Cataja: Trinidad- the pleasant surprise!

Surprise on all levels on this island! Firstly, the currents; as you arrive, they form, torrent-like at the surface of the water – it’s best to have them with you to pass the channel leading to the anchorage. Then there is the lush vegetation which surprised us as we passed in front of Scotland Bay, and which offered us, in the early morning and in the middle of the mist hanging on the hillside, in addition to the contrasting colors, the cry of the howler monkey. Chaguaramas and its forest of masts, its boatyards, its cargo ships, bustling, busy, noisy, but an essential stop to carry out the formalities during the opening hours of the customs, or you pay a fine – and they don’t mess about! Surprised also by the beauty of this independent country! But where then did all these people who criticize Trinidad so much go? Certainly not to the Maracas Falls, 90 meters high, in a place which is sacred for the omnipresent Hindus on the island, an enchanting place also, with water which is so refreshing amidst this tropical jungle, its humidity, its butterflies and its soldier ants, as big as two olive stones! Total change of scenery at the former leper colony in Chacachacare, in the middle of nowhere, so close to Venezuela, alone in these abandoned places, amid the ghosts. Superb sight of the squalls in the distance from the heights of the St Benedict Monastery. The list of things to see on this island, bigger than the others, is long. The only thing you have to close your eyes to here is the trash, a negative point, but apart from this, the feeling on this island is anything but that of insecurity!

Eurielle, Antoine, Malo, Elian and Pacôme.
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