Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, is the country's third largest municipality and it located on the Gulf of Paria, on the northwest coast of the island of Trinidad. The city serves as a retail and administrative center as well as a financial services center and is home to two of the largest banks in the Caribbean. As one of the major shipping hubs of the Caribbean, it exports agricultural products and asphalt along with bauxite from the Guyanas and iron ore from Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most pros-perous and stable democratic nations in the Caribbean.
We disembarked at around 9. We saw some friends getting into a van, so asked where they were headed. They invited us to share the van for a tour of the city. We drove by several monuments and city buildings. The Red House is home of the T&T Parliament. We went by the "Magnificent Seven", a row of 7 estate homes, each in a different architectural style. They must have been gorgeous at one time. Now they are boarded up or in bad need of repair. Sad. We drove up a mountain road for a view of the city. Quite a sprawling place. Just below us were many homes with no streets leading to them. We headed back toward the ship and asked to be dropped off in town. The shops were for locals, carrying a lot of inexpensive clothing and such. We did find one tourist shop before returning to the pier.
Earlier, while Mel was at breakfast, he had seen a firehouse from the ship. We went around the block to find it. We asked if we could get a patch for our son-in-law, Randy. The fireman we'd approached took us around to where the staff get their uniforms! They gave us patches and flags from the Port of Spain Fire Dept, nice souvenir. We looked around at the few vendors who had set up on the pier. After the wonderful vendors we'd already seen, there was nothing really special at this market. We were back onboard by 4 pm.
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