On November 24th folks started to arrive for the November into December multisport trip i do for REI adventures. It’s a fun trip packed with adventures. We all gathered on sunday 26th November for breakfast and introduced each other. There was: Rick Hardcastle, Dave Haddock, father and daughter Tammy Bailey and Ron Hess, our only married couple Mike and Leah Townsend, Doug Bridges, Tonya Legros, Jessica Morrell, Kristin Osterloh and Mitch Golden was supposed to join us but got stuck in airline hell and never made it. I am Courtenay Rooks, leader and very ably assisted by Sheldon, Dane and Jessie.
The first thing we did was to drive up the north coast for a warm up day, starting in Blanchisseuse with an easy kayak on the Marianne river. The mood was excited as was the chatter as everyone got to know each other, even though there was an age gap of 41 years between the oldest and youngest everyone got along very well. It was quickly decided that Rick had traveled the farthest as he was from Alaska. The fun continued as the kayaks slid up the marianne river with ease, though with some directional problems. Leah was less than excited when I mentioned that she should obey Mike’s instructions in kayaking as he was sitting in the back and was therefore the navigator. Mike seemed to like the concept more; it’s a rare occasion when we men get to tell our wives what to do! Soon we stopped for a swim, which included short jumps off the rocks into the pool; the big jump was blocked by bamboo that had washed down the river in a recent flood. Leah did the no headed jump, Jes and Kris did the double jump and I did the big jump (of course; I am the fearless leader – yeah right).
We were then treated to a local sunday lunch of rice and peas with stewed chicken, plantain and a salad. Jessie and dane had to take off to try to extract a friend who had stuck his 4x4 nearby. Battling the ensuing macajuel (mac-a-well) syndrome, which is sleepiness brought on from large amounts of food (the macajuel is a boa-constrictor snake and they sleep after eating), we head onto the afternoon’s pursuit of a jungle hike to a waterfall.
On the hike we enjoyed stranger figs, birds dancing for a mate and various human acrobatics while attempting to cross streams with dry feet. The waterfall was at full strength and magnificent, everyone had a swim and some braved getting under the waterfall. Dave was the bravest as he not only spent the most time under the waterfall; he did it with shades on! 
Kris was the scaredicat and seemed to be freezing, which is something i always find entertaining; when people come here from freezing cold places and find the 80 degree water cold!
We returned by hiking up the river then driving back down the north coast. On the way we met Dane and Jessie in Jessie’s 4x4 which looked like a entirely different vehicle because it was literally covered in mud, completely! And they had not even managed to pull out their friend, instead they nearly got stuck themselves. Their antics both give me grey hairs and keep me young at the same moment.
Monday morning started for me at 3:30am loading 14 bikes, coolers, tools, hiking and biking equipment onto the van and at 6am picking up the REI gang and their luggage. We stopped for a local breakfast of doubles (curried chick peas in a taco like bread that is unique to Trinidad), fruit and coconut water to wash it down – the Trini version of a power breakfast. We go to plum road; which is in east Trinidad south of Sangre Grande, and gear up for a warm up ride. Bikes and helmets are assigned, and pedals changed to the sound of lively conversation. Riding gets going on a country road with short climbs and descents. 
I give instructions to mountain biking technique and rules of the road. The pace is steady as no one is notably slow or super fast, which is a relief for the crew as we are not chasing around too much. The forest closes over us as we enter the lowland forest of Mount Harris, it gets a few degrees cooler and we hear howler monkeys in the distance sounding like the wind groaning. Adventure continues with a hike up Mt Harris, Leah, Mike and I mountain bike up the trail, well actually mostly push up as the trail is very slippery for the bikes. The forest thickens further as we get deeper, the summit is only a trig point in the ground but after that there is no longer a trail but only my memory to find our way through the virgin rainforest that is verdant as it envelopes us with greens, browns and splashes of red, yellow and dazzlingly blue butterflies floating by. The trees tower over us in their extremely slow battle to the death. Rotting branches, golden silk and jumping spiders along with a variety of other insects round off the “deep in the jungle” feel of this forest.
