The Centre has a main house, restaurant, overnight accommodation and picnic areas for day visits. You call ahead to book a tour and guided hike through the forest trails, with the knowledgeable guides showing you the flora and fauna – we saw squirrels, bell birds, white bearded manakins, purple honeycreepers, corn birds, LOTS of hummingbirds, large lizards, and some semi-tame agouti! The main trail (Discovery Trail) they take all visitors on is fairly easy – going gently downhill (so unfortunately, the route back to the house is uphill, but gentle…). There are many other trails, but I think you have to arrange a special tour in advance for these…also if you are in a large group, school tour etc. But if you are really into eco-tourism and hiking through nature, I think you might want to look into a longer, more expansive hike/trail, so give them a call (or email) to find out what’s possible.

I think I first went to Asa Wright as part of a UWI Biological Society visit in my first year on campus, where we did go beyond the main trail and passed over some streams and near a waterfall. That certainly is not on the usual path – although there are a couple waterfall rock pools within easy access which visitors are allowed to use. The Centre is a hotspot for birdwatching in particular, and the main house has the greatest verandah set up to see the birds…many species…not to mention the view of the mountains and valley!

There are bird feeders strategically located around the verandah, and the hummingbird feeders are hung right around. The day we visited in December, there were 2 humingbirds in particular who had both set their sights on one particular feeder, notwithstanding the 5 or 6 other feeders around and the fact that there were no other hummingbirds around. So for the duration of our visit, we were treated to these 2, alternately commandeering the desired feeder, while the other waited on a nearby tree, and then swooping in fast to scare off the one at the feeder. Over and over and over. It did give me lots of chances to get some action shots of these super-fast birds though, plus the entertainment factor!

Asa Wright has facilities for overnight stays, in the main house, or in cottages on the grounds. In fact if you want to see the oil bird habitat, you have to be staying at least 3 nights, since it’s an night trek, and they try to limit the number of disturbances for these birds. The restaurant is on premises, but if you are just a day-visitor you need to order a meal in advance. Otherwise you are limited to ordering food from the verandah bar (mostly sandwiches, but not bad at all). They serve coffee which they grow on the grounds (remember, a former coffee estate!) and make use of the fertile lands to have a kitchen garden for their restaurant use.

As with any service, things are dependent on the people involved. My previous visits have all encountered super friendly and informative persons at Asa Wright. It was always a bit of a hassle to make arrangements in the days before cellphones and email as you had to call a number in Arima (no phones up the mountains) and wait for confirmations etc. These days it’s much easier although you still have to call or email the day before to book the tour/trail. They do normal tours at 10.30 am and at 1.30 pm, which is included in the visitor’s entrance fee.

The day we were heading up there, we were early, until we hit unexpected and awful traffic in Maloney. Snail crawling through Arima. We called ahead to let them know we were running late but were trying to make it on time. The call kept dropping (which is why we weren’t able to reserve lunch) but at some point they told us, well the guide will wait for 10 minutes and then leave with the tour and we might have to be taken to catch up. Ok…no problem. I used my best skills to drive up the mountain and we got there JUST on time. Paid etc, went to find the guide and realised…it was just us for this tour. Only us…the guide would have been setting off on the trail all by herself? Small blip though, and the lady serving us our sandwiches afterwards was super nice. Even though we didn’t get our coffee.

After our relatively short hike, we came back and limed on the verandah for a couple hours at least. I do know we were still there when people came for their 1.30 tour. It’s just so very relaxing to sit on that verandah and look out at the beautiful Northern Range mountains. One day, I think I must stay overnight to fully take advantage of that place.

We had to leave eventually, since we had reservations for Tea at Mount St Benedict! All the way down this mountain above Arima and up the mountain above St Augustine More on that in the next post… (although you can see Chookooloonks posted about her visit there recently).

Slideshow of my Flickr set on Asa Wright

For more of my touring the homeland, you can see these posts -

• Caroni Swamp and Bird Sanctuary
• Gran Couva and La Vega Estate
• Helpful links for Visiting Trinidad and Tobago

Belize has many foods that would be at home in Mexico for example – in Belize City you can find so many little establishments selling corn tortilla and taco like foods, tamales, as staples in Belizean street food.

The photo at the top is of saltbutes which are fried corn rounds that puff up when fried, topped with meats, beans, salsa, cheese. The weight of the toppings sink into the middle. This one was veggie – just refried beans, veggies and salsa. Very good.

