You know how when you're home, and it's just hot and you're kind of bored and you think to yourself how nice and cool it would be to be at the beach instead? Well I had that thought while sitting in our air conditioned living room and went and spent the weekend at a beachouse in Mayaro with some friends of my mom's.
My mom (who could give those fabled rats a run for their money when it comes to packing) and I packed for the overnight stay so that meant that when we left we took a playpen, 2 fullsize suitcases, a lasagna, a gallon size bottle of Baileys, a stroller, 8 liters of water, 6 towels, bedding for 2 beds, plus enough baby food to feed Miles till he is ready for college.
Barely able to close the trunk, with no room to move her feet in the back because of all the luggage we were not ready to leave yet. No, we had to pick up a friend of the host who we had never met. Did she travel light? Well comparatively but not really as she was going to the house for the entire week having nothing to do with her life but roast in the hot sun I guess. So we jammed 3 more bags into the car plus this lady who had green painted very long toenails and off we went.
Those who have never been to Trinidad may think that it being an island in the Caribbean that the idyllic beach must be, oh, a stones throw from every doorstep. Not so dear reader. Though as the crow flies the beach we were destined for would only be maybe 20km south east of us, in order to get there we actually had to go NORTH about 30km then EAST about 20km then SOUTH about 50km. And so it was 2 1/2 hours of bumpy road with a strange, kind of loud talking lady (who later the next day stripped half naked in the yard in full view of everyone and just didn't care) we arrived at a pretty nice house.
Our hostess is a lovely and gracious woman who kindly told the few friends she invited that they could bring friends too if they wanted. What resulted that day and the next was a kind of Indian Animal House where bottles of booze and new people were arriving nearly every hour and massive amounts of food were being cooked. There were children everywhere, adults swarming and even a crab in a bucket who jumped out of his confines and escaped to safety, preferring his chances with in the wild to his chances with these people who seemed to cook every type of meat they could get their hands on.
Eventually however night fell and the day trippers took their leave and there was calm in the home. We all happily took to the porch and drank Baileys, and eventually got a bit sleepy. To the sleeping quarters we went and there realized that sleeping in a beachhouse in the Caribbean without air conditioning is kind of like sleeping in the ocean itself as the air was so wet and humid. So my mom and I dragged one of the plastic encased mattresses to teh rooftop deck and made it up and with pillows and all lay under the full moon with Miles for a few hours till he fell asleep then moved it back downstairs to prevent him waking up with lungs full of dew.
Oh, I forgot - the neighbors were having a MASSIVE party with live tassa drumming and everything so getting Miles to sleep that night was especially impossible.
Around midnight I went with one of my aunts to the beach so she could find her husband who enjoys taking a midnight dip. As we were out looking for him, out from the water emerges an aging Venus, naked as the day she was born and cool as anything says "hello, goodnight" and heads into the party next door.
Next day, drink, people, repeat. Drive back in blazing hot heat and think to self that the beach may be good for a lot of things but not for cooling off.
