Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Tobago Christmas, Part the First

Another fab Christmas trip with the boys. How incredibly fortunate we are to be able to make the trips--to afford them (some years, only with very careful planning) and to be together. Yes.

We had three quick days in DC before heading to the Caribbean. Our first trip back there in years and years, it gave us the chance to reconnect with some great old friends. We touched down in Baltimore at 5 pm (sitting in the airport waiting for Ben: people are smiling, and fat, sloppily dressed, comfortable--welcome to America!). By 8 we were in reunion with people we had not seen in 20 years--a dream!

And Elisabeth, K's dear friend from Beirut days

An especially amazing aspect of seeing old friends again after so long was having them meet and connect with Ben as well.

We left DC at 6 am and reached Tobago at 7 pm, having met up with Cam in the Port of Spain airport. Ben was due to join several days later.

We jumped into a rented car and Tom masterfully drove the winding (SUPER winding--hairpin city) coast road, on the left (Brit. style), the entire length of the island, to Charlotteville on the northern coast--about 1 1/2 hours. Cam and Tom were scheduled to begin their PADI (diving certification) course the next morning.

Trinidad and Tobago are the southernmost islands of the Caribbean, and lie not far off the coast of Venezuela. (When we realized how close we were, only 38 miles, we looked into taking a ferry over but found it goes only once a week). The two islands are populated by descendants of the many groups who were brought to the islands as labor on the plantations, notably India and Africa but also Syria, Portugal, China. There is a different vibe than in some other Caribbean countries, and only little catering to tourists--no big resorts. Why, you might ask? Oil.

Tobago is much smaller (41 X 14 km; with 54,000 of the country's 1.2 million people) and more laid back than Trinidad. Fishing is big. And mostly people are black on Tobago, whereas black and Indian are about equal on Trinidad with many mixed race.

Diving prep---

Cam and Tom had completed the online portion of the PADI course, and Tom was game to try the practical but his ears were bothering him. He had to bail at the end of the first of three days, having completed all the elements save the open water dives.

Ben and Cam coming in from a dive

Tom and parrot have a conversation

How big was the shark you were RIGHT NEXT TO, Cam?

downtown Charlotteville

Caribs, after a hard day of diving

TO PART 2

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Latest trip

Kansas. It's what we call the country to the south of Georgia that begins and ends with 'A'. We use the nickname because the country is a mortal enemy of the one in which we live, and the lack of freedom of speech here looms large.

After a short stay in charming Tbilisi (above), where we tried out the fun new cable car that goes from the riverside near the old city up to the old fort at the top of the hill.

A three hour taxi ride took us southward and over the border, after which the scenery started heading into gorgeous as we entered the Debed Canyon. Picturesque river at the base of steep surrounding hills, just about every other one studded with an atmospheric 10th century church.

seen in the local supermarket

I read in a local guide book, "Later, Greeks from the Ottoman Empire founded settlements in Ar..nia and Georgia." How is it to live surrounded by enemies? Maniacally, the first few bars of the Azeri national anthem keep popping into my brain. I catch myself before referring to "Turkish coffee," which is of course "Ar...nian coffee." That morning, in Georgia, it had been "Turkish coffee," as it is in the two other neighboring countries.

The wonderful guesthouse proprietor

view of the mine area from cable car

We stay in a comfortable guesthouse in Alaverdi, with an absolutely lovely couple. Well into dinner, we notice a framed photo of a young man in a prominent place in the dining room. It is the son they have lost "on the border."

English is limited but the woman tells us she preferred Soviet Union days, with free education and health care, and when her salary as a musician and teacher of music was good. Now the nearby copper mine functions at a fraction of the former output, and their daughter makes only $100 a month as a piano teacher.

Akhtala church

Later, in a packed Marshrutka (shared van) headed to Yerevan (someone's carrying fish :-( ) I realize too late that our suitcase, blocking the aisle, has a bright red Turkish Airlines tag on it.

The area around the capital city is not as beautiful as the northern canyon, but when the sky is clear Mt. Ararat towers on the horizon. I comment on the lack of trees on the hillsides to a nice young soldier on the van who has befriended us (he wants to join the US army). He says there are no trees because in 1992 after the Soviet Union broke up there was no electricity and people cut the trees for firewood.

Downtown Yerevan is comfortable, walkable, not flashy. We have only two nights, and have rented an apartment from a nice gentleman who lives half the year in Australia.

We tour the Noy/Ararat winery/brandy factory (formerly Yerevan Brandy Factory), where brandy has famously been made for over 100 years. Noy = Noah, they say, came down from Mt. Ararat and planted the first grapes in Armenia. In 1912, the Russian owner of the factory sent a sample of his brandy to a brandy competition in France. It was sent unmarked, because he was sure it would not be a serious contender. The sample won the "gran prix" and then they had to figure out where it had come from. It was labeled "cognac," the first and only time that a foreign made brandy achieved that status.

We took the tour with three young Iranian men, one of whom lives in the city. We had very little shared language but I think I managed to apologize for what my country is doing to theirs, and they made it clear they were no fans of Ahmedinejad or Khomeini. One said he is a DJ. One shared his FB name and asked to friend us. Wow.

at a site 45 min from Yerevan

Geghard Monastery, not far from Yerevan

great live music at Yerevan restaurant

It was a great magical mystery tour of 4 or 5 days. Rain threatened but didn't happen, and more than once people just appeared when we needed help. On the way out of town, heading back to Georgia, we are treated to Mt. Ararat, a view that had been hidden in cloud. It rises dramatically over a wide plain, and has a large cleft into which it is easy to picture a large boat getting stuck once 40 days/nights of torrential rain had dissipated.