On the right, we have Garnaches, which are crispy fried flat corn circles, with toppings – like refried beans, salsa, onions and cheese. Of course you can get these with meat… They’re like round corn tortilla chips and may look light, but with the toppings they can quite fill you up!

These are the foods which are common to Central America. But the episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives I was looking at, was actually about a Garifuna establishment – the Garifuna nation comprises the descendants of Carib peoples of the Lesser Antilles and of Africans who had escaped from slavery – the British moved these people across the Caribbean to Central America. And so the food seems to be a combination of African influences (like the mashed plantains) and Amerindian, with the intensive use of cassava. But don’t rely on me for information – this is still a much-to-be-discovered area for me.

You can look at Wikipedia of course, or this blog on my blogroll, Rice and Beans, by a Belizean who’s actually writing post-graduate dissertations on food and culture! This was an interesting article highlighting foods and activities in Belize.

And of course Belize is famous for its Marie Sharp pepper sauces and condiments!

As a non-food note, I’ve always found that elements of the Guyanese accent are similar to (some) Belizeans – maybe it’s more in the approach to pronouncing words, or the particular drawl or rhythm…I’ve always put it down to Guyana, like Belize, being the only English-speaking country amid the latin nations. Accents, like food, interest me It’s a occupational-hazard….

• Curaçaose keuken – kitchens
• The Sweet and Spicy Sides of Curaçao
• Kos Dushi

Almost 2 years ago, I wrote about my visit to Curaçao, the lovely island in the Caribbean Sea that is part of the Netherlands Antilles. Back when I would post about my travels more regularly. Or just post more regularly…

Anyway, one of the things that had really interested me from my visit was the plate of traditional sweets I received, as it was a reminder that even if names were different, and languages, the people and food of the Caribbean do share so much!

Of course, back then, I really didn’t know for sure the names of what I had eaten! But thanks to Flickr, and a helpful comment* from a Curaçao flickrite, I can now inform my readers. Starting from the pastry at the front left and moving clockwise -

• Tèrt (cupe cake), a small crusty bottom filled with prunes. (recipe in papiamentu)
• Kokada (the dark brown one), grated coconut in brown sugar glaze (this is the one that tasted like tulum) (the original link seems to not exist anymore, I searched and found this one (not in English).
• Tentalaria (the white one), ground cashews in a sugar cream (the one that reminded me somewhat of peyra) – try this link (not in English).
• Panseiku (peanuts chunks), praline of toasted peanuts, in a brown-sugar brittle (we all have nutcakes!)
• Ko’i Lechi (bar) meaning literally milk thing, caramel bar (fudge!, the Trini kind, hard and sugary)

Another view of the plate.

Hope you enjoyed the revisit to Curaçao…or at least the sweets of Curaçao!

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* yes, yes, this comment was from a year ago, but it’s about time I blogged it! And make my goal of 2 posts in July.

Since I am still posting on some of my recent visits to lovely destinations in Trinidad, I thought I’d share some helpful links if you’re planning a trip to T&T, or better yet touring the country you live in!

The Official Travel and Tourism site – marketing T&T as “the True Caribbean” is not actually a bad place to start if you’re looking for registered tour companies, accommodation, background on the people, food, culture and events. I don’t think the Government is maintaining visitTNT.com anymore, but the  Visit Tobago site is still up and running.

Discover Trinidad and Tobago -”the definitive guide to the islands”  - is an annual publication highlighting the country and its attractions. (The same publishers as Caribbean Beat, the magazine for Caribbean Airlines, which has been featured on this blog a few times). But the website for Discover is also an excellent updated resource for visiting the twin islands. They’ve got informative and descriptive posts for example, on the Top 10 Things to do and see in Trinidad, Top 10 Things to do and see in Tobago, as well as an 8-part (so far) visit to different parts of Trinidad and a similar but shorter series for Tobago (smaller island, that’s all). You can visit the companion blog by MEP Publishers where their contributors have reported on the usual suspects in T&T tourism as well as the not-so-usual but very interesting, like the water taxi ride!

Amazing Trinidad Vacations (who you may recall interviewed me about a year-and-a-half ago) also has some good information and photos, along with a few interviews of famous Trinis like David Rudder, Kees Dieffenthaller (of Kes the Band)…and uhm me?

