Old Year's Day--Caroni Swamp Tour

In Trinidad New Year's Eve is Old Year's Day. Makes sense. Since we had the day off, we went with some friends from the embassy to the Caroni Bird Sanctuary for a Swamp Tour. But first, some scanned uploads:


Santa was at the mall in Trinidad too.

And Ohio!

New Year's Day dinner-- cheese fondue in our new fondue pot--Thanks Uncle Tom, Aunt Sam, Ted, and David!

For New Year's Eve we were going to have a Trini tradition: black eyed peas and rice. This plan was foiled by bugs getting into the rice because the lid wasn't sealed on the rubbermaid container. The joys of the Caribbean. So, we had the beans over pasta instead, with pumpkin, okra, and eggplant. Looked a little funny but still tasted good. The rice debacle also ruined our cabbage roll plan but we'll have those later this week once the grocery store is open again.

On to Caroni Swamp:

getting ready to get on the boat

The whole point of the tour was to see the Scarlet Ibis. This is our camera on super-zoom and the red does are the birds, on an island across the swamp where they go to feed in the evenings. David tried out his new waterproof binoculars and they worked pretty well.

The Ibises flying in.

Caroni Swamp

observation tower that we did not stop and climb up

mangrove trees

yes, that's a snake. we also saw a few caymans

our tour guide

Nicholas on his first boat ride

lookin' cute

temper tantrum on the floor of the boat

happier in this pic

the boats

New Year's Eve Christy went to a friend's party for about an hour but came home before midnight so we could count down together. Except Trinidad is an hour behind New York and all our clocks are different so we're not quite sure exactly when midnight struck. We did our own countdown and had some champagne anyway. Then we waited an hour and counted down with NYC.

New Year's day we just hung around the house, watched some football, and put the Christmas stuff away. Will try to get some pool time in on Sunday.

Best Wishes for 2011!