Getting out meant a down hill ride for Leah, Mike and me, of course Leah as the worst rider was the one who did not fall! Mike did an acrobatic endo (end over end) in front of Leah who thought it was hilarious, of course. Then I miss timed a small wheelie over a log and got stuck, tried to save it by balancing on a tree which turned out to be rotten and I went crashing and again Leah thought it was hilarious. I think she nearly peed herself, hope she keeps up the kegels!
At the bottom of the trail it was mostly a fun down hill ride on road to my friend Kuchilal Sooknanan’s house where his sister Nisha makes us a delicious curry lunch. So we meet the Sooklnanan family, they are farmers in a rural area of trinidad called plum mittan, they grow watermelons, peas, cucumbers, corn and peppers in a crop rotation. With everyone turned from hungry to stuffed and happy we relax for a bit before our last ride for the day, which is a one hour ride back to where we started but on a different route.
We started on a easy climb through the village of Plum Mittan, of course we always create a bit of a stir as we look very strange to the locals here, the kids always love us and get excited. We then ride through rice fields and get into some reasonably tough climbing. At the end of the climb we gather up one by one and Dave rides in looking a bit pasty then Sheldon brings up the rear with Tammy who is obviously suffering from a bit of heat stroke, as the last portion was in direct hot sun. So we chill for 5 minutes and rehydrate. Fortunately the rest of the ride is mostly covered. We push on with a short climb and a fun descent over dirt road. At the bottom of the hill Sheldon calls me to say Leah has some bike trouble. I ride back and find that the brake pad on her disc brakes have slipped out of the holder and jammed between the housing and the disc. Everyone is teasing her about her sudden sliding stop. I try brains first but resort to brute force and a hammer and we are going again. The dirt road turns to muddy road as the bamboos and teak trees arc overhead. Our biggest obstacle is a part of the road where a land slide was repaired with logs mike, Dave and I make it across but most don’t even try. We get back to the vehicles about 5pm, Tammy is last as she was not feeling well, but had a definite look of accomplishment about her. We load up and hit the two hour drive to Grande Riverre, where we arrive in dark but a shower and great food revive all and spirits are high.
The next day several of the group are up early enjoying the beach which the hotel is next to, we are the only ones there besides one couple. After a hearty breakfast we ride on a country road that follows the coast to matelot. After warm up we hit a reasonably tough climb and it was a bright and sunny day. The group kept well together and all were sweaty and smiling at the summit. 
The down hill into shark river was fast and fun as we followed the road to matelot, once there we stopped, snacked and Kris found a friend in the form of a brightly coloured Frangipani caterpillar that is poisonous to eat, so we did not eat it! Rain hastened our return ride, we suffered up the now very steep climb, which i broke up with a stop at a nutmeg plantation.
After lunch everyone hiked to a waterfall, except Mike and I who mountain biked. The first part was steep and rocky, so we cursed pushing the bikes up but then the trail was tough and fun riding up on wide bench trail with switchbacks. At my first lecture point we encountered a baby Fer-de-Lance, or Lance Head Viper, a venomous snake related to rattlers, at about 2 feet long it was small but still we look and don’t touch. One of my rules is “don’t kill the clients; its not good for business” J about half way there we dumped the bikes and all continued on foot to the waterfall which included a really cool steep climb down to the waterfall. 
Once there we all swam and got a great massage under the waterfall. We had small river shrimp pinch our toes looking for dead skin to eat. Once out of the river I fed the shrimp and after a bit i lured the big ones out, the smallest were about an inch, but the big ones were about 8 inches, Dane entertained us by trying to catch them, they were faster than he was. Of course the ride down hill was “da bomb” as Mike and I got back way before the others with much bigger smiles. Back at Le Grande Almandier we hit the beach for swimming in the sea, 
body surfing and kayak surfing. As i got in the water rick took a nasty dump while bodysurfing which left a Gorbachev like scare on his forehead and a bit dazed but none worse for wear.
