Paria Springs Trinidad and Tobago Adventures

Adventure Travel World Summit

In 2004 a couple adventurous people took daring steps and continue to do so to this day.  I include myself in on this ragamufin bunch and our decisions both individually and as a group have tremendously impacted all our lives, mine not the least of which.  Its hard to say where the story begins; my decision to start tours in 1992, then have amazing partners join me in 1997 to start Paria Springs, or the decision to start offering adventure tours in 2000.  Or is it the start of 2005 where Shannon Stowell and Chris Doyle who had just taken over the dying Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) decided they had to revolutionize the ATTA by staging the worlds first Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS) in Seattle, October of 2005 and make a world body.  Then my gut feeling decision to attend this first ATWS with no history or ability to prove how this would benefit Paria Springs where my first interaction was chatting to Shannon on the phone and realizing he's a guy despite his name, which I completely relate to.  Dam yankees seem to have some strange gender confusion when it come to names. 

Fused to Pain and Fun

Its 1 am and I am dragging my pale ass out of bed to go run in a jungle!  Ok I am strange that way and fortunately the world is full of strange people just like me.  2am, I am on the road and met Kerlon - triathlete and cameraman by 2:30am, an awful hour, then we met Ricky and Jenny Tang - long time adventure friends, at a less awful hour.  Now we are Team Earth Alert on the prowl heading to Mon La Croix to participate in Fusion 2009 which is an adventure race set by the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.  We were the second team on site and soon enough others started arriving, some are the usual suspects of eclectic over fit weirdos that always cut my ass and many new faces of which I quickly made friends as we were all about to both race against each other and support each other in racing against each other - get it?  Being new friends I will now and throughout this blog blatantly steal from their emails and blogs comments made after the race.

Where is Mon La Croix?  It is bang in the middle of the Northern Range and is an area I know well but for the newbee its FAAAAR, as Sophia of Mountain Cats put it "I kept asking my Mountain Cats team members, like kids on a road trip..."are we there yet?"..."you sure we still in Trinidad?""  A lovely cloud blankets the rich rainforest draped mountains, the clouds quickly become "dam blasted clouds" as rain pours forth.  Thankfully the rain clears as teams arrive and the start is imminent, at which time many asked why the hell they get up this morning.  Many looks resembled Staci's crimpled expression seen in the photo of Team Mountain Cats.  Charles, the Race Director and minister of pain Charles splits the teams into two  - one for brains and one for brawn.  As Jenny was our only brain and Ricky is married to her they take the brain course while Kerlon and I are brawn, which is the only time I have been called brawn in a non-condescending way.

We split and jogged along the road while others run past, soon we're on a trail descending to what has to be the Yara river as we are all given life-jackets, which surprises many but makes me happy.  This is where we start to pass teams as contestants bump, slide and grind down the hill, that is until we encounter two women; one in front, one behind (of each other that is).  The one in front is DRAGGING the other down the hill most unceremoniously, she looks like a freaked out cat running full tilt on terrazzo!  I later found out their team name was Chaotic Balance, which does not begin to describe them.  The dragger refused to let us pass while the dragged cut such a wide swath it was impossible to pass.  The river was cool, refreshing, tough and fun, we passed the draggers, we stopped and filmed for Earth Alert and they passed us, then we passed them and rinse and repeat until we got to the swimming part where the dragged nearly drowned as she could not swim.  Thankfully she had on her life vest which kept her afloat while she was... you guessed it... dragged!  The water by now was brown with churning feet drumming, stumbling and crawling their way along the river.  The river scene was similar to Jouvert as Sophia explains "The river thing was a good warm up. I lost all my dignity, slipping and sliding, with one foot gone one way, and the other a next!"  Sounds to me like wining and a lack of dignity - Jouvert!!!

On the return we pick a rivalry with my friends Nats and Phill of Jumbies, I am giving gun talk scrambling up the river when there is a shout of "Snake" while that is like the mating call of my lover to me Sophia described it a bit differently: "one of the officials showed me a snake on the river bed..... I nearly did walk on water.  If I didn't have my mouth closed to avoid swallowing the dutti wata (jamaican style), I wooda let out one scream!!!"  Of course we had to stop and film it.  It was a beautiful Mapipire Balsin (Fer-de-Lance or Lance Head Viper) of about 7 feet and is a deadly venomous snake in the rattle snake or pit viper family.  I retrieved the life vest for the official who found the snake resting next to him and did a superman flight from the rock next to the snake, however he left his cape (life jacket) behind.  I retrieved it and got some nice film of the mapipire but did get any photos, so the photo above is a Mapipire I photographed a while ago and is much smaller than the one we saw.  We return to the swim / scramble and Jumbies are long gone and so are parts of Kerlon's shoes.

