Asa Wright Nature Center

We spent three days at Asa Wright last time we were in Trinidad and loved it so much! So once we knew we were arriving on Monday and Russ didn't leave until Friday, it became theatrically possible to spend a night there. Still it was an amazing coincidence that Jesse had scheduled a trip leaving Wednesday and returning Thursday. Perfect! With a small amount of persuasion he included returning via Maracus Bay so we could have a Bake and Shark at Richard's.










Our last time there we took a lot of pictures of the birds but to be honest our camera equipment isn't really adequate for this type of photography. Once in a while we get lucky as this shot of a tiny hummingbird Scott took shows. Walt and Honoree came with us before and Walt's amazing pictures can be seen in my blog entry on the visit October 2006.
We left Crew's Inn at 9 AM with a full van. Only one other couple were staying the night with us, the rest were there for the day and then going on to the Caroni Swamp to see the scarlet ibis. Around 10 AM we stopped in Arima at Jesse's favorite doubles stand. Scott and I love doubles and sahimas. The former are a Trini favorite snack - fried dough stuffed with chickpea curry, chutney and herb sauce. Scott and Jesse were the only ones who had these with hot sauce. Sahimas are fried dough with callaloo leaves chopped up in it. Yummy! Jesse had Scott & I try the eggplant fried appetiser too - good but spicy.
Then we started up the steep narrow road to Asa Wright Bird Sanctury. The road has many hair pin turns and isn't in the best of condition - like most roads in Trinidad. Trinis will tell you that the only time roads are repaired is right before an election. We passed a number of slopes planted with christophenes. This delicious vegetable is a bumpy green squash type that can be eaten cooked or raw in a salad. It's a cross between a zucchini and a cucumber (but no seeds). It needs to be protected from the sun and grows hanging from its' vines. Like coffee plants it is grown on steep slopes under nets. It looks like a huge challenge to crawl under to pick them!
This property began as a cocoa/coffee plantation called Spring Hill back in 1905. A German immigrant built it for his oldest son. Later during WWI all his other properties and businesses were confiscated by the English government in Trinidad but luckily the son was a Trinidad citizen and kept the property. Not for long though as cocoa prices plummeted and he lost it to the bank.
In 1936 Joseph and Helen Bruce-Holmes bought Spring Hill Plantation from the government, which acquired it in default of taxes. They renovated the plantation house, and lived there until after World War II, when they returned to the United States. They had become good friends with Newcombe and Asa Wright who bought the plantation and eventually the house from them. As Mr. Wright was an invalid his wife Asa, originally from Iceland, managed the plantation. At the same time the Wrights bought Spring Hill, William Beebe of the New York Zoological Society, acquired the adjoining plantation, Simla, as a Field Station for the study of the New World Tropics. Asa acted as a hostess for many prominent ornithologists such as David and Barbara Snow who came to study the birds, particularly the oil birds in a cave on the property.
About this time, Newcombe died, leaving Asa Wright with dwindling financial resources. As she aged it became difficult for her to maintain the plantation, a source of concern for the many conservationists from around the world. William Beebe died and Simla fell into disrepair. Fortunately, a small group formed to do something to save these treasures. In 1967, Don Eckelberry, a renowned wildlife artist, Erma Fisk, a prominent ornithologist and conservationist, and Russell Mason of Florida Audubon Society raised money to buy Spring Hill. A non-profit Trust administered by the Bank of Nova Scotia Trust Co., and an international Board of Management composed of 11 Trinidadians and 10 foreign members was set up to establish the Asa Wright Nature Centre. Its purpose was to provide a Centre open to the public for recreation and the study of tropical wildlife, as well as to preserve the wildlife and rainforest of the Arima Valley. The Centre is one of the top birdwatching spots in the Caribbean; a total of 159 species of birds have been recorded there. Asa lived there until she died.
The original plantation house is now the restaurant and hotel. The living room looks like Asa just stepped out and a wide lovely porch stretches out towards the view down the valley and of the birds.

