HAPPIEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD: Trinidad

Myself and seven other bloggers vloggers headed to Trinidad and Tobago to see what the twin island country had to offer pre-carnival. While Tobago offered a more relaxing atmosphere, Trinidad was all about the party, food, diverse culture and also some relaxation. We are on the Karani swamp bird sanctuary tour on the hunt for scarlet ibis and hopefully we'll get to see a couple. If you come here in the evening just before sunset you can see thousands of them but we are here a little bit earlier but we should be able to still spot a couple. We're about to try what's called doubles and it's like a tortilla kind of patty thing and chana which is chickpeas with some mango and hot sauce and other spices and sauce. Apparently it's messy and very popular here. I can't even pick it up. All right struggling here just a little bit. It's good but messy. While doubles is a must try when visiting Trinidad so is bake and shark, a popular street food made up of shark sandwiched between fried dough. It's time to try some bake and shark it's called. Look at this. Check it out. That's good. Nice. Temple's here in Trinidad and behind me the statue of Hanuman which is the monkey god. He represents education and courage and apparently he is the largest statue of a god outside of India and that's him. He's very tall, very very tall. This white fence that surrounds the temple are hanging coconuts and these coconuts represent people who come to the temple. They bring their own coconut with them and they hang them from this fence and they ask for something. So it's a wish and then they go and they make the wish to Hanuman and they do their puja, their prayer in the hopes that it will come true. What I love about Trinidad is that it's made up of so many different nationalities that have created this Trini culture. So there's people from all over the world that have come together to live together and respect each other so there's no like division between Muslims and Hindus. They get along and Hindus and Muslims they marry each other and Jews and Arabs they marry each other or people here are a mixture of all those different nationalities and it's accepted and celebrated and everybody celebrates all the different cultures here and that is what actually makes up the Trini culture. So it's about acceptance and a blend and and celebrating all those different traditions. I've also really noticed how happy everyone is all the time and I think a big part of that is that there's always something to celebrate. There's always a festival of some sort and people in general are just happy and carefree and easygoing and and I think it's probably one of the few places where I can say people are generally just the happiest that I've ever experienced in a country. So it's nice it's nice to be around that positive energy all the time. No trip to Trinidad is complete without trying on a traditional Carnaval headdress so that's exactly what I did at Tribe. Check out traditional headdress for Carnaval. It's so awesome. I want to wear this everywhere. I just want to like prance around the street. Feel like a peacock. Holy! So crazy. It's not heavy. No, no, no. I feel like it's supposed to be on my head always. Trini's know how to party that's for sure. From the panyards to incredible fashion shows to performances and dance parties there's always a celebration of some kind especially weeks leading up to Carnaval. The semi-finals with the king and queen of Carnaval's uniforms or costumes I should say are unbelievable. Right outside of my window right now is a raging party. I can see it from my window and it is the line party at the Hyatt Regency and it's a pre-Carnival party. I've got my wristband here which means I can eat and drink as much as I want. I'm wearing my green outfit so you're allowed to wear either green or white and there are live performances by Machel and a bunch of other Soca artists and there's food and there's drinks and well I'm just gonna go and I'm gonna have to show you. I'm gonna stop talking. Let's head to the party. Okay, art first. That's a lie. What'd you think? If you're headed to Trinidad and Tobago for Carnaval, I urge you to get there a week earlier as there is so much to celebrate. Wait! Before you go, don't forget to press that subscribe button so you never miss out on any upcoming adventures. Happy travels!