The return up the hill was tough, slippery and my back hurt, once on the road we jogged back to the finish line inwhat felt like reverse gear as other teams ran past us with long antelope like strides.  We were cheered on as we crossed the finish line then we quickly cheered others on, especially doing the same for Jenny and Ricky as they finished stage 1.  The conversation was animated as recent adventures were retold and we found out about Jenny's and Ricky's adventure in the Brain stage, which included a math problem, thank God I was'nt involved in that!  The air was filled with the smell of adventure, literally.  So there was a resulting washing lineup at the local standpipe.  It was more than a bit entertaining to see these town office women in their sexy muddy, water, sweat soaked adventure outfits washing like country bookie Tantee under a standpipe, giggles and teasing abounded so smiles got bigger.

We depart heading for Rincon, Las Cuevas, which is a small coastal community on the North Coast.  We have to wait on all teams so the nervous chatter grows.  Nervous!  Why you may ask, well looming in plain sight south of us is El Tucuche, Trinidad's second highest mountain and some seriously steep trails to get to it.  To prepare for the imminent grueling adventure there is lots of drinking and eating of high energy sports drinks and foods.  Of course there is the resultant high energy peeing and ... well the other thing... going on in various bushes.  A couple times I saw bushes shaking to curious noises which only created more laughing and teasing.

Charles - the minister of pain gives the call: we have a road run in midday heat up to a trail that takes UP us to a waterfall, then its UP, UP, UP to the "Rest House" on the El Tuuche trail then to Caurita.  I don't know the route to the waterfall but everything else I know well.  Its gonna be tough!  Ricky, Kerlon and I will be doing this stage while Jenny will drive to Caurita to meet us.  Kerlon borrowed a pair of shoes from me or he would have started with two half shoes. 

We're off!!  Trotting the down hills and flats power walking the up hills.  Strong power walking turns into a grunting / moaning slow one foot at a time trekking as road becomes trail and steep is an understatement.  The sounds are that of a strange porn show on the wrong speed or just wrong. This leads to a hill top farmer's house with a hose that as Sophia puts it: "Not to mention the near porn scenes of wetting each other down in any river, stream or garden hose that we passed...."  Please note that these are lovely women in white tops hosing each other down, did someone say wet tee shirt competition!!  Of course everyone is too beat and too happy to get soaked to care.  We hit my home in the rainforest and I feel well climbing steadily, Kerlon and Ricky are just behind me.  Once again we pass Chaotic Balance and catch up to Mountain Cats with whom I slow to chill with as I am not seeing Ricky who was stuck in traffic behind.  The ladies are vocal, encouraging and entertaining with occasional screams and regular Jamaican cuss, especially to the call of "Snake".  I encourage Staci on as I think she only met her mountain Cats compatriots that morning and was asked to race the night before, I think she is in a bit of shock!!!  She is a trooper and rocks onward.

We emerge at a gorgeous waterfall and wait for Ricky to emerge out from the traffic.  Once he arrives a quiz to fill out is handed to us, we flounder about the quiz trying to figure out if Johny or Marcus is older, who de hell came first and how old is Pablo, OH GORM our singular thought was "What the hell is THIS??!!!"  Then we realize we're really not at all good at this and we would really prefer to be hiking, so the unfinished form is returned and we push on.  As we climb Ricky states that his legs are wobbly and Kerlon says he is cramping, so we slow but keep a steady climb.  I check my altimeter and check on the altitude gain giving a countdown 500, 400, 300.. feet of elevation to go.  As we climb and muscles scream for relief I am reminded of my quote on twitter only a week before, I said "Adventure racing is the most miserably happy I ever am.  Everything else makes me miserable or happy."  Sophia decided it was all a trick and we were actually hiking to Tobago!  Where is the joy in all this madness?  I think of the river swim, waterfall, amazing views, the exceptional people, yeah its TRUE!  With 100 feet to go it starts to flatten off and I get a sense of urgency as we approach an old arch nemesis; the Rest House that I love.  