Many cottages with four rooms each surround the main house. There are walks with excellent guides available a number of times during the day and again after dinner. Miles of trails honeycomb the property - you can hike for hours and should as the food is delicious and plentiful.


At 6 AM coffee is served on the veranda which fills up quickly with bird enthusiasts. The coffee beans are grown on the property! Breakfast is at 7:30 AM, lunch at 12, tea at 4 PM, rum punch at 6 and dinner at 7. Shown here are the trays coming out for tea with pizza squares and shortbread cookies.
There are guided walks given twice in the morning, once in the afternoon and in the evening after dinner. Denise was our guide that morning and it was a lively session. She talked not only about the birds and flowers but some of the most interesting facts were on the insect life. We spent some time watching the army ants and the leaf cutter ants. These latter are a fascinating life form. One queen forms the colony and has thousands of children. She can live 30 years and when she dies the colony gradually dies as well - not new babies. We saw ant hills of various ages.
We spent a lot of time out on the veranda interspersed with hikes and in the afternoon a dip in the pool.


The stream has been dammed and made into a semi natural pool with a waterfall at the end (photo show Scott and Russ there). There is a changing room and steps to enter. What a lovely place to cool off after a hike. Although in our case we found another lovely pool and waterfall on the Bamboo Valley Trail (photo shows me in there).
In the evening we went out with Harold, a very knowledgeable guide. We were walking along the road in the pitch black when Harold flashed light on a bamboo stalk and there was a HUGE tarantella, 6 or 8 inches long. That was the beginning of a very interesting hour! We saw sleeping birds, insects and several snakes (that's Harold joking around with a small snake that looks a little like a pit viper).

The huge hanging white flowers seen here smell marvelous at night. Harold warned us not to sniff too long - hallucinogenic.
It was lovely having a relaxing morning watching the birds - and no boat chores! Jesse picked us up at noon for the trip home - another blog entry!

Returning to Trinidad

The dawn found us 8 miles off Venezuela with Trinidad ahead in the distance. We could see the coast of Venezuela all night after leaving the Testigos. There were very few lights on shore in this area but many boats. The main activity of our watches was keeping track of other boats.

Our radar makes this reasonably easy. None came very close. The view is beautiful as you approach Trinidad. A series of island stretch south from the mainland and form three gulf entrances between it and Venezuela.

We took the last, the Moro, and these pictures show the rugged deserted coastline. Further inside vacation homes start to appear on the islands. On the mainland this area is part of the Chagaramus National Park and undeveloped until you get near the bay. This was an important U.S. Military Base during WWII and many of the buildings are still standing from that time, although empty now.

It's been over three years since we've been here. We spent four months over the summer of 2006 here during the hurricane season. We stayed at Crew's Inn Marina that summer and hoped to get a berth there again. Russ was salivating at the thought of the large swimming pool for laps in the morning.

The large harbor was packed with big cargo ships, oil rigs, and cruising vessels. We passed them all and proceeded down to the end and tied up to the Customs Dock. After hours of waiting in line at Immigration, Customs and filling out form after form, it was a relief to find out there was room in the Marina. After getting all snugged in there we were all ready for food and cold drinks. That's "Scott Free" at the dock in the picture of the left, the second boat on the left.

The cook rebelled at the thought of working down in the very hot galley so happily the lovely Lighthouse restaurant was close by. "Three specials of the day please" was the cry. Big pieces of fish, provisions au gratin and salad, plus of course a few beers, made this crew very happy. That's the restaurant under the lighthouse and the interior shown here.
We plan to stay at Crew's Inn until Thursday Nov. 19 when we will be hauled out in one of the boatyards. Russ will fly home this Friday morning and we'll follow him a week from Saturday.

Blanquilla to Los Testigos

Our weather guru, Chris Parker, was signaling some possible changes in the weather patterns so we decided to get some more mile east under our belt. We left Blanquilla at 4 PM Friday hoping to pass between the looming rocks of Los Hermanos before it became dark.

