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Thursday, May 6, 2010

Lunch Room Conversation...

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop." ~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This quote makes me wonder whether Lewis Carroll had any Trini blood in him. It sorta sounds just like the directions that a Trini would give... :)

So we're sitting in the lunch room today (some of us having lunch... some of us avoiding going back to work) and talk comes up about the wonder that is Google Maps... You can find Trinidad and Tobago on Google Maps... You can find lots of stuff on Google Maps... including my house. I have a friend who spends time on Google Maps correcting the labels they have for roads and spaces and I know of persons who've started taking photos to map to places in T&T...


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And while all of that is exciting and maybe you're now thinking you can go label some places on Google Maps... that's not my story. Today's post is on our lunchtime conversation and just how confusing it can be for persons to find places in Trinidad and Tobago. Apart from our vague (yet strangely accurate) direction-providing skills, today's lunchtime convos emphasised that our road names can be a bit.. confusing.

Take, for example, the old Southern Main road which runs from north to south Trinidad. This road was used before the main highways and is still used today as it links all the villages and towns together. This road turns into Main Roads when it passes through towns... What do I mean? If you're travelling south along the Southern Main road from Chaguanas to Point Lisas you drive down the Southern Main road until Isaac Junction where you turn right... then... although you're still continuing on the same road - it's called the Couva Main Road... then after you pass through Couva you turn left and - the road name changes back to the Southern Main road.


View Larger Map

This is one of many places in which it does this. Talk in the lunchroom is that the road we all know as the North Coast road (Maracas anyone?) becomes the Paria Main Road after Maracas Beach till Las Cuevas where it is again called the North Coast road for a little while before turning back into the Paria Main Road to get to Blanchisseuse... lol

When you consider the naming issue and the fact that we tend to have place names repeated... e.g. Palmiste in Central... Palmiste in South... it's pretty amazing that people don't get lost. As one of my workmates say though... "is ah good ting T&T small cuz if yuh get loss yuh just hadda make 2 turns before yuh find yuh way..."

Lol... I ♥ T&T...

peace,
Rtr


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i heart you and the place that you come from!

Herschey's Kisses said...

lol..@ above comment

Well i think it can go even further...
consider that Mt. Hope Hospital is in Champs Fleur

and Enterprise Government School is in Cunupia...go Figure??

Unknown said...

@ Tara... u hadda come visit sometime :) plan it in somewhere...

@ Herschey... I've always wondered where Mt. Hope is :S is it in Champs Fleur? Someone needs to explain it to me.. I shall ask around..

Unknown said...

lol... all this does be going in the kitchen, wait, that was my conversation...