Starting in the late 70s when I spent the coldest wettest night of my life with the T&T Field Naturalists Club in the actual Rest House, which is long gone.  Then there was the sada roti saga which was a serious drama unto itself and included the army being called out for me and a couple hundred thorns in my legs and razor grass to face.  I have had many a grand adventure and misadventure in these hallowed mountain forests; much of what makes me a bushman emanates from this area.  I am elated as we arrive and pass the Rest House.  I am eager to make our final leg, so I encourage to start running; big mistake!  Kerlon cramps badly and we have to stop.  I massage his leg and can feel his muscles hard, tensed and spasming, we give him a pain reliever, energy gels and gatorade to hydrate him properly and to get salts etc back into his system. 

Soon we are walking mostly and jogging sometimes down the Caurita trail where I have spent years clearing for mountain biking and it remains my favourite mountain biking trail.  When its clear its just a blast.  Every time I do this trail whether it be mountain bikikng, hiking or trail running it is tremendous fun punctuated with ancient forests and amazing views, but it ALWAYS seems to be longer than I think its going to be and now its stretching out longer and longer.  Eventually we hit landmarks; the bamboo corner, the farms, jeep trail and finally to the finish line which we run through and Kerlon immediately falls on the ground in serious pain.  Medics are quickly helping as I get water to poor over his head to cool him off.  Lots of teasing ensues about how the 40+ gents are the ones helping the 23 year old!  As soon as Kerlon recovers he joins in on the fun. 

Next we head down to the Savannah for a 5K run to the Port for the final finish.  This turned a bit sour as some very abusive and unreasonable police wanted to tow our vehicles without listening to us.  At any rate the race had to end here for me as time was late and had to get home for the evenings family activities.  Jenny and Ricky performed admirably in the final run and kept Team Earth Alert alive to the end.

In the end Fusion 2009 was a huge success and in closing I stole two final thoughts: The first from Sophia "I laid down on the floor, pee in the grass, ask strangers to use their toilet, begged team mates food, begged shoulder and leg rubs, stopped caring how I looked, and longed for my bed. I still cant get all the dirt out from under my finger nails, lost 3 toe nails, and from the looks of the others, may loose another 3 more. I am going to put all my clothing and shoes in a bag, and label them FUSION 2010!!!! Because unno better believe that I'll be back."

The second is from Staci and is more environmentally minded: "if more people in Trinidad could have the experiences which we had last Saturday and which all other challenges and competitions like this bring there would be less fear and more trust on our island.   We would not be singing bring back the ole time days and our present days would be encouraging ones to live in.
 
On another note for all of us who enjoyed what “the bush” has to offer please let us make every effort to ensure that it is still around in years to come.   Let us not allow all of it to become commercialized."

Thanks a million to Sophia and Staci for the words and positive energy and to Charles, Thomas and Everyone at the Port and Fusion (organizers and participants alike) thanks for the photos, energy, love and madness!! 

'Till 2010 when I expect to be Fused again!!!!!!!

 

Birding Corpus Christi

I recently spent a week in Corpus Christi, Texas attending the American Birding Association's Birding Convention.  As far as the people go the attendees sport more grey hair than... well... actually nothing I can think of other than a geriatric home.  But I'll tell you what I love these folks and they are spritly; up at 4am each day, out on birding spot by 5:30am for hours of birding and once a great bird is spotted its like a bunch of 3 year olds sighting Elmo, they get realy excited. 

The convention was the ABA's 40th aniversary so they decided to go to North America's hottest hot spot - Corpus Christi during spring migration.  

Litterally each spring millions and millions birds fly through CC blow by strong winds out of South America, through Central America onto their breeding grounds in North America.  We missed the hawk migration which is at its best when 40 to 60 thousand birds of prey pass over in 20 minutes; kites, hawks, falcons fly over wing tip to wing tip 40 to 50 birds wide for miles creating flying rivers that blot out the sun. 

The birds I did get to see were amazing.  The tours I chose concentrated on forests and river areas as I felt this is where I would get birds that were very different to home such as warblers, orioles and buntings.  I started off with a very familiar bird but the wild version - the Turkey and it was cool as the male was fanning his tail and showing off for the girls.  Audubons and Baltimore Orioles were as always very pretty birds and I wanted more like them.  However the two birds I wanted most were male Indigo and Painted Buntings.  These are spectacualr birds by any standards and the Painted Bunting is a front runner for prettiest bird in North America.  The  joke goes that the Painted Bunting is proof that Mother Nature is actually a gay man.  From the first photo on this blog you can see it certainly is flambouyant!

