We awoke and readied ourselves for what would be a rather full day. Our main destination was to be the Emperor Valley Zoo, Trinidad and Tobago's only zoo, in Port of Spain, Trinidad's capital. The zoo was interesting in that it housed a high proportion of indigenous species, which would serve as a sort of inadvertent sneak peek of what was in store later during our stay.

In comparison to zoos of my home country, husbandry seemed exceptionally lackluster, with some enclosures seeming woefully inadequate for their inhabitants. It was disheartening to see, but I am happy to report that while doing some research to assemble this post, I learned that in recent years the zoo has received millions of dollars in funding to upgrade and modernize the facilities and improve living conditions for the animals.

The zoo also housed a Congo African grey parrot who, like Moe at home, was an impressive talker. Unlike Moe, however, it seemed to delight in very directly engaging passers-by in conversation, and wolf-whistled, meowed and laughed at anyone that would approach.

It was around this point that my camera batteries died, and I realized my backups were duds. This was unfortunate, because our next stop was an evening visit to the Lady Young Road Overlook, which yielded a tremendous sunset view of Port of Spain. We grabbed a bite to eat at one of several vendor tents set up at the overlook: spicy corn cobs and a strange fruit locally called pommecythère, which was somewhat savory and seasoned accordingly, and whose flavor reminded me of a Tex-Mex salsa verde.

There were many stray dogs at the overlook who seemed to know that this was a place where patient, polite begging eyes would be rewarded with a morsel or two. This was a trend I noticed several times during our stay; there seemed to be an abundance of strays, but they all seemed to understand that endearing behavior could make the difference between hunger and a full tummy, and as such the wild population seemed unusually friendly. In comparison to the United States, what I saw of pet culture seemed substantially different in Trinidad. While companion animals were by no means unheard of, I feel that there was a much greater leaning towards keeping animals solely for utilitarian purposes, and at times I saw animals (dogs included) kept in conditions that might seem cruel to American eyes.

We ended the day with a visit to more of Wendy's relatives. One of the boys at the house had a pet squirrel, probably the native red-tailed squirrel (Notosciurus granatensis), which looked terrified by the sudden influx of strangers. We returned home.