December 18 - Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

 Weather – 30º, humid sometimes, then not so humid, no rain, partly cloudy

distillery tour

Steps – 6.489

Port of Spain is a large city in the context of the area. The population of the urban area is about 50,000 with the surrounding area of about 500,000. The urban population has been decreasing from 94,000 in 1960.

We are docked in what on first glance is a container port, and it is, but there is also a modern-ish cruise ship terminal with attached Raddison and Hyatt hotels. The port itself isn’t too developed unfortunately…basically we are dying for a port beer somewhere…so far, we’ve had zero opportunities.

a tank of molasses for rum

We came into port about an hour late this morning due to a damaged dock. This didn’t hold up our particular tour as it was

bottling bitters

the last to go but some tours were late returning to the boat. Like yesterday in Grenada, there are no large tour busses on the island of Trinidad, likely due to the very hilly and windy nature of the island. So, 17 of us

coopering rum barrels

piled into a 22-seater van – 2 seats on one side and 1 seat on the other. Much more comfortable than yesterday’s 2 and 2 in the same size van.

rum museum...didn't visit

These vans are also used for public transportation. The size of the busses/vans means the groups will be small…nice.

Did you know…Trinidad and Tobago is made up of 2 islands…Trinidad AND the
much smaller Tobago and is very close to South America.

parliament building

The main attraction on today’s tour is the

Queen's Royal College

House of Angostura, Trinidad’s premier rum distillery and where the famous Angostura bitters hail from. We learn the distillery’s history and how the bitters are bottled. There was NO sampling on this tour. Apparently, since covid there’s been no sampling, but we walked away with a gift bag filled with 2 airplane bottles of rum and 3 tiny bottles of chocolate, orange, and traditional
bitters. We had hoped for a bit of a shopping opportunity, but all there was to buy was booze. The distillery’s gift shop was basically a liquor store, selling not just rum and bitters, but also other branded

rainbow eucalyptus

booze. We also learn that only 5 people in the world know the secret recipe to Angostura bitters, they are like a royal family and never fly on the same plane…dramatic!

performing arts centre

This tour was very much history focused, which was interesting but as far as uses for bitters in cocktails and cooking the guide kept directing us to their web site. Since my Covid foray into cocktail making I’ve tried to wrap my head on bitters…I was hoping to today. I experiment, but never find I can tell the difference in a cocktail with or without bitters, but meh.

gift bag

Did you know…that the name Angostura comes from a town in Venezuela on the Angostura River where a doctor invented bitters to use in his medical practice. His sons moved to Trinidad and continued the business.

up close rainbow bark

Next, we did a panoramic tour of the city where we saw and learned about banks, parliament, schools, churches, and the train station which is now home to the vans we are travelling in today as trains no longer run. We ended up at the city’s 200-year-old botanical garden. This is also where the president lives. Here we followed our guide as she described native and acquired trees and flowers. We saw a very cool tree, the rainbow eucalyptus…with its colourful bark. She also showed us a Brazil nut tree with pods the size of a baseball where the nuts are inside - each pod holds 10 to 25 Brazil nuts, which are technically seeds…fascinating!

Brazil nut pod

Lastly, we wound our way up one of the city’s many hills (it’s built into a mountain) to a look out. Here we saw all of downtown, the harbour with our ship, the cricket pitch. There were a few stalls at the lookout selling fruit, ice cream, and other souvenirs. Seemed like the perfect place for a bus beer, but nope.

Well… We didn’t have time before all abord at 2:30 (earlier than usual, but we have to make it to Brazil on the 21^st) for more than a port beer, and there was no port pub, so a local Trinidadian beer was not in the cards for us. This meant we were back on

hillside homes

from the lookout

board for plenty of time before lunch closed. We watched sail away from the comfort of our balcony enjoying a rum and coke made with the Angostura rum from today’s gift bag.  

Venezeula

another historic building

About a half an hour after we left Trinidad, we sailed close to Venezuela. No where inhabited, but Venezuelan land, nonetheless.

Tonight, there was no show, just “Christmas Vacation” in the theatre. I have no interest in watching the movie, but I sure do know they have popcorn. A little bed-time popcorn…YUM!

Making it to Trinidad and Tobago today, took us to 75 countries and dependent territories visited!!!

and yet another