Another dawn session brought a bunch of Night Hawks and Olive Sparrow, but suprisingly I found spectacular bird - the Green Jay which I had seen before in Brazil, with its gaudy colours one would have picked it for a South American rather than North American bird.  Then the Warblers started rolling in Magnolia, Worm eating, Black Burnian, Black poll, Black and White, Black throated Green all spectacular dots of colour and contrast.

The birds just continued to roll in; how does this sound: Bobwhite perched up and singing, Wilson's Phalarope, first look at Groove billed Anis, Avocets, Sora, White Ibis, White faced Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Stilt, Pectoral, Spotted, Semi P Sandpipers, Red Breasted Grossbeak, Buff bellied, Rudy throated, Black chinned hummers, lots of Ducks and so much more in Corpus Christi.  It was a very productive and beautiful week with a list of over 150 birds.

A huge thank you to Seve Baranoff for the brilliant photos, check him at http://birdsbybaranoff.com/ for lots more photos and support him by purchasing a few

Roll a Big one

While in Corpus Christi (CC) I decided to see what adventures I could get up to and somehow rolling long things became part of the plan.  Let me clarify: I was taught how to successfully roll a kayak! 

So prior to going to CC I got in contact with Ken Johnson of Corpus Christi Kayak who quickly replied with helpfull info and tours were booked http://home.earthlink.net/~johnsonkw/kayak-corpus/ 

Once in CC the wind blew hard all day and night so plans were changed from sea kayaking to paddling the Aransas River to look for Gators and other wildlife.  My first impression of Ken when I met him was that he is a great guy who was retired from an excellent job to do what he enjoys most, which of course is kayaking. The kayaks look SWEET and I am ready, we hit the river and the wind BLOWS us along very fast what I think is down river but its up, since there is no perceptable flow in the river, I still have no clue which way we went.  I think "this will be interesting heading back into the wind from hell".  We skirt along passing close to all sorts of wildlife including several floating gators,wild boars and some cows - hey its Texas!  Its my first sighting of Red Cardinals in a couple years and they are just stunning as always.  Of course paddling back into strong winds we are often going faster sideways rather that forwards.  The bright red cardinals easing past offer a bright note in a tough paddle back.  I am clearly reminded that I have not be paddling much lately.  In the end it was a fun and tough kayak.

Day 2 of kayaking started with Ken, Michael and Dave who is described as the "Roll King" as he introduces me to his latest tool for rolling which looks like a baton for bludgeoning unruly students, which I think isn't a stretch since he is also introduced as a matrial artist expert.  So we head off paddling out into this very open lake that is something of a harbour, the wind once again blows us along merily and I see lots of birds, terns, gulls, herons, Ibises and Roseate Spoonbills, which looks like a cross between a flamingo and a scarlet ibis with a big spoon for a beak.

We stopped at this island with a nice beach and after lunch and relax the roll instructions began.  I was worried at first but the batton was strapped to the kayak to be used as a lever to pull you upright if you were stuck upside down, so it was a rescue mechanism that relaxed me rather than a baton to beat me into submission.  So after Mike had a turn I was up, first we did hip flicks, that went well, then bracing over the side, good, then the full monty and I was under the boat reaching up, sweeping the paddle round as I looked at the paddle and I popped out like a cork.  SAAHHWWEEEEEETTT!!  I'd done it.  We practiced many more rolls taking turns, but it is something I will have to do lots at home before I am really good at it.

The choice of a 10 mile or 4 mile paddle back both into a 20 to 35 mph wind is presented; I take the 4 mile run, which is just a slog all the way home.  I thanked God and everyone else thanked me for choosing the 4 mile route.  Well except for Ken who simply motored through it.

Thanks a million to Steve Baranof http://www.baranoff.org/ for the bird photos and Ken Johnson for the kayaking photos

Coast 2 Coast

Brazil Baby!!! Chapadas dos Veadeiros

From August 26th to September 3rd I had to privilege of being hosted by the ABETA and the Brazilian tourism ministry on adventures in the Cerrado (pronounced Sehado) of Brazil.  After this I attended the 4th installment of the Adventure Travel Trade Summit, which this time was actually the Adventure Travel Trade Summit of the Americas.  Dam, I'm lucky!!! ;-)  

After a long overnight flight through Panama and Sao Paulo I got to Brasilia, which was created in the 60s to be a unique city and Brazil's capital.  I was beat, weary and tired!  I stayed at the Comfort Inn, where I tried to order dinner but no-one spoke English and my Spanish was not getting through.  So I resorted to my packs of instant oats; I took bottled water out of the fridge, put it in "hot" water from the tap in the sink and got it to just better than warm and put the oats in that.  After a 2 minute soak, gulp down - yum; and I mean that both in reality and sarcastically.  A kettle would have been nice but communications blocked that. 

