Exploring Trinidad

For the last 3 weeks whilst I have been looking for crew for the next part of my journey, I have had the oppotunity to explore Trinidad. Crews Inn where I have stayed a couple of times is an excellent marina with some great facilities and near to all the chandleries, sail lofts and workshops but it is expensive so I moved to an anchorage close to the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association[TTSA]. In the last couple of days I have taken one of their moorings for peace of mind. Good move as the anchorage has filled up and there have been yachts dragging their anchors. During the afternoons the wind pipes up from the east and quite a swell develops but then the wind generator can do its stuff.

TTSA on a calm morning

There are a few very nice anchorages only a short distance away and Scotland Bay is the nearest. It can get a bit crowded at weekends. Saw a frigate bird and and osprey here.

Scotland Bay

A wonderful organisation called Members Only run by a great character called Jesse offers a number of excursions at reasonable rates. I went on one that took in the ASA Wright Nature Centre which is located in the Arima Valley about 1000 ft up in the rain forest in the central mountains. A knowledgeable guide took on forest trails to see some amazing trees,birds,ants,termites, spiders and an impressive lizard. Back at the Centre we were able to view some exotic tropical birds just a few feet away from the veranda that look out over the forest. Regretably I didn't manage to get a decent picture of the humming birds.

The last part of the trip was too see the Scarlet Ibis roost on a remote island in the mangrove swamp. I have never been in a mangrove swamp and was fascinated by the root systems. Our guide knew his stuff and stopped several times to point to rare sights such as an ant eater and a type of Boa Constrictor hanging a few feet above us hunting mainly birds. Termites nested everywhere you could see.

It seems the scarlet colour of the Ibis is a result of it eating a small crab that crawls up the mangrove roots. The tips of its claws are indeed scarlet but nothing compared with the Ibis which almost looks as if it is on fire! We were not allowed to get nearer that about 800 meters to the roosting island so the picture is not very good.