle you could go cool off in. The music was great and it was a good party to set the tone for Carnival week.

Costume Pick Up

We left Soca or Die at about 6pm to head back into town to pick up our costumes at MovieTowne. We were lucky again with traffic, as during the time we were heading towards the center of Port of Spain, people were heading outwards to another party called Farmhouse. Perfect timing.

Once we arrived at MovieTowne the first thing that we took care of was eating. Dancing makes you hungry you know?

There was KFC. One of the staples of visiting the Caribbean is you MUST try their KFC. I will say the KFC in Trinidad was super speedy, it tasted good but I still prefer the one in Jamaica more (an opinion I was demolished over on Twitter). Also, I would find out later that there was a WAYYYY superior fried chicken place in Trinidad to eat.

I think pick up for our costumes took maybe 30 minutes all together? We had Vanna and Andrew there to give us the hook up so it went quicker than I anticipated. Also, Tribe had rolled out this Masqueraders App where you could just scan a barcode and the pick up would be digitized. I liked the process.

Once the costumes were picked up, we went downstairs to open our individual boxes and go through all the pieces ensuring the sizing was correct and that all the pieces were inside the box. Good to go.

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Friday, February 21st, 2020

Silent Morning

Waking up a 6am for a damn boat ride isn’t exactly my cup of tea okay? Holy crap was I unimpressed by the timing on Friday morning.

The boarding time was 8am and the time of departure for the boat was supposed to be 9am. Now, I’ve been on plenty of boat rides and I know that shit never leaves at the reported time. It was really hot that morning, I just wanted to get into the shade I didn’t care what time the boat would leave because we were on time and I knew it wouldn’t leave us.

I believe the boat finally left at around 10am. It left MANY people at the dock, it was clearly visible from the boat. People looked pretty upset, and stories came out that some DJ’s had also been left in the parking lot when the boat left. I mean, the damn boat left an hour late – what else could they have done at that point?

The music on the boat was really good and the views over the water were equally as good. The party was food and liquor inclusive, and we took advantage of getting some of the roti and plenty of the rum.

At one point the boat docked and we were told we’d have 30 minutes to go enjoy the water. That was a lie. I don’t think I spent even 10 minutes in the water when suddenly an announcement was made to get back on it. That was disappointing. I was really enjoying the swim in those hot temperatures. Bleh.

We got back on the boat and the party continued and was great. I lost track of time but I think the boat got back around 2:00pm.

Long Walk and Jouvert Pick Up

So we met up with our good friend Flexx on this boat who is a Trinidadian and had been to Port of Spain many times. We told him we wanted some doubles to which he said he would walk with us to find some ‘close by‘. Bullshit. I don’t know how long this damn walk was, but that took foreeeeever. In sandals and in the heat, oh it was crazy. By the time we finished walking, we were back in frigging Woodbrook. ‘Close by’ my ass.

The pick up for our j’ouvert items was between 12pm-5pm in the area, so we figured may as well do that along the way. Shout out to Red Ants J’Ouvert as the pickup was seamless and we didn’t take more than six minutes to get through the whole process.

The hunger we had for those doubles never left us, but now we just wanted anything to eat after trekking kilometers home. We sat down at Irie Bites and ate some delicious jerk pork. I love jerk pork SO MUCH.

We split with Flexx after food and head back to our place to relax before the evening festivities. We took a moment to look through our Tribe goodie bag at this time and DAMN what an amazing goodie bag. Usually along with your costume, the mas bands will also include a small bag with items from their sponsors or to help you during your time at Carnival. This usually has some energy drinks, temporary tattoos, maybe liquor and sometimes condoms.

This goodie bag though? SHEEEEESH. It came in this huge pink backpack and had sneakers in it. Yes, actual Tribe-branded sneakers. The women all got pink ones and the men got gray ones. The other thing I loved that came in the goodie bag was the pink Tribe bottle. I love a nice heavy water bottle and this one was sturdy as heck. I was very impressed.

The night got later and I realized, we still didn’t have any damn doubles. How had I been in Trinidad for over 24hrs and NOT had this deliciousness? I put on some clothes and decided to walk the 20 seconds over to the Avenue and fetch some. I was told the S&S place would have the best ones but there was another vendor named Bobby’s next to it and I couldn’t decide. So I bought 10 from each. I came home with 20 doubles. This is exactly why no one should go looking for food while hungry!

The girls and I ate the doubles and for the record, I really enjoyed the ones from Bobby’s more.