Fortunately next morning breakfast and a 30 minute workout required no communication and by lunchtime I was met by Tattoo (our Guide), Anne Murphy from Hike New Zealand, Dee Edwards from tell Tale Travel of the UK, Antonio Santos who is Brazilian but lives with his wife in France who he met in Mexico.  Then we drove through Brasilia on a tour to meet the last of our group, Don and Kathryn Mankin who are from Venice Beach, California and the only couple in our eclectic bunch.  The first thing became clear was that while we all spoke "English" the accents and slangs were so varied we were forced to translate from Kiwi to British, to Trini, to Yankee to Spanish/French/Portuguese/Brazilian for everyone to understand!  This brought forth our characters and conversations.  Dee is very London in sound and style, sharp in intellect and understated in wit.  She got me several times with her verbal jabs and probably took me a couple minutes to catch on.  Anne is a ragamuffin/bohemian Kiwi who is now very happily a mommy and successful businesswoman. "Yees".  Antonio (Banderas) is Brazilian and strangely understated compared to his countrymen.  Don is an author of a variety of books, a hippie, psychologist of note, professor, adventurer and friend of many intriguing people like John Holmes who liked to converse with Don to prove he had more than one large organ.  Katherine is a past hollywood starlet and current lawyer who moves between both roles with ease.  She is very secretive about her past, even to Don, but it seems her biggest role was in an early 70s tv show where she was the "Tart with a heart" - Dee's words.  Tatoo is our fearless leader whose past is as colourfull and varied as any of us. I feel a lot in common with Tattoo as we are both self taught experts on natural history and adventure and have had our families choose us rather than the other way around.  The common thread through all of us is undoubtedly love; we all love generously everything from nature to humanity. 

A 3 hour drive took us out to Alto Paraisio; at over 3000 feet above sea level it is supposed to be Brazil's highest town.  Its known as a vacation spot and for its crystals.  The crystals have an interesting history from attracting German, British and American adventurers seeking a fortune during WWII to housing hippies, communes and even a couple UFOs!  Its seems during WWII while their fellow countrymen slaughtered each other Brits, Yanks, and Germans worked together to mine crystals which they sold to their mother countries to be used in communication systems to radio where to slaughter each other.  Doesn't war make sense??!!! 

Next morning we hiked to a couple waterfalls and pools that are both fun and gorgeous.  Tatoo introduces us to the Cerrado.  This is the worlds most biodiverse savanna (the Serengeti is the largest) with thousands of species of plants and insects, many of which are endemic to the Cerrado.  The savanna is created by having a layer of quartz and gravel on top of iron and very hard metamorphic rocks.  Hence when it rains the water washes away soil, leaf litter and their nutrients held within.  This makes the Cerrado very nutrient poor as is common to savannas; in turn the flora and fauna of the Cerrado adapt to finding innovative ways of getting the required nutrients.  The Mained Wolf is omnivorous, so it not only eats meat like rodents or deer but also eats fruits!!  Its favourite fruit is that of the fruit of a palm commonly found in the Cerrado.  The Sun Dew (pictured) is a unique plant which has sticky dew looking droplets on its leaves which it uses to capture and digest small insects.  This is a plant common to savannas world wide.  We were there at the end of the dry season so it was very dry and sunny with most the grasses and sedges being quite brown.  The Cerrado is cut up by a labyrinth of rivers, which create ribbons and valleys of green in a brown world.  The river beds were fashionably coloured with golden browns and reds from iron oxide and other minerals, with steely rocks set against reflections of green and brown hills, blue skies conspiring with dramatic waterfalls and deep green and black pools made for an other worldly landscape.  I often mused that a green alien with big black eyes may seem more natural than us human invaders. 

