Happy New Year!

New country, new adventure, new blog.

What's in a name? I be limin'

In Trinidad, a lime is a noun and a verb. The lime is the event, it is also the action - the art of doing nothing, hanging out with friends, enjoying the weather perhaps with a beer or two.

Here, my last name is often mis-pronounced. I assure people I am only limin' on the weekends.

We enjoyed bringing in the new year here in Trinidad. This was the last sunset of 2009. One remarkable part of New Year's in Buenos Aires was the fireworks. Last year, we attended a party that our host strapped PVC pipe to the railing of their 18th floor terrace railing. All to launch fireworks from. It was a lot of fun. We didnt think it could be topped.

One clue that fireworks is a major part of Trini life are the fireworks shops all over town, the advertising on the radio and the notice we found in the apartment elevator a couple of days before New Year's Eve.....

We enjoyed a great dinner for two, bubbles on the terrace and a night of fireworks....all around us. Our apartment terrace faces west, the ocean and the western part of the island including Chaguaramas. Out the front door we face more of Port of Spain. We were basically surrounded by neighborhoods of New Year's parties which you could pinpoint all night be the fireworks being shot into the air. It went on for hours.

View out the front door.....

The view off the terrace....

The tenants in the nearby apartment buildings got around the 'no fireworks' rule by setting up in the middle of the street out front of their compound. I need to remember that for next year.

Happy New Year to all!

B.