Outlish Magazine is a relatively new online magazine by Trinis for Trinis, founded by Karel McIntosh, as a “weekly, online, lifestyle magazine that celebrates individuality, passion, and innovation.” It’s published every Monday and the contributors and articles just get better. One recent issue proposed a Trini Bucket List: 10 To-Dos for Trinbagonians which while identifying places to go like Toco, Icacos and Down de Islands, also includes essential experiences like a Hindu wedding, or sitting in Parliament.

So, if you haven’t been to T&T, or you live here but think you have nothing to do, browse any of the above links and get busy. There are only so many days to enjoy life and see the beauty of our world. If you know any other great online places to get information, go ahead and comment – I think I’ll keep this post updated, and perhaps turn it into a permanent page for T&T travel eventually.

Just let me get on to posting about the rest of my Trinidad touring…

I had the good fortune when I was in Brussels a couple months ago to happen across a Valrhona store. It was actually on my last night there, and it was cold and raining and I was holding a cup of Godiva thick hot chocolate and bags, just waiting to get back to the hotel. And I peered out through the hood of my coat, through the rain and saw it. I’d never had the opportunity to find this elusive Trinidadian fine-flavoured cocoa from these fancy European dealers – we don’t actually get them back in T&T. And there it was in the window – a bar of Gran Couva 2010. Yay!

I went in and immediately sought out the single estate bars and asked for 5 bars (I figured the family members might want some too). She poked around, went into the window and emerged with 2. That’s all they had. She was unfortunately so busy trying to figure out if I was Arab, Indian or Pakistani, that she kept ignoring my telling her that I was from the Gran Couva place. So no, I didn’t want Venezuelan chocolate, not this time. As I was cashing though,my eyes alit on a “Caraïbe” bar, of which there were lots more, and I packed up quite a few of those. The Caraïbe bar, is still trinitario cocoa beans (T&T developed these particular fine-flavoured, pest resistant beans some time ago) but made from cocoa sourced from different islands of the Caribbean (including Trinidad), so I am assuming at least from Grenada and Tobago. I like the words on the Caraïbe (which Valrhona calls “Balanced and Velvety”) -

“Dans les îles et sur la côte de la mer des caraïbes, les hommes ont cultivé depuis des générations les cacaoyers Trinitario sur de riches sols de limon argileux surnommés “terre à chocolat”. L’assemblage de ces cacaos donne à Caraïbe un nez exceptionnel prolongé, à la dégustation, de doux arômes de fruits secs.”

“For generations, cacao trees have been grown in the shade of banana trees in the Caribbean, on rich clay loam soils often referred to as “chocolate lands”. A unique blend of Trinitario beans gives Caraïbe its exceptionally long nose and sweet aromas of dried fruits.”

The grand words for the Gran Couva bar?

“Nous sommes dans les caraïbes entre Venezuela et Grenade. Le soleil de Trinidad se lève sur Gran Couva. Les hommes de la plantation ouvrent à la machette les cabosses et en extraient les précieuses fèves de cacao. Le premier “chocolat de Domaine” est né.

The Trinidad sun rises over Gran Couva. Harvesters from the plantation open cocoa pods with a machete and remove the precious cocoa beans. The first “Chocolate de Domaine” has just arrived.”

Ah, chocolate It was lovely!

Of course, Gran Couva is not just a site for cocoa. Although you should try to visit a cocoa estate (it’s still on my list, so let’s say it’s something we ALL have to do for 2011!). The Central Range is a beautiful place to drive through. It’s not all rolling hills of (abandoned) sugar cane fields down here – although I find those just as beautiful. As you venture away from the coast, the hills grow higher and the cocoa trees start appearing along the sides of the road. In addition to some teak (much of the centre of the island were teak plantations – tall broad-leafed trees which provide excellent shade and strong furniture). If you’re used to the rugged lushness of the Northern Range, driving into Gran Couva and beyond will be a little different in parts, but it’s well worth a drive.

And if you want a day out in the Central Range, you could consider stopping into La Vega Estate, which is a big nursery and recreation park, with man-made ponds/lakes and gardens for picnics and whatnot. All in sight of some of that lovely Central Range scenery.

I have no affiliation with La Vega, mind you. It was just part of the recent whirlwind tour I took my friends on last month. It was a beautiful sunny day, to enjoy the scenery, the butterfly garden (small and we passed it twice before realising…), the bamboo grove, rivers and meditation garden. And it’s open 7 days a week.