Day two and rhythms started to set in:  In Brazil breakfast always had choclate cake on offer, though I never indulged, I got lots of eggs and made strange sandwiches, lunch was augmented with snacks and an extra litre and a half of water.  Antonio and I would explore and take photos while the girls chatted about everything as Don and I stuck to the best topics - sex, politics and glorious nature.  The girls would draw a line in the conversation and I would blindly stumble over it.  Dee would make me into some fitness god - yeah right.  I would update everyone on how CJ was trying to destroy home, while trying to show everyone the fantastic birds of the Cerrado.  Anne was the worst at this as she inevitably looked the wrong direction until I nearly boxed her while trying to get her to see the very loudly squawking Blue and Gold Macaws flying past.  By now I had see a hummingbird with a long forked tail several time but never getting more than a flash.  Todays hike took us to Tatoo's house, which is on the top of the beautiful hill with a gorgeous view and a stream flowing past it that has several waterfalls; to say I was both impressed and jealous would be an understatement.  After the most excellent mandatory daily drill of swim in and chill by the beautiful waterfall we had lunch and continued on the easier but longer hike to Auntie Leonia's Farm.  Lively conversation kept minds off weary legs as Antonio and I sped on to photograph anything that caught our eyes. 

The first thing I noticed about Leonia's farm were the chickens, which I first thought were some sort of Savanna Hawk or Caracara as they had extremely long legs.  Now when it comes to chicken I am a leg and thigh guy and undoubtedly these chickens provided the longest, most succulent and tender legs and thighs I have ever had.  Added to this were some delicious sausages that I was looking forward to having with breakfast.  Needless to say dinner was delicious; it is often the case when I travel the best food that I have is by some country folk cooking up a storm with live food out their back yard.   

A lively campfire conversation centered around the pending night in tents; obviously Dee was not accustomed but was willing (actually she had no choice), while the rest of us were old hands though not fully prepared.  I had my most important ingredient - a fleece and enough clothes to be made into a pillow!  Dawn birding was great with Macaws, Parakeets, Euphonias, Tanagers and my nemesis hummingbird.  Breakfast was agian cake and other things I did not want to start the day with so I asked for the sausages, which were all gone so some eggs were negotiated. 

Our toughest and my favourite hike ensued with stretching and steep climbs up a very panoramic mountain that got steeper as we ascended further.  The view also improved as we ascended and the group got expectedly slower.  Its remarkable that Dee is one of the fastest hikers on flat land and one of the slowest on climbs. While enjoying the view at the summit we were chatting about hawks and the local favourite hawk is the White tailed Hawk and right on cue one glided effortlessly right past us.  The summit was a massive flat table op of a mountain with its own ecosystems of mostly savanna and Gallery Forests; which are evergreen forests that survive no more than about 1 to 10 meters either side of a river and can be stacked with birds, monkeys, deer, wolves, jaguars and a variety of things hiding from daytime heat and prying eyes.  After a solid hike we had the tough decision of: to swim or not to swim in the beautiful natural pool; of course I swam. 

The hike out was just as chatty, beautiful, inspiring and fun, highlighted for me by sighting a King Vulture, which is my favourite vulture.  The fact that I have a favourite vulture say a lot about me but it is a magnificent bird.  Finally Alto Parisio is in view and I see Tatoo use his cell, so I decide to check in with my wife at home via text.  WELL, my phone started beeping like R2D2 with the clones invading: I get about 15 texts that start with an easy "where are you" then get angrier and angrier.  So Antonio, Tatoo and I speed hiked back to the hotel where I can call her.  The situation was that while I was not in contact with my lovely wife she had gotten very very sick with a first time attack of Asthma on top of a very bad flu and I had info she needed to help the doctor.  A phone call and thankfully all was sorted out.  The night got even stranger as we got a fantastic gift of a free massage.  Dee and I were the last two and maybe the masseuse thought we were a couple since she put us in a room together.  Dee is in front of me and as we walk in Dee's masseuse tell her very directly "Get Naked":  What!!!  My first thought is "Well Dee gets the short end of that stick!!"  We disrobe to our draws as discreetly as possible both with eyes tightly closed.  I don't know about the others but my masseuse also got quite a bit more "friendly" with her hands than I am accustomed to but I roll with it since the massage was both very good and needed.  Later Dee tells us that in Malaysia when men recieve a massage there is often an offer of a "happy ending".  I don't think my wife would appreciate that ;-)

The next day we hit the adventure circuit, which starts with an easy hike to the canopy walkway during which we stalk and find the Helmeted Manakin, which is both beautiful and the largest Manakin I have ever seen.  The canopy walk way is not the "stroll along while looking at wildlife, plants and birds" at the canopy type.  Its is the "strap in and try not to miss the very narrow pole below you adventure" type.  Katherine looks less than impressed but we all go for it.  I find its fun and challenging, though I would have liked to have been able to stop and watch the plants and birds at the canopy. 

