Yes, we’re back from our 2 1/2-week trip to Canada — back in Trinidad, where we’ll probably
be for the better part of another month. Receta is in the middle of several spa treatments, including the refinishing of all her exterior wood. The work is 95% complete at this point, and she is looking fabulous, thanks to Averia and Alicia, the two lovely young Trini women who are doing the job. And yesterday, Receta went on the hard, so that her bottom can also be repainted: The barnacles have been finding it all too easy to get a toehold recently. While she’s out of the water, we’re staying in the hotel that’s part of the marina where the work is being done (I’m too old to pee in a bucket, and we can’t use our head — or our refrigerator, for that matter — while the boat is on the hard), and already I’m
impatient to have her back in the water so we can return to “normal” life.

Work aside, we’ve been enjoying Trinidad. We’ve already made several trips to “Patricia’s
Restaurant” in downtown Port of Spain, for some of Miss Pat’s wonderful cooking. (I wrote about her in the May 2007 issue of Gourmet). On our last visit, she took me into the kitchen and showed me how to make her killer hot sauce. Very easy — as long as you remember to cover your nose and mouth while the blender is whirring so you don’t choke on the hot-pepper fumes…. And although pre-Carnival activities are not yet in full swing, we’ve gone to several panyard evenings (featuring performances by steel, or pan, orchestras in their practice yards). It’s impossible to stay seated or stand still while a big pan band plays — and equally impossible not to smile at the sheer joy of the players and the sound.

Two Saturdays ago was the 9th annual Scotiabank Women Against Breast Cancer 5K Classic here. Along with 8 other “Cruisers for a Cure” and more than 4,000 Trini women, I took part, and it was truly amazing. Some women ran, some women jogged, some women fast-walked, some women slow-walked — a veritable river of women flowing around the Queen’s Park Savannah in downtown Port of Spain. The Savannah is beautiful at any time — an
expanse of vivid green in the heart of the city, with the dark mountains of Trinidad’s Northern
Range rising in the distance behind it and dramatic clouds moving overhead — but it was
lump-in-the-throat beautiful on Saturday. A very powerful experience, especially in a foreign
country, especially knowing the money raised will be used to provide free mammograms for Trini
women who otherwise couldn’t afford them.

Not being a runner, I mostly fast-walked it — with a little jogging thrown in from time to time
– and got a real feeling of accomplishment since I had never participated in this sort of thing
before, and given that even “fast walking” 5K is tough when the temp is close to 90š. The woman who crossed the finish line first is Trini: finished in 18 minutes, and ran in her bare
feet…..

When we leave Trinidad in mid to late October, we’ll return to Grenada to spend some more time there. Rumor has it we’re slated to be the godparents to Belicia, the gorgeous
nine-month-old daughter of our friend Gennel and her partner Blaise.

Thanks, Ann!

Please use the comment section of this post to send greetings or questions to Ann & Steve. I’ll ask her to reply through my blog whenever she has internet connections and can access it.