Grand Riviere

Last week we went as a family to the village of Grand Riviere which is a 3 hour drive from us to the North Coast of Trinidad. We were going to attend an Organic Agriculture Workshop on growing carrots and beets but also as a little get away to this lovely area of Trinidad that we had not been to in eight years and the kids had never seen. One of the members of this Org. Ag. group owns a hotel right on the beach and had offered to accommodate us for the night. My kids are not the greatest car travelers. Kahlil gets car sick and Kamala gets antsy and wants to get out. So we plan travels accordingly and this time we left at 4:30AM so they could sleep the whole trip and when they woke up we were pulling into the hotel.


When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was a beach littered with vultures – some sitting, some flying, some hoping around – all looking and waiting for good things to eat. The Leatherback Turtles that come to lay on the shores of Trinidad deposit hundreds of eggs in well dug, incredibly camouflaged holes in the hopes that one may survive. Unfortunately for those babies their struggles are high – waves, dogs or vultures that dig up nests and those same dogs and vultures waiting on land for the hatchlings or other birds of prey and fishes waiting in the sea. And this is without mentioning the many negative aspects of humans. So we were excited to see and help a batch of hatchlings make it into the sea only to observe the feast of the frigate and man of war birds as they plucked the turtles from the water.













Luckily, on this beach there is a man who walks up and down watching for hatchlings, collects them by the buckets-full, puts them in a large covered pit and releases them when the birds (and hopefully a lot of the fishes) have gone to sleep. Kahlil was his assistant for the day and I only caught the rare glance of him as he came to tell me how many they got so far or to get a drink of water. Kamala was hesitant at first but quickly got into holding and helping the babies. What a treat!