Next adventure is my favourite; Rappelling!!  We practice a bit and do safety checks before taking the plunge down a 150 foot waterfall.  Understandably Don and Katherine say "no thanks", Dee takes her time while Anne, Antonio and I have a blast.  If I could have I would of climbed back up and dwon faster and faster until I was bone weary.  The "Eagle's Flight" Zip line was next and this was a seriously LONG one, its about 200 feet high and about half mile long.  The added dimension is that we start it at sunset.  I go first and it really is something like flying in that you're up there so long you start to forget that you are tethered; well except for effort it takes to keep going straight and not spinning like a top.  Then as you near the landing pad you realize; SHIT I am going fast!!!  Don, a past American Football and Rugby player, is the biggest of us nearly takes out the lovely Brazilian girl catching us.  Katheirne is the most excited of us and like me earlier definitely wants to do that again.

That night the weather gives us a fakie with lots of thunder and threats of heavy rain and very disapointing for me; the next days canyoneering is cancelled!!  I am crushed!!!  Then I go into a bit of a funk.  I do not want to drag down the rest of the group so I bite my lip and determine to make the best of it.  Of course the next day its beautiful and I am more disapointed, but what the hey, the Chapadas is gorgeous, I get to slide over a waterfall and see a Chestnut-eared Aracari (a Toucan like bird).  So my spirits lift, even though there is still a bit of "DAM".  

 Our last day is bitter sweet as the adventure ends tend to be.  The hike is great and I get great looks at Campo Flicker, Horned Sungem and Curl-crested Jay and we go to yet another drop dead gorgeous waterfall.  Of course I am now looking for rappelling lines! 

The next day we spend far too much time in traffic getting to the hotel, so our intro to Sao Paulo is about the worst I have ever seen, and we are all sure the driver was lost for a bit.  The drag of the traffic induced lethargy is unveiled by meeting lots of fantastic friends, most specially is Chris Doyle; my "brother of another mother"!  I harass him even though I know he is scary busy, I figure he needed a 1 minute break from the freak out he must have been going through since everyone was very late and the conference schedule had not arrived among a myriad of other issues; its Brazil Baby!!!

I hit conference mode and started to look for business opportunities, so I won't bore you with that.  For me the highlight of the conference came when Frank Huglemeyer who is the head of the Outdoor Industry Association gave his keynote speech.  He certainly opened my eyes that adventure travel generates far more income than I thought, he also spoke about it from the perspective of the bonding he has created with his son and I swear I saw some tears starting to form there!!  On Saturday night Frank, Bryan Kinkade, Fran Farrell and I are chatting when Frank gets the adress of this hot restaurant that "everyone" is going to, and its just 15 minutes away!  So we pile into a cab and drive for 30 minutes with no clue where we are or where we're going, the craziness goes on a roller coaster ride as pass through very expensive and very seedy parts of the city and we feed off each other anxiety.  We decide THIS IS ADVENTURE!  Somewhere in this madness "VIVA LA TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO!!" becomes our warrior cry; go figure!  Faith in Frank's resouces are restored as we emerge on this fun and chique restaurant district.  We hop out and get our restaurant, which looks fun, but its decided that the corner restaurant looks better.  Its JAM packed, so we are given a sidewalk table on the corner.  So this is the skinny: 3 Gringos, 1 Trini (who looks like a gringo), who do not speak a word of Portuguese other than "Obrigado", have no clue where they are other than some where in Sao Paulo, Brazil are out having fun; let the madness ensue!  It starts with ordering drink, which turns out to be Caipirinha; the 2nd Brazilian word Frank learnt!!  It is a citrus falvoured Brazilian answer to Rum that is sweet so it is deceptively evil.  Noteably that the name has a strong resmblence to Piranha!!  Suitably so.  So with alcohol in our collective consciousness we ordered food using Spanish - Carne & Pollo, Italian - Bolognaise, that interspersed a lot of mooing, clucking, fingers making horns on heads and other injections of no, si, hand waving, obrigados, big smiles and raucous laughter at shouts of Viva La Trinidad.  The proof is in the eating and the food was great, we rightly felt proud, though it looked that every dish served at this restaurant would be delicious. 