We made very good time but with a negative current the sun was down and the sky black before we had cleared the rocks. A number of fishing boats were working near the cliffs confusing the situation further. All three of us were needed to keep track of the traffic for a half hour but soon we were chugging along under a starry sky and calmer seas than our last passage.

We saw only one boat on the trip, our good friends Brenda and John on "Willow". They had been delayed in Trinidad due to repairs and we had a schedule as Russ needed to be in Trinidad for his flight home - so we missed each other so closely. As Brenda said later, "We could have passed the Grey Poupon!"

Los Testigos (The Witnesses) can be seen from quite a ways away. They are all hilly with the highest peak 807 feet. Somewhere under 200 inhabitants make there living from the sea. They build many of their boats and they are unusually charming and well maintained.


Across the way from our anchorage is the main village with a small school and church. Several colorful homes lined the beach near us.
On the way into the channel Scott caught a MahiMahi , a beautiful and very tasty fish. We had intended to anchor at Playa Real, a place we had enjoyed last time here, but a dinghy raced up to meet us with Manuela on "Paradise" aboard.

She informed us that it was very rolly and advised us to anchor instead at Isla Langoleta near them. It was good advice and soon we were tucked in.
One man came out in his pirogue with a card offering meals at his home, the "Green House".
We were sorry not to take advantage of this opportunity to meet some locals but our just caught fish was too tempting. Russ and Scott cleaned and filleted it in my galley - and then cleaned up. There are some things this cook refuses to do! That's the remains shown here.

Sorry I didn't get a picture of it before!
Manuela stopped by again so we invited her and Sid over for drinks later. Meanwhile it was time for a long delayed big breakfast, now almost lunch. It is a tradition for us to really chow down after an overnight passage. This means omelets with veggies and Canadian Bacon with fresh hot ciabatta bread.

After lunch we snorkeled over to and around the island. A reef stretches between it and the main island Testigo Grande. It was some of the best snorkeling we've ever seen, lots of fish and beautiful coral. This activity was followed by another tradition after an overnight - naps!

Manuela and Sid brought a great appetizer of spiced tuna and we had various cheese & crackers and of course, rum punch, a specialty of mine. It's hard to believe but even after all that we had a great dinner of Mahi Mahi and beans & rice. We slept really well.
The next day we joined Manuela for a trip over the dunes to Playa Gozman on the windward side of Testigo Grande. The first dune is a BIG one as the several pictures here above show. We had to zig zag up sliding down some with each step. In the distance you can see our boat at anchor. On the other side the waves provided lots of fun for us all.

It was a lovely morning but the weather was starting to change in the days ahead so we decided to press on to Trinidad that night. It was hard to calibrate the time for the 99 mile passage as the currents can vary from one half a knot to two and a half knots against you. In addition we didn't want to reach a point 5 miles off Trinidad before good light. There is a lot of traffic in this area, big tankers and fisherman.
We left at 2 PM, prepared to slow down if the current wasn't too bad. It is important to have good light conditions leaving the Testigos as fish buoys dot the area up to 10 miles out. We kept a careful watch. The seas were the lowest we'd seen on the trip and the wind never got above 14 knots and was often much less. The moon rose later each night but happily we had a clear night. The many lights of other boats were fairly easy to track and it was the best night passage of the trip.

Heading East!

Our great friend Russ Wolf flew to Bonaire for our two week trip east to Trinidad. He and his wife Marty had joined us for a long weekend in the Chesapeake Bay five years ago but work and family obligations kept him away until now. Luckily for us, he has semi retired and has a more flexible schedule. We really tested his flexibility this time.


Despite his arrival at 5 AM we dropped the mooring at Bonaire that very afternoon at 4 PM and motored off to Los Roques, 115 miles east. During his short time on Bonaire we ate a huge breakfast at "It Rains Fishes", drove him around the south end of the island to Lac Bay to see the salt pans, slave houses, flamingos and wind surfers, and still had time to swim and snorkel!

Needless to say he was exhausted that night and we kept him off the watch schedule till the morning. Going east is generally very difficult. Both the prevailing winds and currents are against you. During normal trade winds this would be almost impossible but in the fall months the winds are often lighter.

