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| Approaching Trinidad through the rain. |
So we lingered in Grenada a long time. Perhaps a little too long as it turned out. Why? Several reasons, friends and other kids being at the top of the list. The other reasons had more to do with what we’d heard about Trinidad. They main cruising harbor wasn’t so great…there is crime…you have to report your boat movements every time to customs…customs & immigration are officious and difficult. And so on.
In hindsight, a mistake. We absolutely loved Trinidad and wish we’d come earlier.
True, Chaguaramas harbor has a lot to be desired as a harbor. The anchorage is deep, with a a lot of junk on the bottom to foul your anchor. The currents are strong and weird, it is not uncommon for boats to be pointing every which way but into the wind (pointing into the wind is normal…) which make for a few eyebrow and hair raising incidents in the anchorage. The water…it isn’t filthy so much as murky; there are a lot of outflows into it and that also means a lot of stuff floating in the water, some natural, some human garbage like plastic bottles and the like. Much of the water color though is from the surrounding geography, with rivers and the current flows up from South America – there actually is a lot of life in the water.
But the harbor aside, the rest of the island is fantastic. Chaguaramas has just about everything the cruising sailor could ever need, from chandleries and supplies to sail makers and technical specialists all of whom seem to be a lot more reasonable on labor costs than much of the Caribbean. If it’s not imported you can usually get a good price on it. Gas and diesel are cheap. There is easy access to public buses and “Maxi Taxis” which are like the Van-Bus systems you see on other islands. For $5 TT (about $.90 USD) you can hop on a Maxi which can take you to large grocery stores, warehouse shopping, movie theaters, and the city of Port of Spain.
Trinidad is considerably more culturally diverse that we thought, much more so than many of the other Caribbean islands. While there was slavery in Trinidad just like the rest of the Caribbean the economic impact of it was far less than on other islands where hundreds of thousands of slaves made up the backbone of the island economy. Trinidad the slaver numbers were fewer, and when slavery was made illegal many immigrants can from India (called “East India” here in the West Indies) came as indentured servants and many stayed. the closeness to mainland South America and the survival of some of the Amerindian population also combines to the mix. What you end up with is a mélange of cultures that manifests itself in a multitude of colorful holidays that every seems to share a little and a lot of really good spicy food.
Given it’s proximity to South America the flora and fauna on island are more diverse with larger mammals such as howler monkeys and capuchins haunting the forest, flocks of Scarlet Ibis – the national bird – in the swamps with snakes and caimans, dozens of other species of bird in all habitats, and even Manatees on the Narivi swamp.
Hindsight is of course 20/20, and we wished we’d come to Trinidad earlier. Not to knock Grenada – it is lovely in its own right, but Trinidad has a lot more to offer than we’d realized. We were very sad to leave after only five weeks.
