Union Island 12:35.00N 61:25.00W
Lotus
Sat 16 Jan 2010 00:55
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We left Chaguaramas on New Years day to go round
the corner to Scotland Bay, supposedly a nice relaxing anchorage surrounded by
lush green rainforest and turquoise waters and it was true apart from the
relaxing part. The two dozen or so Trinidadians who arrived in
their speed boats and blasted 80's classics from their boat speakers did disturb
the piece a tad, but then it is the Trinidad way- 'she shall have music
wherever she goes'! We decided to go for a walk in the rainforest, the
guidebook said there was a path that was easy to follow so we swam ashore
and proceeded to follow each path to it's conclusion. All paths led
to either a swamp or an impassable area. All in all not a very good start
to the New Year.
Next day we headed back to Chaguaramas and arranged
a tour for the following day. Dennis our driver was a chirpy chappie who
never stopped talking, but was, it has to be said, one of the best tour guides
we've ever had. He took us up to the Asa Wright bird sanctuary
which is a former cocoa, coffee and citrus plantation. We sat on
the veranda of the beautiful old estate house and watched humming
birds, honeycreepers, in fact birds of every colour; purple with
yellow legs, greens of all shades etc etc come and feed on feeding tables.
The view from the balcony, positioned at the head of the valley, surrounded
by rainforest, was breathtaking. Now, I'm no twitcher but the guided tour
was fantastic, we walked down marked trails and searched the trees with our
binoculars for the exotic birds with their unique calling signs. We
even met a famous wildlife photographer, 'Roger Neckles' who gave us advice on a
new camera, which all going well will arrive with Guy and Ann
tomorrow.
 Next stop on our tour was the Caroni
swamp. On the way, Dennis picked us some cocoa beans to suck on,
which were different, and surprisingly tasted nothing like chocolate! At
the swamp we jumped on a little wooden boat and were taken through a maze of
mangrove channels, home to tri colour herons, blue herons and bower
constrictors which were curled up on the branches above our heads; a little
worrying when the boat stopped with the snake directly above our
heads! At the end of the swamp, which opened up into a big lake, our
driver parked the boat and we watched about a thousand snowy Egrets fly across
our path and land in the branches of the trees on the island opposite us. Next
several hundred Scarlet Ibis flew in small groups from their feeding grounds,
merging with the Snowy Egrets in the mangrove island. The Scarlet Ibis is
about the size of a turkey and as it's name suggests is completely
scarlet. This was a truly spectacular sight as hundreds of them stand out
like massive white and red brilliant flowers, against a dark green
background.
 
 Our last few days in Trinidad were spent in a
constant round of jobs on the boat and trips ashore to organise the fabrication
of a new stainless steel bow sprit for the cruising chute and an interminable
series of phone calls organising new toys to add to the list of goodies that Guy
and Ann will bring out for us when we meet them in Antigua.
We left Trinidad in the evening to do an
overnight crossing back to Union Island in the Grenadines, with John
constantly wary of any approaching boat as there had been a piracy incident just
north of Trinidad the week before (who can trust the Venezuelans?).
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