We had been listening to Chris Parker's weather report and watching the grib files for over a week. At least three days of favorable conditions were forecast and possibly longer. Our first night was very pleasant - about 10 knots of wind and 3-4 foot seas. A swell from the north was building so we were thrown around a bit but everyone got some sleep.

We had some rain and clouds at first but then it cleared off, the full moon rose, and it was unusually bright.
As we approached Los Roques the sea calmed down and the sun was just high enough to see the depth of the water by the colors. All of the islands are flat except for El Gran Roque at the far northeastern end. Within an area of 14 by 25 miles are a hundred of more small islands and reefs. It is a Venezuelan National Park.

We threaded our way through the deep water channels between the islands to the anchorage at Noronsquis. Three little islands and a barrier reef enclose a deep blue lagoon with several pretty white beaches. Over the reef El Gran Roque made a pretty picture. We stayed there for two nights; eating, swimming, snorkeling, kyacking and exploring the little islands.

At 3 PM on Tuesday we carefully threaded our way out the channel and headed east again, passing close to Gran Roque. The hills there are 360 feet high and rugged. It's the only island in the archipeligo that has a village. There are no cars: people arrive by boat and plane. That's it above left. Our next destination was Blanquilla, 120 miles east, another overnight passage.

The seas were rougher, confused by the north swells and wind chop, but it was a clear bright night with no squalls. We saw almost no boats but Russ had some excitement on his watch as we passed Ochilla. It's a military base and we stayed clear of the boundaries set up on our charts. They were conducting bombing runs with flares and planes - practice only of course, but pretty exciting for Russ!

Blanquilla is very low lying but we could easily see the Los Hermanos Rocks far beyond - six of them, one 600 feet high and coming straight up out of the sea. We anchored off a pristine white beach snuggled in between two rocky reefs. It's a one boat anchorage and very protected.

A little further to the south were several other sailboats anchored off Playa Yaque beach and it's distinctive two palm trees. We had two relaxing nights here as well. Our second day we very carefully motored north in our dinghy to Americano Bay. With three of us in the dinghy and choppy seas it felt a bit precarious.

I'm going to digress a bit here and talk about our dinghy choice. Most people have a rigid inflatable. We've had our 10 foot Port-A-Boat now for five years and it shows it. Scott has reinforced the stern with plywood and replaced the seats. He designed a bumper of navy blue sunbrella material which fits over the top edges on both sides too.

It is a very unique looking dinghy and has provoked many comments but is an unlikely target for thieves as a result. We haul it up on the dinghy davits every evening so it's comparitive lightness is a boon. And when it's just the two of us the also light 9 horsepower engine gets it up on a nice plane. It is very roomy and can hold a lot of provisions or all our diving gear.

So on the whole we've been happy with it and will be buying a new one and having it shipped to Trinidad this winter.
Back to Americano Bay. It was named for an American, Mr. Blankenship, who built a little house here, now in ruins. He came by private plane, landing on a dirt strip nearby. Rocky cliffs enclose a small bay with a lovely white beach. On one side are dramatic caves and on the other a large arch.

We could cross over the arch to a small still obvious patio with a outdoor fireplace. It was hot in the sun so we were glad to slip into the cool water and snorkel around the cliffs and under the arch. The landscape above reflected the one below, with many holes and even arches under the very clear water. There were lots of fish and very healthy coral.


We explored the ruins, imagining how it must have looked when still occupied. It is certainly a fabulously beautiful spot. The beaches here and near our anchorage are pristine and very white - none of the trash we've seen many other places.
The next day we explored the beaches and land around our anchorage. There are two small ruined houses around a small almost dry pond. We didn't get close enough to find out if it was fresh, but there must have been water somewhere for these homes to have been occupied. The cactus were everywhere, including on us! We learned the hard way about jumping cactus. Balls of spiny cactus attach themselves to your skin and are very difficult to remove. As soon as you pull one spine out (your skin stretches out as there are little hooks in the end) two more spines grab hold. Painfull! Luckily we had a doctor with us!