Arriving in Trinidad

Arriving in Trinidad
Should have written this on Monday night but, by the time everything was sorted, it was late and I was tired – still, recent enough to recall so have decided to record it anyway –
Woke up early, had breakfast and then went for walk to see where I was. The whole area dominated by the colossal vision of two Royal Caribbean cruise liners moored in the port. The scale is extraordinary – seems greater than standing beside a Boeing 747 – you are completely dwarfed as a mere mortal! The harbour area is some way from the centre of Port of Spain so it’s not especially attractive to walkers, except that there is a CHOGM Village – specially set up, I think, and comprising a range of white tents (there must be a more elegant word for these amazing white canvas ‘pavilions’) which feature stalls by artists and designer makers as well as more traditional touristy stuff – it was all closed (too early in the morning!) when I was there but will aim to get there again –
The cab dropped me off later at the ship’s entrance – Serenade of the Seas - a complicated procedure for checking in but, because I was much earlier than other people, I met no queues. Then, led by a friendly but mostly silent young porter, I made my way through the halls and corridors, finally emerging on the dockside, wide and long, and with the enormity of this huge ship right beside me. Suddenly, the whole event overtook me. Very uncharacteristically, I had a moment of panic! I suddenly understood how people, who have never previously travelled on aeroplanes, must feel on their first arrival at an airport, an environment that has always been so familiar to me – this time, it was me who was totally out of my comfort zone, no idea of what was expected and what the rules of the game were, dwarfed by the physical size of everything, intimidated by the uniformed formality of everything, and overwhelmed by the sudden sense of complete isolation in negotiating bridges, lifts, corridors and – for god’s sake – staterooms!!
The ship was pretty deserted when I arrived – all 13 stories of it! How odd to talk of ‘stories’ – of course, I mean ‘decks’! Everything is uncompromisingly in ship language – heaven help you if you don’t know your port from your starboard! Lovely ( if small) ‘stateroom’ – bedroom to you and me! But I do have a balcony – imagine it would be very nice if we were actually sailing with an accompanying breeze and view of the wide silver sea – however, we are moored and my best view is of the ships’ huge packing crates that dominate most ports these days – actually, I enjoy it – it feels real, reminds me of Singapore and feels friendly. In the distance I can see the new Trinidadian Performing Arts Centre so that’s comforting too!
The 13 ‘decks’ make this place feel more like a hotel than like a ship – there is absolutely no movement that one would normally expect of a ship so it’s a bit hard to remember we’re on board! The decks vary from bedrooms to bars and restaurants to casinos and shops – on the 11th floor is the pool and solarium – and there is an ‘atrium’ in the centre so that, from every level, you can see down to the main centre bar lounge on the 4th deck. Nothing is open – and virtually no one except laconic staff is around – apparently, the shop owners couldn’t come to a satisfactory deal with the organisers so they will not open at all during our stay on board – tantalising, since they sell at duty and tax free prices and are full of gold which, CNN says authoritatively, is the thing to buy right now!
At 7pm people appear and there is a reception – Andrew Senior from the British Council, who is chairing my panel, arrives accompanied by Hardesh, the BC Music Young Entrepreneur 2009. Pablo Francisco Arrieta, another panel member, appears – he was the chatty one on the coach from the airport and turns out to be from Colombia. Within minutes, we discover that one of my favourite people in Bogota when we worked there is actually one of his mother’s closest friends – after that, there is no separating us! Of course, he’s a genius – Colombia is full of them! But Pablo is genuinely exciting and I will talk about him later –