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Saturday, February 22nd, 2020

Pandemonium

We woke up at 1am to get ready for a party we expected to be AWESOME. The party was called Pandemonium. This would be the second year it was held and we heard for its inaugural year it was an amazing event. We chose to do this instead of the more popular AMBush. Both were liquor-inclusive and you end up covered in paint by the end of it.

The expectations of Pandemonium was high for its sophomore year.

Sadly, it didn’t deliver.

The party time was slated to be from 2am-8am. Granted, did we have to arrive exactly at 2am knowing shit never starts on time? No. You’d expect that maybe it’ll get going by 3am then right? Wrong.

We got to the location and hundreds of other people were outside waiting on the dark, quiet streets. No music was playing, no liquor was present and even the music trucks were JUST arriving and being set up. While we were standing there I was corresponding with one of my better connected (carnival-wise) friends on Twitter who said she was being told not to bother showing up until 5am. That can’t be right. I laughed it off because no way things would be THAT late right? WRONG AGAIN.

They began letting us into the grounds at around 4am finally. It was a clusterfuck. There’s no other way to say it. The crowds were huge and completely unorganized. Only one drink truck was up and running when we got inside and they were handing out light-up rods and headpieces.

You know what time we finally left for the damn road? 5:30am. Three and a half hours after the party began. I’m not kidding. We waited outside for 75% of that in the quiet and no liquor being distributed. It went from being a 6hrs party to, well, you now have 2.5hrs to go. Terrible.

The party was good ONCE IT BEGAN. But by that time all our moods were soured. We tried to make the best of it and still have fun but when the wait for a party to begin is longer than the actual party, it wasn’t easy. No doubt in my mind that Pandemonium would have been an awesome party, if it had JUSTTTT started within a reasonable time advertised or if they had let us know to stay home and sleep some more until 5am. Completely unimpressed, I wanted this party to be awesome because I legitimately heard only wonderful comments about it from 2019. Disappointing.

Soca Brainwash

Once we got home from the disappointment that was Pandemonium, we took a nap until 12pm to get ready for Soca Brainwash.

If you’ve never heard of Soca Brainwash, this is THEEEE event for Carnival. DJ Private Ryan pulls out all the stops for this event. To say we were hype for this experience would completely understate it.

Lorren and I went ahead to be there for 2pm for the party. Once we arrived it was already in full swing and it was beautiful. Not even beautiful, breathtaking. This HUGE space was decorated and lavish. Lanterns and dance performances and dragons. Wow. You really had to take some time to walk around and have your senses take it all in.

There was more bars than I could count and plenty of food. We enjoyed some pholourie, bake and shark, buss up shut and goat. To die for. I never waited longer than ten seconds for a drink and the food lines were decent.

All the kudos and love to DJ Private Ryan for this event. Just from the logistical aspect of it, knocked it out of the park. I loved this party. If there was any day I would love to relive from my time at Trinidad Carnival it would be the time we spent at Soca Brainwash. The music, the vibes, the decorations, food and liquor. Perfection. The event was so damn good it made us completely forget the shitty experience from Pandemonium.

If you can only go to one party while you’re in Trinidad – this is the one. Do not miss this.

After Soca Brainwash finished, we were hungry again.

Jummy had told us about this Me Asia restaurant that was really close to our stay. We went there and sat down to peruse their huge menu. Pepper shrimp. That’s it. Get the damn pepper shrimp. I could have EASILY eaten three plates of it myself.

Make sure that if you want to try some good Chinese food in Trinidad, this is a great spot.

Shit, if you want to eat ANY KIND OF GOOD FOOD – just go to Trinidad. Period.

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Sunday, February 23rd, 2020

I wanted to do absolutely nothing on the Sunday. I planned for this day of nothingness a long time and I’m happy this was the choice made. Lorren and Sherry took a ride over to Maracas beach for the day so this left Jummy and I at the house. She didn’t have plans until later in the afternoon, so it was time to go get some food.

This is where I will tell you that if you are a foodie, Trinidad is your paradise. I’ve been to 42 countries and Trinidad is officially #2 on my BEST food rankings. It is only second to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Everything in this country was delicious. I spent my Sunday making sure I ate as much as humanly possible.

Jummy suggested we go to a place called El Pecos Grill for breakfast. I’m so glad she had this idea. Do you see this damn plate?

Stew Fish – Dumpling – Callaloo – Coo Coo – Pigtail Oildown – Macaroni Pie – Saltfish Provision

And the other side had macaroni and potato salad. ARE YOU DUMB? I’m writing this and I want to cry because I could go for all of this right now all over again.