Next morning we head off on the much talked about Tamana Cave adventure. After a beautiful drive along the coast we have a casual dirt road ride to the trail head. 
We have lunch then hit the trail and hiked to Tamana’s summit from which we could see the length of Trinidad. 
We hiked back to the cave and geared up with rubber kitchen gloves and lights, then slid and climbed down into the cave as the bats above started to fly about us. We entered the 1st chamber though a hole 4 feet high and when everyone was in we turned on the bright lights to see at least 10,000 bats dashing around us. Things got quite squooshy of the yucky kind as we made our way through at time ankle deep bat guano (shit). The cockroaches were not bad this time, just a couple hundred. The conversation got very excited between screams as bats or roaches passed too close. Rick and Dave seem to have an especially good time, while Jes and Tonya had decidedly looks of both fear and fun on their faces. After the first chamber the group thinned as Tammy, Tonya, Ron and Doug decided not to go through the squeeze hole. The rest of us did the squeezing to chamber 2, where we saw the wonderful stalactites and stalagmites and much larger bats in small family groups there. At this stage the bats were flying everywhere as some were already exiting for the night’s feeding. So we headed out the cave and everyone were amazed by the bats flying right through the group as the exited the cave. A few bats even buzzed Doug who was in the back. 
The hike out was slippery and in the dark, a couple falls added to the fun and teasing. Back at the vehicle all changed and washed in the very dark and deserted road for the drive to pax guest house, which we arrived at 8:30pm. 
On the way back Rick suggested we should have sacrificed a virgin at the cave, we all decided that since Kris had white pants on she would be our sacrifice, but she laughed so hard and scandalously at being a virgin we edited our sacrifice to a formerly virgin with formerly white pants; kind of brown with bat shit.
Thursday morning we hit the airport, check in, got on the plane and as we sat we were asked to exit as there was a report of a bomb in the airport. So we went back into the terminal and sat for an hour when the police reported it was a bogus call, some idiot’s idea of fun, we got on the plane and 30 minutes later we were in Tobago. After a local lunch that included curry, crab, dumplings, macaroni pie, stewed chicken, peas, lamb and more.
Snorkeling was first in the world famous Buccoo Reef where all jumped in anxiously except kris, who played fraidycat until her hero captain Clint hand held her into the water, then she got brave and did the rest on her own. We saw wonderful reef formations, a large puffer fish, butterfly and angle fishes among many other 
multi coloured reef inhabitants. All was well until Ron decided to chum for sharks; the yucky way.
So we head off to our second location where there was a beach so Ron and Kris jumped off and went on the beach while we snorkeled. The highlight was a Morey eel with lots of teeth, I got some great photos of the 
eel and fan worms, which are marine worms that feed using gill like structures in the water, and if you pass too close they suck in the gills. 
We headed back to base; a couple of pina coladas and rum punches were had before the drive to Blue Waters Inn.
Next morning were we up at dawn and hit the trail to Pigeon Peak, our toughest hike through montane rainforest which was recovering from various hurricane hits. The forest is still beautiful and the hike is quite tough as it is steep and slippery. We had a snack stop about 2/3 the way and most of us sat on a log which everyone blamed Ron for breaking since he was the last to sit, regardless of the fact that we made up much more weight.
At the summit i cleared roots of a strangler to sit on, which first had some nasty ants on it, when they cleared out Tammy sat and the sap from the tree burned her like acid had been thrown on her. I had heard that the strangler’s sap was caustic, but that was worse than i thought. 
On the descent I caught a snake locally called Dos Cocorite, interestingly it did a croc like death roll when i held it by the tail trying to 
get away. We also encountered beautiful birds called Blue crowned Motmots and had a Tarzan swing on a vine. 
