Tuesday Morning we started an all day tour of Trinidad. The tour began with a drive along the North Coast Mountain range. The views were magnificent along the drive. Our first destination was Maracas Bay. The picture above was from a lookout just before we arrived at Maracas Bay. During the tourist season Maracas Bay is one of the most popular beaches in Trinidad. Due to the recent rains the beach facilities were flooded out at Maracas Bay. We arrived at the beach at about 10am and the area was deserted. There was one couple sitting on a bench enjoying the sound of the waves hitting the beach.
We walked on the beach for a few minutes and then headed down the road to Las Cueves Bay. The facilities at Las Cueves were in much better shape. They maintain the beach showers and restrooms by charging $1TT everytime you use the restroom. There is not an entry fee to the beach so it is very resonable to charge and maintain wonderful beach faciliities. We decided to change and take a quick swim at this wonderful beach. Aside from one man on the beach with his two dogs we were the only people around. Jose said that the beach gets very busy later in the day. We arrived just as the faciliities were being opened up.
The swim was very refreshing and we enjoyed the clear blue water and soft sand under our feet. We did not have a lot of time to stay on the beach because we were scheduled for lunch at the ASA Wright Nature center at noon and we were still about an hour and a half drive to get to our destination.
The drive took us on the highest road on the island. Jose kept saying we are going to the "Tippy Top" now. Along the drive we encountered a whole bunch of trucks with asphalt working on repaving the road. Jose explained that the government is quickly repairing roads in an attempt to show improvements prior to the upcoming November 5th elections. Jose was very into the upcoming elections and we listened to quite a few radio talk shows centered around the elections during our travels. He was amazed at how many trucks were out on the road getting the paving done. Jose kept saying wow so many "truckses and truckses!" He said that they would use the total number of miles paved as a part of the campaign against the opposition.
When we arrived at ASA Wright we were immediately overwhellmed by the number of birds and the amazing sounds of being so deep in the jungle.
We had a wonderful lunch at ASA Wright that included Lamb, lentels, fresh salad, and an eggplant cassarole. Our tour guide Darrel was great. He carried a large digital camera with him and stopped anytime he found an interesting butterfly or frog along the trek. At the start of the hike we could hear a Bell bird somewhere down the hill. We followed the path until we tracked the bird down. We had two other ladies on the tour with us that were from the East Coast, USA. They were very into birding and they were excited anytime we saw a new bird along the route. The hike was beautiful and very relaxing. ASA Wright has rooms that you can stay at while in Trinidad and I would highly recommend staying there for a couple of nights if you are interested in birds and nature.
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