Blogs from Port of Spain, Trinidad, Trinidad & Tobago, Central America Caribbean

Tuesday July 30* - It started to rain just before we were about to leave, and we waited for the downpour to end before heading out to Caroni Bird Sanctuary. We left at 3pm and it only took about 15 minutes to get there. But Ally said if we had left 15 minutes later, we might have been caught up in some serious traffic. The main thing to do at Caroni is to take a boat ride/tour out to see the Scarlet Ibis, who come in to roost for the night. There are about 20,000 of them in this mangrove swamp, but this is their breeding season, so most of the birds are paired up and nesting in other parts of the swamp. We were taken around many parts of the swamp for a couple of ... read more

Farewell to Dominica, then Couva & Carnival After posting the last blog we still had a couple of days in Dominica which so far has been our favourite island as we loved the forests, waterfalls and geothermal features. We returned to Portsmouth, site of Fort Shirley, but this time to visit Indian River, only a short walk to the south of the town. On the way we met up with a character, Gregory. At that point we did not know he was a boatman/guide from the river and at first Jim was reluctant to engage in conversation. But we soon realised he was looking for his first clients of the day and as we chatted it became clear he knew his fauna and flora. So on reaching the river we hopped into his rowing boat, preferable ... read more

We have just returned from a Habitat build in Trinidad. On this trip, I achieved my long awaited objective of visiting 100 countries, based on the rules of The Century Club. Trinidad was number 99 and St Vincent got me to number 100. We left home on March 2nd in order to have dinner with friends in Vancouver and take in the Cavilia Odessey Horse Show-quite an extravaganza. The next day it was off to the airport at 9.00 to check in and have a White Spot breakfast. I was wearing my rather beat up Blundestone boots on this trip so decided to search the airport for a shoe shine kiosk. It appears that many airports in Canada have had their shoe shine programs franchised by Aurora which may or may not be progress. Ten dollars ... read more

Another very early docking but we had a leisurely breakfast with a lovely Canadian couple from Vancouver then embarked on a 15km walk around town. Trinidad is the southern most island of the Caribbean and only about 7 mile off the coast from Venezuela, also the first inhabited island of the Caribbean. Population of Port of Spain is 128,000 and Trinidad 1.2 million. It produces over 100,000 barrels of oil a day, a good industry for their economy. Although only 31 degrees very hot and humid - we strolled up Brian Lara Promenade before taking one of the side streets up to the Art and Culture Centre - quite a modern architectural building - then noticed across the road at the stadium on the side of Queens Park Savannah that the Red Cross Childrens Carnival was ... read more

So, another flight from Miami to Port of Spain and we made it to Trinidad!! Only to be held up at immigration because our return flights left Costa Rica and not Trinidad itself, which apparently is against their Visa laws. Potentially the nicest immigration people in the world managed to create a flight for us to fake book ourselves onto and then let us go... all a bit underground/illegal, but we made it in! Leaving the airport and being hit by the 30 degree heat, the Northern Range mountains covered in rainforest and the palm trees was amazing! so worth the 40 hours with no sleep and millions of airports! A taxi took us to our guesthouse for the next week in El Socorro, which meant driving through a lot of the citys surrounding areas. Whoever ... read more