More photos from La Vega in Gran Couva (and in my Flickr set)-

There is another Swamp in Trinidad, which is the Nariva Swamp on the East Coast of the island. That’s the place where it’s rumoured to still be home to manatees. Visitors to the Caroni Swamp sit on slow-moving boats with (hopefully) informative tour guides, through the mangrove-lined waterways, keeping an eye out for caimans, mudskippers, herons be they blue or white, boas, large iguanas, mangrove crabs and oysters and of course the star of the show, the Scarlet Ibis. The Scarlet Ibis is one of the national birds of T&T (more or less representing Trinidad, while the Cocrico represents Tobago). The Scarlet Ibis, the Cocrico and the Humming Bird are all represented on our Coat of Arms.

From Wikipedia -

The Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) is a species of ibis that inhabits tropical South America and also Trinidad and Tobago…Adults are 56–61 cm long and weigh 650g. They are completely scarlet, except for the black wing tips. They nest in trees, laying two to four eggs. Their diet is frogs, reptiles and crustaceans. A juvenile Scarlet Ibis is grey and white; as it grows the ingestion of red crabs in the tropical swamps gradually produces the characteristic scarlet plumage. The life span of Scarlet Ibis is approximately 15 years in the wild and 20 years in captivity.

The Scarlet Ibises nest in the Caroni Swamp, and late evening is the best time to see them returning to roost, filling the mangrove clump of choice with red splashes of colour, rather like a humungous hibiscus bush. The White Ibises also roost there, in the same mangroves but they’re not the main draw.

There are several private tour companies that can give you a boat tour of the Caroni Swamp – Nanan’s is usually recognised as the oldest, but there are others which you can find listed on the official T&T Tourism Site. I can only speak about Nanan’s. They have a website and email address, although I found that they only answered my emails after I called them…Cost per adult is US $10 or  TT $60. Children 12 and under are half price.  Residents get a special discounted rate of TT $50. They seemed really friendly and they have many boats so they can almost always fit you in even last minute, and even if you turn up late (they use a smaller boat to ferry you up to the rest of the tour). However, their boat-drivers aren’t necessarily the best tour guides. Our guide had been trained, but it seemed clear he was reciting from a script. He had to be prompted to provide any other information, and in fact our first 20 minutes of the tour we didn’t hear from him at all, even when we stopped to see the caiman, the mudskippers or heron. It was odd.

Fortunately I was with friends – the visitors from the US as well as a couple good friends I’ve known since I was 10 or 11 (not saying how long ago that was). Good company can trump strange service any time Especially when we’re willing to provide our own commentary and information.

That being said, I love being on boats – it’s calming. And the gentle ride of a boat tour through a Swamp is particularly so. Throw in the fact that you get to see wildlife, get great views and a lovely sunset…what more could you want?

Visit the Caroni Swamp virtually, through my Flickr set -

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* This is the highway that runs from Port of Spain in the West to the East of Trinidad.

** No comments from Guyanese required…

So, in case you are a new reader to this blog, I am a Trini – I come from Trinidad and Tobago, and specifically, born and raised on the island of Trinidad. Trinidad is the most southern island of the Caribbean, right off the coast of South America. Being that close to the continent we were once part of, means we are blessed with rainforests and moutains, flora and fauna not always found on our fellow Caribbean islands further away. In addition to being the land of the hummingbird, with the Scarlet Ibis being one of our national birds, we also have a species of deer and an ocelot. They’re a bit smaller on the island than their relatives on the mainland, but that’s normal since we’re a smaller landmass. The human Trinis haven’t made it any easier for the forest-dwellers by dissecting their historical connections between the Northern, Central and Southern Ranges and making their habitats that much smaller. And don’t get me started on the forest fires…Papa Bois must be constantly vex…

I live in Guyana, more or less consistently for the past 5 years. There are things to explore here – Georgetown, Kaieteur Falls, the massive rivers like the Essequibo and the islands in the rivers. And their wildlife is certainly impressive (even if I’ve only seen certain species in the zoo as I am not a jungle explorer). But home is home, and the beauty of the place where I still consider my permanent residence is always at the forefront. So I was extremely excited to host a couple friends from foreign last month, when they visited Trinidad as part of their honeymoon (they stopped in Grenada first). I’d met Jess while I was studying in Edinburgh years ago, and we’ve seen each other since then in California, where she now lives, Toronto and back in Edinburgh for our first reuinion. She was the first of my friends I made in Scotland to visit T&T and I’d been planning for about a year to figure out essential things to see over a few days. I’d exposed her to Trini food back when we shared a kitchen, and her new husband got his taste in Brampton, Ontario when we were attending a wedding and I found a Trini roti shop that did good work. So scenery and food. Must-haves on this tour of Trinidad. I had must-sees and must-haves for Tobago too, but they didn’t make it there this trip.

