Say good bye to the rainforest

Yesterday we said good bye to the rainforest and moved on to our next destination, Hotel Anise on the Grand Rivière on the north coast of Trinidad. Though not before I was once again entranced by the hummingbirds at Asa Wright. And I can’t resist including a photo of a White-chested Emerald below.

We drove for over two hours from Asa Wright to the Anise Hotel. It wasn’t far distance wise but the roads here in Trinidad are a cross between Welsh narrow and twisting roads, and Indian roads that have dirty great big craters in them ready to swallow up anyone daft enough to miss them. You can be hurtling along happily at a reasonable speed then suddenly the driver hits the brakes and we jolt along for a while, swerving and weaving around holes and dips, before picking up speed again. Our guide at Asa Wright told us about the direct action he and some friends took to repair the road to their village recently. One morning they blocked the road by felling trees and burning tyres, refusing to let any commercial traffic through. 2 hours later the government minister responsible for roads was there along with TV crews. And two weeks later work started. We can vouch for the smooth road surface that came from this piece of community action.

We finally arrived at the hotel to be greeted by what felt like all the staff, who are very keen to show us everything in the hotel before plying us with fresh fruit juice, tea and cake. I’m going to like it here.

The hotel looks directly over the beach, all we have to do is walk down the hill a little and then cross a narrow road and we are there. The are even turtle tracks in the sand below.

At dinner time we were treated to a four course meal on our own candle lit table by the pool. We’re the only people here this evening, and every five minutes we are asked if everything is OK. Donna the maid is fantastic and was determined to make sure everything was perfect for us. When we got back to the room the staff had scattered petals on there bed in a the shape of a heart and placed two swans in the centre.