random photos

here are a few random pictures from trinidad. sadly, since i've been working 13.5 hours per day for the last 3 weeks, i haven't had much time to go out and see the sites. the first day off we had, i slept a lot of catch up then watch some football at a local bar/hotel. we had last monday off for "republic day" and decided to go to maracas beach, the best beach in trinidad. it's normally a 1 hour drive, but due to the holiday traffic, it took us 4.5 hours. it was painful. we worked late that day until 9AM, putting the turbine casing down, then had the driver rush us home to get showered before we were supposed to leave at 10AM to go to the beach. well, 10AM came and went, then around noon, we get a call from the dayshift guys that we are now leaving at 12:30PM (MAN, i could've gotten a nap!). so, we hit the road, stop for some $$$, and some beers. there is only one 2-lane road in and out of maracas beach, and apparently, all of trinidad was on it in front of us. you have to go way up into the rainforest-like mountains, above a sort of cloud line, and then back down to the coast. we finally made it there around 5:00PM or a bit later, parked the car, and went to a bar-type place right on the beach. we listened to music, looked at girls, wandered the crowd, and just generally relaxed. i was told to try the "bake and shark", but forgot to in all the jolly-works. also, island girls must have some unique butt muscles that no other girls have. i don't know what the move is called, but it's become popular in hip-hop videos and strip clubs lately. it's that booty bounce things, but these girls are doing it like effortlessly, like they don't even need muscles, they just turn on and off some sort of anti-gravity field around their asses. i should've gotten video, but i digress. on the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at one of the station guy's mom's house. he wanted the site lead to meet his sister. strange. we had a few more drinks, and went home. that was a longer story than expected. well, i guess that helps to explain two of the pictures. here you go...

we had to stop by the side of the road for drinks since the trip took so long. this is a picture across the valley (through some fauna) above maracas beach.

we are still in traffic but maracas beach is FINALLY in sight.

i had to get passport photos for my visa in trinidad. i went to a quickie-photo shop and found out that brittany is still looking decent SOMEWHERE in the world... as a generic picture in quickie-photo shop picture frames.

this is at my hotel. i found this guy in speedos, passed out (those are 2 beer bottles beside him) at 9:30AM!!!

well, that's all for now. back to work.