So, if you had 6 days to show people Trinidad, what would you choose? My list  ended up being -

• Caroni Swamp/Bird Sanctuary
• La Vega Estate
• Asa Wright Nature Centre
• Mount St Benedict
• Temple by the Sea (can’t believe I forgot – we made it for sunset too)
• Maracas and Las Cuevas (beaches on the North Coast)
• Port of Spain – downtown, the waterfront, the Savannah
• Chaguanas or any other market town

I had more on the list that couldn’t be done, like -

• San Fernando Hill
• Toco
• Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust
• Down de Islands
• Chaguaramas
• Mayaro/Manzanilla stretch (on the South East coast)
• Leatherback turtles (during nesting season)

And there were specific food tours or foods that had to be eaten -

• Doubles
• Bake and Shark in Maracas
• Debe for Indian delicacies
• Roti (including a roti-making lesson from Mom)
• Sunday Lunch food (stew beef, callaloo, green fig pie, red beans)
• Pastelles
• Dining on the Avenue (Ariapita)

It was an intense 6 days of driving around, mostly through green and beautiful Trinidad but I think my guests enjoyed it And that was in spite of the dire warnings they got in Grenada about Trinidad…(tsk tsk, and Grenada is my favourite non-home Caribbean country too…) My friends even made it from Long Circular Mall to West Mall by MAXI-TAXI on their own (i.e. without me) and then back to their hotel, in the NIGHT…and found people were willing to give them information and direct them all along the route. And all for US$1.  They even found a panyard. We’re not all thugs and predators in T&T.

So what would make your list of must-see or must-do (or indeed must-eat) in Trinidad?

The rest of my photos from Brussels.

I have realised that I have photos and stories from various trips since May that have been idling on my computer. So look out between now and the New Year for some pictures from St Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas, Central Trinidad etc.

So I am in California! The absolutely beautiful Central Coast of California, with its combination of rugged landscape and spectacular Pacific Ocean views. I visited here a couple years ago and was struck by the colour of the sky and the Pacific which somehow seem different in the tropics – maybe closer to the sun/equator our sky takes on a different hue.

While I am not uploading photos now, you can enjoy the views from my last visit – Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, Monterey and Santa Cruz. That first shot is on the little beach at Carpinteria which is near the fancier Santa Barbara. Carpinteria is also home to “tar pits” – little relatives of our grand La Brea pitch lake!

Santa Barbara is known for being home to the rich and famous, and has a cute (and expensive) main street – State Street, and a fabulous harbour area from which you can look at the mansions in the hills, or the beauty of the ocean (I choose the ocean).

Monterey is a great bay for whale-watching, seal-watching – boat tours have actual marine biologists that give you information (or annoy you with their perkiness – choose wisely). There’s also the fantastic Monterey Bay Aquarium – which had the amazing Jellyfish as Art gallery where I got that last photo (and others). That particular exhibit is closed I believe but the aquarium is still a great visit, with an Enchanted Kelp forest and touchable sea creatures (ever touched a sting ray?).

Santa Cruz has wonderful huge and ancient redwoods. If you’re a tropical person, temperate forests are a quiet peaceful revelation – none of the (lovely) constant cacophony of sound in tropical rainforests! Of course just driving along the Pacific Coast Highway is worth a visit! Which is what I have been doing this trip. Now that I have done my unpaid work for the California state tourist board, why don’t you visit my California set on Flickr, while you wait for my return and new beautiful blue photos!

Those are the women’s shoes on the sand of Cornwall Beach in Montego Bay, Jamaica, where a group of about 50 men and women gathered to celebrate Eid ul Fitr with the prayer and khutbah (sermon). Just look at that sky and the sand. Gorgeous.

Of course the day was not without some drama – we’d gathered at a park opposite Wexford Court Hotel, where apparently the jamaah had performed Eid prayers the year before. But the park is currently closed and not available for the public. So we had to move over to Cornwall Beach, which was better because we were ON THE SAND. Lovely. Hot, but lovely.

The delay meant that I rushed back to my meeting, heading straight into the conference room in my Eid clothes, but then I was celebrating after all!

Waiting eagerly to arrive in Trinidad tomorrow and get real Eid food though…the hotel buffet wasn’t particularly celebratory.