Oh my goodness it’s been a while! I apologize for the length of time in between these posts! Although I meant to post this much earlier, life always seems to have other plans for me. At the very beginning of May I was involved in a car accident which totalled my car, but everyone was okay and that’s the important part. Around the same time I accepted and began a new full time position, and also bought a new car to replace the one I had lost, so needless to say, I have been more than busy. More on all this later! Now on to the continuation of my trip to Trinidad, which is wayyy overdue. The first post can be seen here.

The next day we were determined to see more, do more and of course eat more. We knew the big plan for the day was the rehearsal and that we were going to go to Reesa’s grandmother’s house for dinner, but we wanted to try and fit even more into the day. We woke up early and begged Tarriq to take us somewhere, anywhere to see something new. He took us down the explore a little and to get a better view.

We of course saw a few more critters who seemed just as curious about us as we were of them. One of the amazing things about Trinidad was that the weather could change in an instant. Almost immediately after these images were taken, it began to downpour. We sprinted to the car and almost as quickly as it began, the rain was gone and the sun was back out. It literally poured for just about 2 minutes and it was beautiful the rest of the day. I had never seen anything like it. After this quick adventure we headed back to the house for a bit.
Oh look! Burger King! And what’s that? $99!?! Oh that’s in TT’s, Trinidadian currency. One TT is actually equivalent to .16 of a US Dollar. That definitely took a little getting used to; lots of math to be done!

We arrived at Reesa’s grandmother’s house in the afternoon and began exploring. The neighborhood was definitely a bit different than what we were all used to. The backyard was like a mini forest; she had a ton of fruit trees back there as well as a small garden.

Reesa also introduced us to sugarcane. She disappeared into this mini-forest with a machete and began hacking away at the giant stalks of cane and dragged them out one by one. She then proceeded, along with Tarriq to show us how to cut away the outer layer to get to the good stuff. And oh my was it good!
We spent much of the afternoon just hanging out, having a couple Stags and watching Reesa’s grandmother cook. I went upstairs to the kitchen to take some pictures of the process and ingredients that went into these traditional dishes that we had been hearing about from Reesa. One dish was called Callaloo, which is a sauce of a stew-like consistency made by simmering down many of the ingredients you see below, including pig tail, which is definitely not something that I normally eat, but I made sure to try it. It was actually delicious! This is a recipe I found that is quite similar to the actual Callaloo that I had the opportunity to try: Callaloo Recipe.
Greg, being the foodie that he is, jumped at the chance to help out in the kitchen.
After a few hours of hanging out in the backyard, a few of us started getting antsy and wanted to try and fit something else into the day. Again, trying to see as much as we possibly could, we asked Tarriq if he would bring us somewhere and show us something. Being the awesome guy that he is, he agreed.
He took us to see this amazing site called The Devil’s Wood Yard. These mounds of earth ooze and bubble and resemble small volcanoes, which is where they got the name mud volcanoes. This site is a relatively new volcanic site which first erupted in 1862. It shook the entire village and got it’s name because the villagers were so frightened and superstitious they believed the Devil was coming from beneath the earth. This was definitely amazing and so glad we were able to go!
We went back to Reesa’s grandmothers and hung out for a bit longer before we had to go to the rehearsal.

And now for some cuteness…meet Pickles!
Those eyes…right!? Janna and Matt decided Pickles needed a bath, so Matt got the soap and set up the hose and started scrubbing away. Immediately after the bath Pickles of course rolled around to get the “clean” smell off haha! I definitely wanted to steal her and bring her back with us!
There was definitely no shortness of adorable on this trip. This adorable little guy is Tyrell, Reesa’s nephew. I had an awesome time trying to photograph him, he was camera shy and would run away whenever I would point my camera in his direction, so I had to be a little creative, and sneaky, to get these. 🙂

Finally it was time for the rehearsal. We drove a short distance to the wedding site.
Check out the view…absolutely breathtaking!

I absolutely LOVE that picture of John and his mom!

On the hill where I took those pictures of the view, there was this cool plant called Mimosa Pudica, also known as the Touch-Me-Not, which closes up after being touched. You can see below what the plant looked like before and after being touched. How cool is that?! There was a ton of this stuff all over and we couldn’t stop touching it!

Once we were all rehearsed, it was finally time to eat! We made our way back to Reesa’s grandmother’s and were fed a feast of authentic Trini food. We were STARVING!

In addition to the callaloo, which is pictured below in the blue bowl, we also had Pelau, which is a very popular rice dish in Trinidad. A similar recipe of what I had can be found here.
After dinner we decided setting off some fireworks was a good idea, when would it not be, am I right? Had some fun with some longer exposures and that brought the night to a close.

Stay tuned for Day 3 – the wedding!