Port of Spain to Arima

[Cathy] We arrived here on Friday 4th Feb by ferry from Tobago. The car-ferry catamaran does the journey in two and a half hours, and amazingly I wasn't seasick - I have been known to be seasick on a dinghy off Brighton sea-front with hardly any swell! We saw a tropic-bird on the way over, which pleased me a great deal.
Our guest-house was cramped but very convenient for walking into the centre of town, and for the wonderful Panorama - one of the preliminary heats for the Steel bands wanting to participate in the main Carnival in early March - which we watched on Saturday night in a street just round the corner. We explored the town later on Friday after we'd settled in, and walked round the Queen's Park Savannah which is park sports ground and arena for steel band performances in the Carnival. On Saturday we went into the center of town, bought our flights to Guyana, and spent some time in the fascinating museum. It was large and tiring - I was rather glad that only half was air-conditioned. It was far too exhausting to concentrate without that, so we had to abandon those sections, however interesting. the rest focusing on Geology, natural history and industrial development of Trinidad was really fascinating.

Next day we took a bus to Arima, where we were met by our hosts from a very friendly guest-house, who took us straight off to a village in the rain forest, Lopinot, which had a lovely park laid out for liming-picnics - whole families settling in for a day's relaxation with food, loud music and paddling. Despite the bustle I saw lots of lovely birds - yellow oriole, lineated woodpecker and a greyish saltator (I know...look it up!). The dominant birds everywhere are the vultures, black vultures circling all over the centre of Port of Spain and the turkey vulture circling every valley in the Norther Range rain-forest. There was a small village museum where Parang music making was going on, with lots of visitors participating, led by the village guide who played the cuatro - a small guitar. Our host [ie hotel owner -S], Matthew, turned out to be a great[?} box base player. It's a large wooden box with a stick and thick string that you pluck, while holding the box steady with your foot. The guide told us about the history of the village, which apparently has been awarded a peace prize for the way its multi-ethnic community works so well together. In fact one resident was playing really blaring music which we found really annoying and one feels must have annoyed their neighbours even more! Matthew took us up to see a cave in the towering rocks above the village, and on the way he showed us cocoa plants growing. He opened one and showed us the cocoa beans nestling against one another in the thick pod, surrounded by a sweet white viscous substance, which I enjoyed sucking. The bean itself isn't edible till this white stuff has been removed (by dancing on the beans barefoot in the old plantation days), the beans dried and cooked.

Next day Matthew dropped us on the main rain-forest road to do a bit of unaccompanied birdwatching. The forest and the valleys and high peaks all around us were lovely, though we didn't see an enormous number of birds. The highlights were the white-tailed trogon and the tufted coquette - a very frilly and unlikely looking hummingbird. There were laden lorries trundling past from the stone quarried higher up the road, which was a bit wearing, but we revelled in our freedom to bird watch unaccompanied. We have felt a bit claustrophobic here in Trinidad. All the rooms have bars on the windows, razor-wire adorns most walls, and we have been constantly warned to go nowhere alone as it is far too dangerous. We were accosted by one or two beggars in Port of Spain, but we never felt at risk. But we did feel intimidated by kind people approaching us to say this street really wasn't safe, we should go somewhere busier! They weren't a threat, just being helpful, but it made us anxious.

Later that day we went to the Caroni Swamps to see the famous scarlet ibis coming in to roost as evening falls. It was a two and a half hour trip through the swamps with boa constrictors, mangrove trees whose roots were festooned with small clams and crabs thrown in.


Also any number of egrets and herons, as well as the glorious sight of the flocks of scarlet ibis gleaming in the sunset light as they flew past us.



The icing on the cake was a pygmy kingfisher that crossed the front of our boat to attract our attention, and then obligingly posed on a nearby mangrove root until the entire 25 pasengers had had time to photograph it!

Today we have been to the Arena dam where we watched jacana, purple gallinules and grebe on the reservoir, hawks as well as vultures over the surrounding countryside, plus little marsh and water tyrants (yes!) flitting through a pretty corner of marsh surrounded by small trees. We walked back through the strip of rain-forest that lines the path, and were photographed for a local brochure which is being produced to encourage more bird watchers to come here! Samuel is finding the pace a bit wearing, so we are having a quiet afternoon now - he's not so keen on birdwatching as I am and would prefer to walk more steadily I think. But he is very patient, knowing how much pleasure I get from it.

Tomorrow we are going on a birdwatching trip with a guide from the Asa Wright Centre, who is going to pick us up from here with our luggage and at the end of our tour will drop us at our new accommodation in the middle of the rain-forest at Alta Vista staying in a log cabin, right by the wildlife reserve. We will stay 2 nights there (maybe more if we like it). We then plan to go to Brasso Secco to do some hiking, and hope we will be able to continue the blog there.