New Year's Eve trek...

We decided to end the year in a healthy, outdoorsy fashion with a little hike that we'd done many times before, ending in a delightful sea bath.  Our party consisted of 3 adult women in their forties, 3 16 year old girls, 2 13 year old boys and a 10 year old girl.  All intelligent resourceful people.

Wel,l apparently that last sentence bred complacency...

As we started along the trail, we were horrified by the poor state of it....had no one cleared this trail in years? When was the last time we walked it anyway?  Typical Trinidad! we thought scornfully.  Other than being savaged by huge bush mosquitoes, despite numerous application of Off and citronella, we actually had great fun kicking down bamboo, charting our own trails, walking through mini rivers and hunting for trail indicators.  However, something was wrong, we could not find the correct path. We retraced our steps, only to find the orange markers which assured us we were on the correct trail.  However, after winding up at the same dead end twice we admitted defeat and decided we'd just go and soak our scratched and mosquito penetrated skins in the sea.

However, just as we reached the opening back to the golf course, we saw the correct trail lying before us, almost gentrified in how clearly it was laid out, with dried bamboo leaves carpeting the way.  We put it to the kids to continue and all but one were totally enthusiastic.  From then on, steep hill in the middle notwithstanding, it was plain sailing with beautiful sea views at the top and a manageable downhill with rocks and roots forming virtual stairways.

The one dissenter happened to be my son, who had been inexplicably sleepy the entire week before we realised he'd grown yet another inch, and was still pretty tired.  He's also pretty unfit and certainly can't keep up with his agile triathlete cousin. So he moaned, bewailed the fact that he hadn't insisted on giving up, and leant his entire weight on me as much as possible.  We fell out when it was time to come downhill as I was reluctant to be thrown over so was looking for different solutions to supporting him. As the all-or-nothing kind of

guy that he is, he chose to just come sulkily and slowly down on his own, spurning any help proffered to the extent of preferring to fall rather than reach for my hand or take my advice on the easiest root and almost destroyed my sense of calm joy that one generally develops when hiking through a beautiful forest!

It really isn't a long hike, so within 25 minutes we were at our destination.  My mind went into overdrive worrying about how I could get this intransigent son back the two-ish miles it was to the car, but miraculously, the sweet Macqueripe water soothed and refreshed him. He splashed around and dived, belying the fact he has the unrealised potential to be a champion swimmer, and somehow calmed his spirit sufficiently to once again enjoy being a child living on a tropical island.  The adults who all suffer from the same inability to relax took a long swim which felt great and exhausting at the same time, although a little unpleasant when bitten by sea ants. The stronger swimming teens swam out a little, but preferred to spend their fast dwindling vacation liming in the water as un-strenuously as possible.


Despite some dissent from the adults who wanted to be encapsulated by the picturesque forest once again, we chose to return road-way, especially as we remembered the short cut trail  The turned out to be an excellent decision for three reasons.  

Firstly it was in fact much shorter and totally flat...but that we knew.  

Secondly, saw MONKEYS!!!! They were on both sides of the road banging bamboo and hopping around as cute as can be.  I'm wondering if they were Capuchins as they were so tiny and seemed to be browny grey and two tone rather than the rich reddy brown of the more commonly seen howlers, but they weren't close enough for careful examination.  

Thirdly we saw a tree resting on a wire and bursting with flames which was highly concerning so needed reporting.  Once he realised I didn't just stop him to check him out, the CDA man who drove past at an opportune moment was thankful for the information and looked set to get on it with immediate effect.  I hope he did because that looked like it could cause serious problems to both the environment and the power supply.

Next it was feast time.  Fortunately I'd spent the earlier part of the morning making mini burgers and heating sausage rolls for the carnivore kids, and mixing tuna mayonnaise to have with Ryvita for the food fussy adults, as the food disappeared in lightning speed. Unfortunately the golf course bar was closed so we had to remain parched until we hit a rum shop on the main road and gathered some much needed hydration.  Coconut water in my case...I didn't even feel for rum...

All in all it was a good day, with much bonding, fresh air, sea water and monkeys. Everyone felt they'd done something admirable to end the year and therefore ready to face both the known and unforeseen challenges of the new year.  

As for me, just seeing those monkeys confirmed my suspicions that 2015 will be quite the most awesome year I've had in a while....in each and every of the multifarious facets of my beautifully complicated life!