Back in 2012, several friends and I made the trip to Port of Spain, Trinidad, to see the Sounders play in the CONCACAF Champions League. As much as I love a good sporting match, it was honestly more of an excuse for a tropical, Caribbean vacation than because I felt an undying need to see the Sounders play. Whatever it takes to travel, right?!

There were 4 of us making this trip together, meeting up with several others on game day. Katie, Lara, Keith and I flew into Port of Spain the day before the match to give us time to settle and see a bit of the city. We went directly to our hostel, the Two Seasons Guesthouse in St James. It only cost us $17.50 per person, per night, and it was in a safe part of town, which is really important in Trinidad, but it was probably also the dirtiest place I’ve ever stayed. I still get the heeby jeebies when I think about it! But it was located in a safe location, close to amenities.

Rush hour in St James.

It was the 50th anniversary of T&T independence, so the city was festively decorated with red, white and black everywhere, and there was a firework show at night!

It was very hardcore.

Our first (and only) full day there, we walked around St James, checking out the sites. Spoiler – there aren’t many.

Trinidad has a reputation for not being very safe, but most of it is okay in the daytime, and St James is one of the best places to be. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there any longer than we had to.

After wandering around for a bit, taking pictures of this and that, we met up with a bunch of other people who came for the Sounders match as well. We sat on the patio of our hostel, having a few drinkings and killing time until we were ready to go.

It rained really hard for about 20 minutes.

Then we crammed 10 of us into a 7 seater van, and off we went to the stadium in Couva!

The stadium was really nice, but so empty. Caledonia AIA, the home team, maybe had 200 fans at most. The Sounders easily beat them 3-1.

At the end of the game, the players came over to thank us for our support, and the coaches invited us back to their hotel for a few drinks on them!

I also walked around the waterfront getting some fun photos of the boardwalk.

It was a really fun experience to see the Sounders play, but I think we were all ready to get out of Trinidad and over to Tobago for our real vacation to start!