Central & Southern Trinidad
Driving south from Port of Spain,
the scenery changes as you approach Waterloo, through avenues of
tall palms between fields of sugar cane and grazing water buffalo. The
Temple-in-the-Sea at Waterloo is a white domed Hindu temple built on
tidal flats and reached by a pier. Its prayer flags and funeral pyres
are a reminder of the rich cultural mix of Trinidadian society.
Continuing
south on Trinidad’s west coast you reach Pointe-à-Pierre Wild Fowl Trust.
This is an attractive park where you can walk along lakeside trails with
close views of breeding scarlet ibis and other waterbirds, and a great
variety of trees and plants: a photographer’s delight, particularly
when the lotus and waterlilies are in bloom. The Trust is a volunteer
organisation involved in breeding Trinidad’s endangered waterfowl and
runs programmes for schools and community groups. Permits must be
arranged in advance.
San Fernando
is Trinidad’s second city - a maze of winding streets below San
Fernando Hill, which offers great all round views. As in parts of the
capital, keep clear of potentially risky situations on the back streets.
Ask anyone from Port of Spain if they’ve
been south beyond San Fernando and 9 times out of 10 the answer will be
‘no’, although the journey is less than 60 miles. Southern
Trinidad gets along quite independently, with farming and fishing,
a little light industry, and oil derricks off the southwest and
southeast coast. Its unstable geology yields some small-scale surprises,
with several areas of ‘mud volcanoes’ blowing dollops of thick gloop
from earthy pimples a few feet high, and the remarkable Pitch
Lake - one of three asphalt lakes in the world. Its tar was used by
Sir Walter Ralegh to caulk his ships and is still used on roads around
the world. If you explore it with a guide you will be intrigued by the
experience of walking on it, seeing how the tar is slowly moving,
learning about its long history and how local wildlife has adapted to
it. You may even see a fish eagle cooking its breakfast on the hot tar.
Cedros and Icacos on Trinidad’s remote South
Coast are accessed by long empty palm-lined roads stretching away
to the horizon. Time passes very slowly here. The waters of the Orinoco
bring good fishing and the prospect of a little smuggling with
Venezuela, but leave beaches and sea an unappetising shade of brown.
Erin and Moruga have a similarly remote feel.
Central Trinidad
is mostly agricultural, dotted with small villages and townships,
winding lanes and the trappings of a rural life: small churches, village
schools, and fiercely contested cricket matches.
Trinidad’s East Coast has mile
after mile of magnificent wild beaches where lines of Atlantic breakers
roll ashore on fine yellow sand strewn with coconut husks and chip-chip
shells, backed by a million tall palms that line the shore. Cocal
Beach on Cocos Bay is 4km long, deserted but for the occasional family
of week-enders.
At the end of Cocos Bay a sand spit
across the mouth of the Nariva River has created Nariva
Swamp
behind - a freshwater wetland of reed fringed marshes with mangroves
edging the more brackish channels. It is an important habitat for many
birds: waders, rails and raptors, and for the endangered West Indian
Manatee. At dusk flocks of red-bellied macaws come to roost in a stand
of royal palms near the shore. Almost surrounded by Nariva Swamp is Bush
Bush Sanctuary, a delightful pocket of hardwood forest and
silk cotton trees bordered by moriche palms. Here you can walk on forest
trails with good chances to see Capuchin Monkey, Red Howler Monkey, Tree
Porcupine and perhaps White-bearded Manakin at their leks performing
competitive acrobatics on the forest floor. On the lane into Bush Bush
there is a church where Christians, Muslims and Hindus take turns to
worship and each faith’s religious symbol is painted over the door.
In the southeast just beyond Guayaguayare
lie the Trinity Hills, named by Christopher Columbus on his third
voyage. Its three peaks were his first landfall, seen just as his ships
were running out of drinking water; he gratefully named the land ‘La
Trinite’ or Trinidad.
