SISTER ISLANDS
ONE BUSTLES, ONE SEDATES — BUT BOTH WILL CHARM
Hummingbirds and highways might not always be top of mind when visiting an island paradise unless you’re in Trinidad and Tobago.
This is where hovering, backwards flying, colourful hummingbirds abound. It’s also where a lake of liquid tar, which has helped pave roads around the world including in front of Buckingham Palace, is among the top tourist attractions.
Pitch Lake, in the village of La Brea in southwestern Trinidad, was rediscovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in the 1500s. He used the tar from Pitch Lake to seal the seams of boats.
Since 1867, the unusual 41-hectare lake has been mined for its natural liquid asphalt, which is exported around the world for paving. It’s the largest of three such natural asphalt lakes in the world.
Tourists walk on the semi-solid lake — but only accompanied by a knowledgeable guide. Hiring a guide is necessary because a misstep could literally leave you sinking in hot tar, which is what happened to one man. A photo of him covered in tar from chin to toe is posted at the welcome centre as a warning to all.
Guides will keep you safe, but also surprise you. After doffing our footwear in favour of supplied flip-flops, we ventured through knee-deep water and rocks to a spot where our guide stopped to wash her face, then encouraged everyone to follow her lead. Turns out, Pitch Lake is incongruously famous internationally for its tar but locally renowned for its pools of therapeutic water, which are high in sulphur. Soaking in it takes away aches and pains, our guide insists.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pitch Lake was well known by Trinidad’s native Amerindians way before Raleigh sailed by and smelled tar. The legend of how the lake formed draws a line to Trinidad and Tobago’s national symbol, the hummingbird.
Theo Ferguson, who along with wife Gloria runs a sort of hummingbird mecca in the backyard of their hilltop home in the Maracas Valley, said the legend is that Pitch Lake was created to swallow a tribe of Amerindians as punishment for eating hummingbirds “in which the souls of their ancestors reposed.”