Pan Yards and Maracas Beach

Me and Port of Spain at Night

     Hello all!  Sorry I haven't posted recently. This week has been pretty hectic, but I'll try and fill you in as best I can. Let me resume where I left off. I mentioned in my post last Wednesday that we were heading off to some pan yards. We visited a couple pan yards that night: Supernovas and Desperadoes. The bands are definitely making a lot of progress since we first saw them. Also, at many of the practices we have seen not all of the players have been there. As we get closer to carnival, more people are coming to practice at the same time and the bands are more filled out. While we were out visiting the pan yards, we also went up to the top of this hill overlooking Port of Spain. The view of the city at night was spectacular, and it put the size of Port of Spain in perspective. 

     Thursday was a normal day of class. In pan class, we began working on a song called Jamaican Farewell, continued practicing and recorded In De Minor, and learned the Blues scales and chord progressions. After class, we had lunch and history, and then we had a free evening. Of course, we chose to spend our free Thursday evening at the club again. I know I had said before that we probably weren’t going to go back to 51, but we decided to give it another chance.  This time, we had no problems getting in, and we all had a fun, wild night.

    On Friday, we began the day with pan class. We continued working on Jamaican Farewell, In De Minor, and the Blues Chord Progressions.  We also recorded Jamaican Farewell, but I think we are re-recording it tomorrow.  Friday also marked the beginning of our history presentations, a major portion of our history grade.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to present until Monday, leaving me some time to procrastinate.  After class, we visited some more pan yards.  This time we went to Supernovas, Phase Two, and Silver Stars.  After our pan yard crawl, we got dropped off at a different nightclub, Zen.  It was not very crowded there, but it was a pretty cool club and the DJ was good.  I’m sure it would be awesome if we went there on a night when it is super busy, but because it was relatively empty we decided it would be better (and cheaper) to keep the party going at Xanadu. We might be going there Wednesday, though, because apparently that is the night to go.  

     Saturday was the first day where we had absolutely nothing planned. We took this opportunity to catch up on sleep. Then, we realized we had no food, so we called our driver, Mr. Greene, to come take a bunch of us to the mall. We decided to eat at an actual restaurant instead of the food court.  The restaurant was an Irish Pub called J. Malone’s, and was reminiscent of restaurants like Kildare’s and Catherine Rooney’s. I split some bacon cheese fries with friends and got a sandwich called Swagger Pork.  I’m not totally sure what was on it besides pork and spinach, but it was delicious. After lunch and a little bit of shopping, we went back to the resort to relax for the rest of the evening. Our guide, Fruits, brought us a DVD player so my roommate Abby could watch the Sound of Music for the first time. (I had never seen it either, despite the number of times my mom has encouraged me to watch it with her.) We ended up speed watching it, which basically consisted of us fast-forwarding through some of the longer songs and boring parts while our friend Leah filled us in on the plot. I’m not a fan of musicals, so this method made the movie tolerable. (Sorry, Mom, Aunt Jessi, and anyone else who likes the Sound of Music and/or musicals.)

Me at Maracas Beach

Roommates before dinner

            Sunday we went to Maracas Beach again. It was raining off and on all day, so that was a little annoying, but we did manage to get a few hours of sunlight. Also, the rain brought some waves with it. I did scope out the beach for surfboard rentals, but I couldn’t find any and the waves were closing out anyway. I opted to go body surfing instead.  I got roughed up and stuck in a rip current at one point, but it was still a lot of fun. And of course, being at Maracas again meant that I had to get Richard’s Bake and Shark again. I honestly would have been very upset if I didn’t get it again because it was so good! After the beach, we came back to the resort to shower and get ready for dinner. We enjoyed free dinner and drinks at a restaurant owned by one of Mr. Wayne’s friends. He served Buss Up Shut with Shrimp, Chicken, and Chickpeas, and it was all really delicious.  Some of the locals also attempted to get us to take puncheon shots, but I opted for more Stag instead. It was a great night, nonetheless, and I was so grateful for the generosity of Mr. Wayne's friend.

   So that was the rest of last week.  Thanks for reading and sharing on facebook.   Keep an eye out for more posts, trip photos, and videos of our band on my facebook page.  I only have a few days left here, so some photos and videos may surface after the trip, so look out for that.  See you all in less than a week!

Our group with Rhett and Chike at Club 51