Not sure if this counts as breakfast but I don’t care. I absolutely demolished this plate. The damn callaloo is even in the shape of a heart, it’s like the plate knew how I felt about it.

I know you see the plate above and think I’d be done for the day. You obviously don’t know me very well. I was temporarily done eating. Later in the day I would find the magical deliciousness that is GYROS in Trinidad.

I had both Yousef’s and Samer’s gyros while I was in Trinidad and it doesn’t matter which one you choose, just go get one. The garlic sauce in Trinidad is made from some special addictive potion I am sure of it. I ended up eating gyros three nights in a row after tasting the first one. Obsessed.

After putting myself in another food coma, I figured I’d lay out all the outfits and items I’d need for the next two days of events.

J’ouvert clothes.

Carnival Monday clothes.

Carnival Tuesday clothes.

Plus all those wristbands I’d need.

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Monday, February 24th, 2020

Red Ants J’Ouvert

I love anything that involves paint and partying. In Barbados when I go to Cropover, their Foreday morning is what I look forward to more than anything. I heard the j’ouvert in Trinidad was unbelievable and it was time to experience it.

The first thing that was awesome about Red Ants J’Ouvert is that it began ON TIME. We arrived and trucks were already blaring music, liquor was available and so were the doubles and aloo pie at their snack trucks.

We got on the road at around 3am and the paint began to SPRAY. I had never seen so much paint in my life. There was one truck we ended up behind that was literally spraying it from a hose. Crazy.

J’ouvert was a good time, but, way too crowded and cramped. I understand fully that going with a big j’ouvert band like Red Ants is like going with a huge band like Tribe for Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Yes, there will be massive crowds of people. I just didn’t feel comfortable in it. There was no space to even stop and dance. Between the narrowness of the roads, the thousands of people and the huge music/drink trucks it made moving around and dancing too cramped for me. My friends agreed and we decided to leave at 6am instead of holding out until 8am. We had to be on road for Carnival Monday in our fancy outfits by 11am anyways, so a chance for a nap? Sure.

Okay, so prior to heading to Trinidad people kept telling me to be careful and don’t go out gallivanting alone at night too much etc. I don’t tend to listen too well to that because I know a lot of the time that is people projecting their own fears onto me. I always stay vigilant, but still do whatever I like because fear won’t stop me.

As we walked back from j’ouvert we thought it would be best to walk on the Avenue since that was a busy road and we figured it would be safest. Listen, those were some of the longest 15 minutes of my life.

Unlike the other days, there wasn’t much police presence this morning on the Avenue and there was no j’ouvert going on there. As we were walking one man grabbed my friend Sherry’s arm so hard I’m pretty sure her shoulder could have popped out of the socket. Followed by another man trying to get in my face, to which I realized it was not the time or place for me to react to anything. We just wanted to get back to our place safe and sound.

I get what people were trying to warn me about now. Loud and clear.

Carnival Monday with Tribe

Earlier in the post I had mentioned how perfect our location was for Carnival, but on Carnival Monday it became even more apparent. The actual parade went right by us on Tragarete Rd. We literally had to exit our place, walk 30 seconds to the left and we were able to join the parade. So blessed.

We were up and getting dolled up. Sherry had purchased 96 inches of hair to put into a braid for me. I usually look pretty regular and basic during Carnival (compared to my very fancy friends with nice hair and nice makeup). Today I would look a little nicer. The braid looked awesome, even though I suffered two 3rd degree burns from when the hair had to be put into boiling water and the water ended up on me. Not my favourite experience.

I liked the Monday of Carnival. The breakfast was good, the music on the road was great and the rest stop had delicious food! Again, it was a little too crowded for me, but manageable.

Unfortunately within that crowd, at one point it began to pour rain. I don’t get bothered by rain when it is Carnival because I don’t wear makeup and it’s just hair. Never bothers me. This time though, it began raining just after I had applied sunscreen. Have you ever experienced sunscreen dripping in your eyes? Very unpleasant burning. I became disoriented because I couldn’t see and within this crowded space ended up between a ditch and a music truck. I had nowhere else to go, so obviously I chose the ditch. Boom. Rolled my damn ankle. An ankle I had injured just last year at basketball.

So within the same day I had boiling water hit my skin, fell in a ditch, rolled my ankle and oh yeah, my shoulders and nose burned to heck in the sun. The sunscreen that burned my eyes wasn’t even protecting my skin adequately. I said to hell with this, after the lunch stop I limped home. From my understanding I think Carnival Monday finishes at around 7-8pm and I went home at 5pm to wrap and elevate my ankle. So not too bad.

