Back to the Mountains

Last week's adventure to Nariva Swamp was matched yesterday by a long hike through Brasso Secco - deep in the interior of the Northern Range. We walked with Carl "Wang" Fitzjames, who grew up in the forests, went to the states and worked as a nuclear welder (a whole other story), met his wife and came back to the mountains he loves. Like the best of guides, he knows the animals, plants and land intimately and shared tremendous insights, passion and knowledge: like which of the melastoma family will give you hives on contact (which David of course tested in the field) and which you can use for toilet paper in a crunch - same family of plant with very different implications for your time in the forest!

The hike was hot, but filled with butterflies - huge blue Emperor Morphos, Owl butterflies (who's coloration and wing spot looked just like a horned owl), a malachite green colored one appropriately named the Malachite butterfly, Postman (bearing the British Post colors of red and black) and even a butterfly that Carl had never seen before. We saw several types of Trogons - deep forest birds - and many parrots before reaching our turn around point at Double Rivers Falls. A long lunch included a dip below the waterfall, and hunting for freshwater crayfish in the clear pools. When we finally made it back to Carl's house (8 hours later), his wife had made a local favorite of fish, rice and lentils which Tim and Barb enjoyed while the boys played hide and seek with Carl's kids (7 and 4) and the local lizards. On the way home, we stopped at the Asa Wright Nature Center for cold drinks, ice cream, veranda based bird watching - and a special visit from an agouti.

When we got down out of the mountains, we caught the tailend of the last of the ambassadors from the Summit of the America's leaving (and stopping traffic in the process).

A Morning with Monkeys

The reality of leaving in a little more than two weeks has taken hold. So now we are working down the "to do" and "places to see" lists: we spent this morning with monkeys. Nariva Swamp is the largest wetland system in Trinidad, covering over 6500 hectares (about 15,000 acres). It is a Ramsar designated site, and home to a wide range of critters including the green anaconda (growing up to25 feet, and the star of the famous "Wild Kingdom" episode in which Jim was violently thrown around the stream while wrestling the anaconda), West Indian manatee, white faced capuchin monkeys and red howler monkeys. Plus a bunch of birds, porcupines, possums, tree boas...... We were led around Bush Bush island by an aptly nicknamed ranger from the Forestry Department, "Shortman", after a quick boat ride through the mangroves and marshes. Almost immediately, we came across a "troop" of white faced capuchin monkeys out for their breakfast browse. It made getting up at the crack of dawn worth it - especially for the kids. In no time, we were trying to match the names given by research scientists to the individuals we were seeing - Ophelia, Porkchop, Big Red (the alpha male of course) - and David was trying his best to speak directly to them, in what he was sure was fluent monkey. Beautiful forest, beautiful creatures, beautiful moment. At the same time, a troop of the resident red howler monkeys came in, and so within the space of 20 yards in the jungle we could watch two species: great fun. The beautiful trees, butterflies, porcupines, tree boas, savannah hawks, ant shrikes, belted and green kingfishers, herons, blue macaws, and a visit to the "Bush Bush Hilton" were just the little extras to round out the morning.

Political Commentary - Trini Style

If you think the financial wizards behind the banking crisis are getting off too easily - you'll love this perspective. By the way - RBTT is "Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago".

Good Friday

Somehow, we lost March on this blog - even though(or perhaps because) the month was full of trips and visits: Nick Reale blitzed both Trinidad and Tobago - surfing, climbing the highest peak, beaching it at Maracas - all much to the delight of his cousins. Dawn and Maryellen returned with Peter and Pesche for a week on Tobago: will try to catch up with details and more pix later.

