Postcard from Tobago - Saturday
on Kate in Guyana (Guyana), 21/Jul/2010 21:18, 34 days ago
SaturdayTaxi at 3 am, then a good flight to Tinidad. We went on a personalised tour by land rover all round the Northern Range of mountains including Asa Wright Nature Centre which has a grand house with a veranda overlooking bird feeders attracting hummingbirds, brilliant coloured small birds as well as agouti which are rodents about five times the size of a squirrel. We also had an adventure hike along trails and across streams to a huge waterfall for swimming. We stayed at a massive family house (our guide's mum) with myriad trees and shady verandas. She knew about architecture and took me on a tour of the good old and bad new buildings in Port of Spain.Trinidad itself is a big shock after Guyana, it is like stettping from the 1950s to the 1980s. There are six lane highways, shopping malls, high rise blocks and a state of the art performing arts centre which looks like Sydney Opera House. It was built by the former president to show off to foreign leaders, but with zero consultation about what was required. The new president of Trinidad and Tobago seems to have been elected as a reaction to the bad behaviour of the last on who was "involved in all kind of stupidness".