We arrived at Port of Spain,
Trinidad, at 7:00.
Port of Spain is
a big city. In spite of the calypso
music and upcoming carnival, there is not a lot of local charm. The main economic product is oil, and tourism
is a very small part of the economy. Our
driver told us that only five cruise ships would be here this year.
Today we had our first group excursion, a trip to a wildlife
sanctuary. We left with ten other passengers
in a small bus at 9:00 and headed out
of the city. We went east, then north
into the mountains. The trip was almost
two hours, although it did include a number of roadside stops to look at
various types of vegetation. We saw
mangoes, cashews, bananas, and something called christophin, which looks a lot
like a chayote to me. It's grown on very
long vines supported by wires on bamboo posts.
The road was mostly unpaved, very narrow and winding, with
steep dropoffs. And just to add to the
fun, every once in a while we met a gravel truck coming from the opposite
direction. In one place there was even
road work going on.
Once we arrived at the Asa Wright Wildlife Sanctuary, we
immediately went out on a covered deck that had many feeders for hummingbirds
as well as other types of birds. We were
absolutely astounded at the gorgeous birds that were right there in front of
us. Fortunately, there was a bird expert
there calling out the names of them. I frantically tried to scribble them down
as we looked at them.
After a short time
there we left in small groups with a guide down a trail through the
rainforest. There he pointed out many
kinds of vegetation, as well as a leaf-cutter ant mound.
We found several more birds and a lizard. We missed the agouti and the day-flying
bats. All in all, it was a wonderful
trip. We added seventeen birds to our
life list.
We sailed at 4:30
bound for Recife, Brazil,
four days away.
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