Amazon & Carnival Explorer Cruise - Day 10: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Wednesday, February 13

Today we are in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and there was no sleeping in for us.  We have a ship excursion that left at 9:00 so we had to get up at 7:30.

Trinidad and Tobago is a dual-island Caribbean nation and is very close to Venezuela.  Trinidad, where we are today, is the largest of the two islands with a size of 1840 square miles, which is over ten times larger than Tobago.  It lies only seven miles off the coast of Venezuela.  We are docked in Port-of-Spain, the capitol of Trinidad and Tobago, and is known for its huge Carnival, with both calypso and Caribbean soca music.

You can see how close Trinidad is to Venezuela.

Today we went to the Caroni Nature Preserve where we took a boat through the mangrove forests.  After getting ready and having a quick breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we got off the ship to start our excursion.  We found our group and were soon on the bus and off on the half hour bus ride to the Caroni Preserve.  We were very surprised to see that Port-of-Spain was a very large metropolitan area complete with freeways and morning commute traffic.

After leaving the city we got off the highway and were taken to the Caroni Preserve where we boarded a flat bottomed boat for our trip through the mangroves.  For the first ten minutes I thought this tour wasn’t going to be much, but we were soon in the dense mangrove forests and began to see wildlife.  Mangroves are an interesting tree that re-roots by extending tendrils from its branches down into the water and ground so you have multiple trees growing from the same main tree.

Our guide pointed out the different types of mangroves as well as spotting and pointing out the wildlife.  We saw boa constrictors and a cobra coiled around branches up in the trees above our boat.  Although I’m not sure what type of cobra it was, it was non-venomous.  As for birds, we saw blue herons, egrets, ospreys, hawks, flamingos and the most beautiful of all, the Scarlet Ibis.  The Scarlet Ibis is a bright red bird (and I do mean bright) that stands out strikingly from the green forest.  When they are in flight it looks like a fireball.  Val has a powerful zoom lens on her camera and got some great pictures of some of the birds.

I don't know much about snakes, but our guide told us this was a boa constrictor.

The Scarlet Ibis

 

We spent a couple of hours wending our way through the various branches of rivers and through some large areas that almost seemed like lakes.  It was kind of like a swamp in Louisiana without all the algae and lilies covering the water.  The temperature was quite warm with high humidity, but there was always a cooling breeze off the water to keep us from getting uncomfortable.

This snake was some type of cobra.

There were lots of pink flamingos.

After our two hour journey through the mangroves, we were back where we started, got off the boat, and were back on the bus and then back to the port.  This tour turned out to be better than we expected.  Just seeing the scarlet ibis made the trip well worth doing, but combine it with the other wildlife and beautiful waterways, and it was excellent day.

Back in the city and at the port, the temperatures felt much hotter than it did on the boat so we didn’t linger on shore and quickly made our way on to the air- conditioned comfort of the ship.  We spent a little time unwinding and then headed off for lunch in the Lido.  After lunch, Val decided to take a nap as she didn’t sleep very well last night and I downloaded our photos from our tour today.

Late this afternoon there was an announcement from the captain informing us of a port change.  Our upcoming visit to Vitoria, Brazil had been cancelled due to dangerous conditions entering the harbor.  Evidently we have to pass underneath a low bridge and with tide and possible wind conditions that day, it was deemed too risky to attempt.  It was disappointing, but they are very cautious with any risk that may endanger passengers or the ship, which we appreciate.  In it’s place we will be visiting Buzios, Brazil, which doesn’t sound as interesting as Vitoria, but we’ll see.

Val must have been really tired as she spent most of the afternoon napping and even missed her trivia.  Just before 5:00, I went up on the Lido Deck to watch the sail away and take some pictures as we left Trinidad.  The Lido was too crowded so I went up to the sports deck all the way forward for a better vantage point.  I watched us sail away and took some pictures of some dramatic clouds and lighting effects.  I was just about to leave when I ran into Tony, the fellow Nikon user we met in Aruba two days ago.  We talked photography for a while and then I realized it was almost 6:00 and I had to get ready for dinner.

Our now established trivia team were all there tonight and in addition to playing trivia, we compared notes as to what we all did today.  Then it was off to dinner and the casino.  The party is definitely over for me as I quickly lost my money and was back in our room quickly.  Val on the other hand won a pretty good sized jackpot and ended up staying awhile.  Tomorrow we will be in Scarborough, Tobago.