We've been busy making the most of our last week in Trinidad, starting off with a return trip to Michael and Jacinta's land for our first spot of WWOOFing... We spent the morning there, digging up a bush of sorrel plants, preparing new holes in the ground with lime, ash and manure, and then replanting the sorrel in the shade of the pawpaw trees. It was tough work, particularly as the midday sun came up, but very satisfying - and we definitely deserved the spring rolls that Michael bought us for lunch! As ever, it was lovely being on the land, working peacefully, visited by exotic birds and eating mangoes and bananas off the trees. Afterwards, Michael and Jacinta drove us up Mount St. Benedict, where there is a turn-of-the-century monastery. We had a delicious afternoon tea, enjoying the cool mountain breeze and the glimmering views of the valley laid out below us, again feeling very peaceful and apart from the everyday bustle.

As usual we've also been busy in Port of Spain, which is very much all hustle and bustle. But we managed to find a break from that, too, in Ellerslie Plaza when Alice and I decided to take advantage of the super cheap beauty treatments here and have a proper girly day! So we treated ourselves to haircuts and waxes, and then, feeling very glamorous, a spot of shopping and ice cream in the Haagen Daaz parlour.

We finally made a trip to the famous Maracas beach - more a national institution than a place to swim - and Alice got to taste the much raved about shark and bake! The beach was, as ever, perfect: warm water with terrific and terrifying waves, pale sand scattered with palm trees, and sheltered by magnificent green mountains. We both enjoyed piling our shark and bake (fish in fried bread) with every sauce available (ketchup, garlic, tamarind, chadon beni, pepper..) and then devouring them in the sand. We had so much fun in the sea afterwards, jumping over and under waves and getting tumbled like little kids by the huge ones. When we got home, we had a really nice, big family gathering with my cousins and uncles

Yesterday we made it out to Asa Wright Nature Centre, a beautiful place hidden in the rainforested hills, which is one of the top places for birdwatching in the world. We learnt that Trinidad and Tobago has the highest density of biodiversity in bird species on the planet; this was illustrated to us by the huge variety of birds we saw just sitting on the veranda drinking tea - at least twenty species or more. The most exciting were the different varieties of colourful, iridescent humming birds which hovered right before us sipping sugar water, so that we were able to see their furiously beating, tiny wings in a blur, and even their thread-like tongues darting out of long beaks. Unfortunately it was raining torrentially, so many of the birds in the forest were hiding when we went on the trail, but we still got to see the rainforest, complete with rain! Also, I finally got to taste a termite (something I'd wanted to do in Venezuela, so I can tick it off my list) - it both smelt and tasted overpoweringly of carrots! And when we got home from Asa Wright, we went to our last party and ate our last Trinidadian roti!

Today we are making one last trip out to see Caroni Mangrove Swamp. Then tonight we fly out to Tobago, for a gloriously girly week of cocktails on beaches! Which will be fantastic, although we will be very sad to leave Trinidad and our family (Alice has been adopted) here.

Love to all, Hannah and Alice

The past week has been very busy with lots of early starts. We have come in each morning with Mary to help out and then in after lunch have gone off exploring Port of Spain (and shopping some more). On Wednesday evening we went along to a book launch that Hannah's cousin Alicia had invited us to last weekend. The launch was for Trinidadian artist Che Lovelace's book, the first of a series. It was a fun evening and we enjoyed meeting Alicia's friends and admiring the paintings, which were all colourful, vibrant portrayals of Caribbean life. We also had a chance to speak to Che himself, who is very friendly and has literally done everything from surfing to filmmaking.

The next day we went again to an event we were invited to by Alicia, this time one that she helped organise - a rum and chocolate themed 'show and tell'. It was very interesting, with a short talk given on permaculture by Johnny Stollmeyer. Permaculture is the idea of creating a system of agriculture that mimics the relationships found in the natural environment and, as the name suggets, can be continuous. The talk was enlightening, and followed by Duane Dove, a Trinidadian who now lives in Sweden and the owner of a cocoa estate in Tobago and the first chocolate company made solely of Tobagonian cocoa. He even got on a Gary Rhodes program. After the talks we sampled his chocolate and chatted to various people for a while before heading home.

During this weekend the early mornings continued. On Saturday we travelled to what was described to me as the 'deep south' of the island, to Port Fortin and the Pitch Lake, which is quite literally a lake of pitch, the largest natural one in the world. From a distance it looks a bit like an overgrown carpark. Despite leaving fairly early, we didn't get there until past 1pm due to a horrific accident. Once we had arrived at the Pitch Lake we were taken down onto it by a tour guide, who rattled off facts whilst gazing into the distance, as if he was looking at an autocue. When Sir Walter Raleigh came across the lake in 1595, he got very excited and used it to baulk his ship. It is estimated that the lake is 75 metres deep and is thought to have formed at an intersection of two faults which forced a deep deposit of oil to the surface. It is a bizarre landscape, with ferns and grass growing in patches across it. During the rainy season, parts of the pitch sink to form crevices and the water gathers in pools. These pools have bubbles of frequently rising to the surface, made up of methane and nitrogen from below the surface. These same gas bubbles are responsible for forcing fossilised logs and branches, the occasional human skeleton, and even the remains of a mammoth. These human skeletons are believed to have come from a burial ritual that the AmerIndians performed in which the body of the deceased was place on top of the pitch and gradually sunk below the surface. Although much of the surface is solid and can be walked over, there are occasional softer patches where, if you stand for too long, you begin to feel yourself sinking slightly into it and leave a footprint.

The next morning we got up to go to a very early Mass before heading to the north-east of the island, to Toco. One of Mary and Peter's friends from Caribs RFC, Graham, had rented a house here for his family to stay in for a week or two and had invited loads of people for a bbq. The drive to Toco was very picturesque, along a windy road surrounded on either side by forest and, when we got closer to the house, beautiful, deserted beaches. Before we stopped at Graham's we continued along the road a little further to see the lighthouse on Galera Point. The lighthouse was built in 1897 and an inscription on the wall marks Queen Victoria's 50th year of reign. After we had spent a short time walking around the lighthouse and admiring the view of the Atlanic Ocean, we returned Graham's house where, within ten minutes, I received the comment: "Jesus, look how white you are!" as if after 20 years it would be a surprise to me. The house was place right by the edge of a hill that ran down to the beach, a beach that is shared only by two rented houses. The whole area was beyond idyllic. From the sea you could see the coast fringed with palm trees on either side, with no other sign of life other than the steps that led up to the house. The water in the sea was unbelievably warm, and because it was facing the Atlantic Ocean the waves were a lot rougher. We had a lot of fun being pushed around and diving into them. We also met a couple from Doncaster who moved to Trinidad almost a year ago, and whose voices we had heard at the rugby club last Saturday and got quite excited by the northern accent. I also got pink in spite of copious amounts of suncream.

We have already had a busy week, but will write a seperate blog at a later date.
Love to you all, Alice and Hannah.