I knew I had to head home because on Monday I was outside all day in sneakers and still managed to injure my ankle, but you see Tuesday? It would be my first time playing mas in boots and I needed my ankle to be 100% before all that could happen.

Traveling with two nurses was a Godsend on Carnival Monday. Lorren rubbed Tiger Balm all over my injured ankle, wrapped it in a tensor band and began the healing process.

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Tuesday, February 25th, 2020

Carnival Monday with Tribe

Lorren’s magic worked. I was up at 7am to get ready for Carnival Tuesday and my ankle was good to go. My skin was still burnt to a crisp, but that comes with the super paleness territory. It was another lucky situation wherein the parade went by Tragarete Rd. for us though. Something positive.

This day was WAY longer than the one before. We got onto the road at 8am and were out until 10pm. So on an injured ankle, I danced for most of that day in the heat, in my boots. I’m very proud of myself that I made it the whole day.

Everything up to arriving at the Socadrome was going wonderfully. There was a breakfast, snacks, liquor pouring and the music was great. Again, really packed, but still vibes.

Sadly, the time spent at the Socadrome was painful and tedious. From what I am hearing the band ahead of us was super late or took too long to cross the stage there. I’m still not fully sure. But I do know what we got to the Socadrome grounds at around 11:30am and didn’t cross the stage until 2pm. That is a lonnnngg time to be waiting to cross the famous stage. The pinnacle of the day where the judges get to see all the beautiful people in the different mas bands. You want to be super hype for this crossing and making it to this point but that wait really ruined some of it for me.

Once we went to cross, I felt something didn’t go right? I had seen numerous videos of what crossing the stage in Trinidad looked like and I feel that ours just didn’t go that way. Our music truck wasn’t even close to us when we crossed. The ‘Stage Gone Bad‘ was happening in front of me. We could barely hear the music from our truck and it felt like we got let onto the stage and it was hype for a second and then folks just stopped and looked around like????? I don’t think it was supposed to go like that. Guess I’m just not fully sure.

After crossing it was a long walk to finally get some food, so about 4pm. The rest was needed and welcomed. The food was delicious for a second day in a row, and because we had a Tribe X wristband we were able to get a blanket to relax for a bit in the VIP area of the resting spot.

If I had to guess, I’d say around 6-6:30pm is when we got back on the road. We had a really good rest and now that we were fed and legs were refreshed, more dancing was to be had.

Eventually the music trucks began turning the music off and leaving the road and we were instructed to head over to Last Lap. This is supposed to be the big hurrah in one place to celebrate the ending of Carnival Tuesday. It’s also your chance to interact with people from other bands that you didn’t get to see over the two previous days. Rogue. Bliss. So cool.

Shame that when we got there they were out of food already but nonetheless, the music was good and we enjoyed the party until 10pm.

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Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

The worst thing ever. Time to go home.

After a year of planning and a week of partying, you have to leave this beautiful place and its warmth to head back to cold Canada. Ash Wednesday is a brutal slap back to reality.

Our flight back to Toronto was at 1pm, so at least we didn’t have to be up super early to get ready. The same driver that brought us from the airport came to bring us back.

I like Piarco Airport because as soon as I got there I saw Royal Castle. Locals had been mentioning that this place would surpass what the KFC tasted like and they were right. Their chicken was verrrryyy good. Not sure if it was the best breakfast I could have had, but oh well! Last day of this vacation, I would eat whatever the fuck I want.

We also managed to hit up the souvenir shop (got my magnet) and a snacks shop. I purchased some spicy cheese-filled rolls? DELICIOUS. And I also purchased five bottles of the local coconut water. I had drank gallons of it over the week and there was no way I’d go home without some coming with me.

Naturally, I also took advantage of the two white Hennessy white bottles for $90USD deal as well. My boyfriend and parents would be really happy with this choice when I got back.

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Best time ever.

Trinidad Carnival 2020 was one for the books. I have to take this final area of the post to thank the locals in Trinidad for welcoming foreigners so warmly and for sharing their culture with us. The amount of ‘enjoy Carnival!’ and ‘you’ll be back!’ I heard was crazy. I loved it. Trinidadians take a lot of pride in their Carnival and want people to have a damn good time at it and come back again and again.

When I travel, a lot of the best impressions left on me by the many countries I’ve been to are done by the locals in said country. In this case, Trinidad left a memorable impression. The locals and food proved to be MOREEEE than enough reason to return again, it just won’t be for Carnival. Tobago anyone?

• Mirna