Good Friday found us (with Catherine's girl friends from Hopewell along) hiking the forests along the Rio Secco, swimming in a beautiful waterfall pool and the kids joining the Trini kids in climbing up the waterfall for a death defying leap into the pool below - all survived, with Catherine leading the way. That night we went to the beach at Matura, and witnessed a wonderful spectacle of a leatherback turtle laying her eggs. Truly tremendous. And she did it surrounded by 50 people (sort of like giving birth in a NYC subway station). The naturalists assured us that once the laying process began, she was oblivious to our presence. The turtle was probably 700-800 pounds, and deposited around 80-120 eggs before she left the beach, only to return several more times before the season ends to do it again. The glow of witnessing this event was somewhat diminished as we walked off the beach, and passed the body of another turtle who had drowned several days earlier in a fisherman's net just offshore the nesting beach: after millions of years of existence, still very imperiled.

Carnival!

So the country is shut down, and the people are in the streets. It's Carnival - the holiday that many Trini's live for all year. Starting on Thursday, we have been joining in - in school, in Port of Spain and in St. Augustine (mostly vicariously as the party sounds go through the night)

David and Patrick's school started the festivities on Thursday with an all day Carnival celebration, including a pan (steel drum) competition and "Parade of the Bands." The boys joined right in: competing in the pan competion and marching as part of the "Midnight Robbers", one of the traditonal Carnival band themes. Their class took first place in the competition. Everyone has some experience playing the steel drums, and it was great to see how some kids really have the music in them - great energy, rhythm and community participation: even the parents and teachers have a band that joins in the competition. The music is judged by a panel that takes the event very seriously, and the kids are supported by a professional rhythm session.

The parade of bands is barely controlled chaos: each grade and class had selected a theme which their costumes and "routine" were built around. The traditional themes include the Dahmeraine (American whores - and this at the Catholic school!), Sailors on Shore Leave in Port of Spain, Those Who Came (tracing the arrival of the Spanairds, Africans, Chinese and Indians), Healthy Living (fruits, vegetables, exerise/athletes, and a satirical competition between the bush doctor and modern medicine - which the nuns found hilarious). After their individual parade around the "car park", all groups join in a melee of dancing to the latest soca hit (Hands in the Air! Hands in the Air!) blasted from a huge wall of speakers.

On Saturday, we made our way into Port of Spain for the "kiddie Carnival" where the kids get to dress up and parade in "mas bands" just like the adults. It was a long, but fun day. Throughout the day it rained on us, and with no shelter to speak of we got soaked, dried out in the heat and got soaked again. The costumes were phenomenal, and clearly a lot of time and energy goes into it. Each band is accompanied by a HUGE sound truck blaring out the theme music for the competition (again, Hands in the Air!). Tim was happy to see many environmental themed bands - everything from "Treasures from the Sea" to alternative energy. After a long day of viewing, we ventured out into the heart of Port of Spain, winding our way to the best Chinese restuarant in town - which turned out to be a very fancy place, with us looking like drowned cats! But, since we were the only ones in the place (which was housed in a beautiful old Victorian house) the staff was very accomodating, and didnt even seat us by the kitchen.

After dinner we walked back to the national steel pan finals on the Queen's Savannah: loud, raucous, and crowded. We didnt stay for the whole competition, which like all of Carnival starts late and goes until dawn, but we did get to see the bands roll up the narrow streets in succession as they took their place on the stage, pushed by the players themselves in full costume.

We drove out through the old section of Port of Spain, leaving just as the streets were really starting to fill with Carnival celebrants.

rs.

Badminton

A regular occurrence - and so far Barbara is the winner!

Dawn's favorite photo

Boys in Uniform

In front of St. Xavier's RC Primary School Believe it or not, they can wear their shirts untucked. There are a lot of things they cannot do, however.

Tim at work

The Director of the American Littoral Society is studying the littoral zone, or literally zoned...

Ipod happiness

Sure was a good idea to get Ipods for Christmas......

At the beach - Maracas Bay

We make it to Maracas Beach about once a week. The waves and current are strong but it is not choppy. Good riding waves, but we need fins when the waves get big. Dawn and MEB joined us this day and shot the photos.