Back at Blue Waters for lunch and an afternoon kayak and snorkel which was beautiful complete with a turtle that Leah found and large schools of fish in an amazing variety of colours.
The day faded into night over rum punches and after a long wait the steel drums arrived. I tried 
hard to get everyone dancing with only few reluctant takers. That all changed Mike consumed enough liquid ambition and got his grove on. Then it was easy encouraging others as they saw how much fun it was. I tried to teach how to gyrate hips and asses like locals (a dance called wining) but had limited success, Rick was the worst but very enthusiastic, Tammy was the best. Dave, Ron, Doug, Tonya, Kris and Jess got down to the music while Leah and a rosy cheeked Mike got their “grove” on.
The last day was the toughest with a long ride. We geared up by an old waterwheel that was used in the days of sugar farming, Sean de Freitas supplied the bikes and support and helped lead the ride which started riding on a dirt road with some not too hard climbing. After 30 minutes we hit the tough stuff with a climb of 1000 feet elevation over 3 miles, most in direct sun. This took us to Moriah and after a bit of road riding we hit the down hill. I sweep and make sure that all is well and take off behind the leaders. Then Sean, Mike and I bomb down the dirt road to king peter’s beach at the end.
In my opinion Mike nearly bites it but he says it was all part of the plan. At the beach we enjoy a picnic lunch while watching and dodging the very rough surf. Mike and Sean tackle the return hill first, while Kris, Leah and I follow, the rest shuttle to the top. About half way there Leah and I bail and I go through great lengths to put my bike in the support van all the while sure that Kris will bail soon, well i was wrong, she shocked everyone by just motoring on, pedal after pedal all the way to the top, everyone is very proud of her so she is rechristened “queen of the hill”.
The fun down hill along road then trail to highland waterfall then ensues, as I give instruction to a reluctant Tonya. The waterfall is a thoroughly enjoyed reward and we head out via a trail on the side of the river. With improved mountain biking skills Doug and others cross the river riding. It was then back to the vans, a bath, hit the airport where Mike, Leah and Tonya stayed for a bit extra of tobago and the rest of us returned to pax guest house and a farewell dinner.
For more info on adventures in Trinidad and Tobago contact Courtenay at [email protected] or check our website at www.pariasprings.com, to book REI Adventures Caribbean Multisport, which is the tour above check it out at http://www.rei.com/adventures/, while there take a look at their many fantastic adventures worldwide or get the latest gear at www.rei.com
On Suday 14th Jan Ken and I hit Cumuto on the road next to the Aripo Savannas at dawn and within a few moments I hear Silvered Antbirds calling, which is a suprise as I have never had them in the sanannas before. We stalk them for quite a bit with only fleeting glimpses and only a couple seconds of film. Then Sulphury Flycatchers fly in and start calling noisily. So I once again mooch Ken's Swarovsky scope and photograph them in a Moriche Palm next to the road. The excitment grows when I hear the strange call of a Black tailed Tityra, on finding it we soon realize that its actually a pair that are building a nest in a Moriche Palm next to the road. 
Ken headed off after the Antbirds again when a Merlin flys in and lands in a near by tree. I get a couple photographs when it launches straight at me! I am looking at it in the scope so I look up and its coming directly at me, which is disturbing. Then about 25 feet away it veers to the right and attacked some palm tanagers. Even though it missed I stood in awe!!! 
We then decided to head for a Yellow Rumped Cacique roost, but on the way a flock of about 8 Red bellied Macaws flying over, I am all excited shouting Macaws! Macaws! Macaws! With wonderful luck they land in a Moriche Palm about 100 feet away, so we very quietly get out of the vehicle and photograph them for at least an hour while they feed on the palm fruits. If you are a Trini you will know these fruits as your beach cricket balls. Kids in Trinidad and Tobago would use the small black round seeds of the palm fruits as balls and the stems of coconut palm leaves as the bat and you have a game of cricket. 
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