The night took an even better stance when a mini buss passed with passengers squooshed to the windows screaming in Kiwi, Canadian and Yankee at us to rescue them.  To this we belted our mating cry of Viva La Trinidad, and it was successfull as a bunch of beautiful ladies from all over the planet piled out and joined our motley crew.  Emerging were Christiner Heyniger the tallest, funnest blond I know, Natasha Martin, the happiest person I know, awesome adventure gals Trish Sare and Karen Kefauver, enigmatic Paige Stringer and Daniela Papi who does amazing work in Cambodia and goes into a joke competition with Frank.  The caipirinha won though!!  The night merged into a laugh fest, more food being ordered for the ladies and dancing ensued.  Just as I sweated out the evil drink we headed for our respective hotels and about 3 hours sleep.  The next night is partying with Chris Doyle and the ATTA team and being served lots of the evil drink, which I respectively take, have a tiny sip and hide.

The final bit of fun is the Day of Adventure; here Chris and I join up a bunch of South Americans, a Kiwi - Geoff, and our Venezuelan guide Fernando.  Of course the bus is over an hour late but we head off for a 3 hour drive to the coast for Ocean Kayaking, well so we thought.  It was rough on the coast and the tour operator did not realize that the internationals we all descent to very good kayakers.  The river kayak was very pretty and I added a bunch of birds including Orange breasted Falcon, Green Billed Toucan, Red rumped Cacique, a Chacalaca along with lots of cool plants.  The only down of the kayak is some dog found its way to the river and barked at us for about 30 minutes.  It was cool to chill with Chris again.  After the paddle I was no done and I took am 18 foot single out into the ocean while other played in the surf with a whitewater kayak (Play-yak).  Eventually I got a turn in the play-yak and rode some cool waves.  The afternoon was topped with Paradise tanager, my new favourite tanager. 

 

Otoire River

On Saturday 9th August, Phill Fung, Ray Chin Lee, Richard Changur, Robert, Jenny and Richard Tang and I paddled part of the Otoire River.  Phill and Ray in their singles, Jenny and Rick did one of my Quads and Robert, Richard and I did the other quad.  This paddle was something I wanted to do for a very long time and it turned out to be different than I thought it was going to be.   I knew it would be longer and tougher than anticipated, which of course it was.  It took us over 2 hours to reach Mafekin and the bridge by Mayaro.  I was hoping the water colour would improve and we would get into more natural areas.  As you can see the water never improved and we never got out out of human impacted areas, so in that way it was dissapointing.  We did see many birds but no Manatee and only one possible caiman.  While it was a fun paddle and is something I would do again, its not something I would do as a tour.  Maybe an explore further along the river will be a better paddle.  What I really want to do next is to explore up the Nariva River and to see if we can connect to Plum Mittan, though this would probably be a 6 to 8 hour paddle.  The water looks much better and I think the possibility of of Manatee, Caiman, Macaws and lots of birds will be much higher.

Macajuel

This afternoon I was riding Archery Trail in Tucker Valley, Chaguaramas when rounding a corner I cam upon this beauty.  I think she measures in between 7 and 8 feet, I will check tomorrow, and it a Boa Constrictor, locally called Macajuel.  I tried to hold her and all I managed was her tail as she was faster than I expected and was in no mood for a fondle or a casual tryst with me.  I played with her taking mostly crappy photographs and she kept an eye on my ensuring I was not up to mischief.  After a bit I decided that the literally 1000 mosquitoes had sucked enough blood out of me and I left her to continue hunting smaller meals than me.

Gabby's Birthday

So my diet has not gone well in the last week.  I have done great in that I have trained hard but having a very sociable and delightful daughter turn 8 has been hard - she scored no less than three birthday cakes, and I mean full size cakes and all the remainders have ended up in my fridge tempting me to the n'th degree, and unfortunately I have succumbed.  The training has been going well with many 1 to 4 hour rides and 1 to 2 hour walk/jog/runs and 1 to 2 hour kayaks usually around the 5 Islands which is always fun.  I am training for the coast to coast, http://www.trinidadcoast2coast.com/ which is a very tough multisport race that I have wanted to do for years.  I will be doing it with Louise Smart, who will run while to do the riding and kayaking bits.

Restart

Hi All,

After a long layoff I am restarting my blog!!  It will be as informative and quirky as always.  Also I am trying my best to launch an international TV career.  So go to www.yeagoproductions.com and click on Go Wild Trailer, or go to projects and click on Go Wild with Courtenay Rooks and you will see what I am up to.

For now; we are clearly into the rainy season and it keeping with the current climate change trend it started with a bang and there have been severe November type floods already, and very sadly they have resulted in avoidable drownings.  Without a doubt the trend has been extreme rainy season followed by drought; no inbetweens.