some Trinidad photos

Welcome to the mother, father and rocking grandmama of all carnivals. If you are feeling low, if you are feeling bored or harbouring misanthropic tendencies then be off with you to Port Of Spain. Here, every year, in the five days before Ash Wednesday the island explodes into a seething mass of partying humanity.



A ritual over 150 years old begins with the King and Queen contest on the Friday and finishes with the Parade of the Bands and its eye-popping costumes on the Tuesday. In between, under the bleaching sun and shining moon, slap on the body paint and the coloured hair spray, throw those spike heels away, don your most outrageous clothing and join the throng in dancing, singing and drinking to calypso, soca and steel band. You are part of the most heaving, partying family in the world.









A fairly steep rainforest hike leads to the Tamana Caves at a 750-foot elevation.


Two adults are dwarfed by the root of a Strangling Fig tree in Nariva Swam


The mouth of the Marianne River is accessible for magical kayak exploration into wildlife-rich bamboo forests.