Into the rainforest

Our home in St. Augustine sits at the base of the northern mountain range in Trinidad. Much of the mountains remain in rainforest, and provide a home to an amazing range of wildlife. Trinidad is world renown for its bird life, in particular. The fact that Trinidad and Tobago are just 11km (7 miles) from Venezuela's northeastern coast means the flora and fauna (plants and animals) have a close affinity to their mainland neighbor, giving them the greatest diversity in wildlife of all the Caribbean Islands. The island's second-highest peak, El Tucuche - 936 meters (3072 feet) is right in our backyard, and clearly visible from town. Its forests are reportedly packed with exotic orchids, golden tree frogs and howler monkeys. We are researching guides and day trips - and talking big about a full day hiking trip over the mountain range down to the beaches on the northern coast.

On Thursday, along with Dawn and MaryEllen (friends from Hopewell), I visited the Asa Wright Nature Reserve outside of the city of Arima, about 15 km east. World renown, the Reserve is a former cocoa and coffee plantation. The world just changes the minute you get out of the towns; there are trees and bamboo stands that just look prehistoric. We were hiking in the rain (in the rain forest), so didn’t get any pictures of the amazing birds we saw in the very short distance we walked into the forest - if you google Asa Wright, there is a nice slide show of pictures taken by the naturalist who led our walk.

One of the more common birds, but fun nonetheless is the oropendola: we have been having a great time just saying the name, and finding all the stores, inns and foodstuffs named after this bird. It builds a huge hanging nest, one of which adorns the tree next to our house.

the rythmn of Trinidad - late night with the pan band

Each night, starting around 10pm the sounds of multiple rythmns and complex melodies played on the steel pan rolls up the hill from St. Augustine, lasting sometimes until dawn. Last night we moved from voyeurestic enjoyment from within the confines of our compound, to being in the center of a practice session at the "pan yard" of world champions, Exodus. These are our home town musicians. The pan yard is a dedicated space in the center of town, along the main commercial route (the Eastern Main Road), an open air concert hall complete with concrete bleachers, food vendors and suprisingly, the fanciest public bathrooms around - all under the surrealistic glow of stadium lights lighting up the humid night. A banner backs the practice stage, "Exodus, World Champions 2005, Madison Square Garden, NYC" speaking to the world wide reach of the Trinidadian community. The practice session - in anticipation of the upcoming Carnival in late February - drew a fairly large, diverse crowd of onlookers: women, men and kids. Like any gathering of Trinis, there were food and beer vendors doing a brisk business in "doubles" and Stag beer (A man's beer according to their advertising).

The music is amazingly complex - that is the overwhelming impression. The band consists of what must be close to 100 drums (made from old 50 gallon oil drums, reflecting Trinidads primary industry). The drums are "tuned" to represent different instruments in pitch, tone and melody. Like any orchestra, these are divided into sections. The physical arrangement of the band is influenced by the band director's strategic decisions about the "presentation" of band - which plays into the scoring at the Carnival competitions. The band members are women, men, older and younger. It is a party on the stage, with the musicians working out their respective pieces amongst themselves, all the while laughing, eating and drinking. Then, the band director will bang on the rim of a nearby drum, creating a strikingly discordant note which quickly brings the group to attention. A few lead-in notes follow on a single pan, and then the entire orchestra explodes as one into an amazingly tight, layered wall of sound. The pieces themselves, to the non-musician, seem to follow classic symphonic structures - there are clearly movements within each piece, where one section dominates and patterns repeat themselves interpreted by each section.

I was up at 5:30am to take some visiting friends to the airport, and the band was still playing, the music providing a start-up groove to the lightening Trinidadian dawn.

what happens in the back yard

This is Matthias, our neighbor. He is 7 and likes to play with somthing called the amitrix??

We play games like running bases and even tought him how to play lacrosse!

Patrick

waterfall

This is the Maracus waterfall. We were guided through slippery mud, moss that you could slip on for miles, and rocks the sizes of elephants.


Patrick