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.
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