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Trinidad: The Trip to San Souci

After spending two days hanging out at EAD’s homestead we were free to head out and explore another piece of the island. We had discussed two options. The first wasn’t even on the island, it was actually a few minutes by air away – we thought about visiting Tobago. The other option was to travel to the northeast coast of Trinidad to see the area where the turtles come ashore to lay there eggs.

This was an easy decision once we checked the flight schedule and availability: the day we wanted to travel had no available seats on the plane. Problem solved, eh? We decided to leave Friday morning and drive up to San Souci.

If Trinidad is a clock, Port of Spain is at 11:00 and San Souci/Grand Riviere is at around 12:30 — about 30 kilometers from each other. Unfortunately there isn’t a road that goes along the north coast, so to get to where you must drive south a bit through the town of Arima. We were also planning to visit the Asa Wright Nature Center on this little road trip — and Asa Wright is just north of Arima, right on the way.

After heading out of Port of Spain we made our way to Arima and decided to head up to Asa Wright and check out the birds. Easier said than done. We couldn’t find the road. We asked for directions. We still couldn’t find the road. We drove around the narrow, unmarked streets of Arima asking for directions for nearly an hour — then we said screw it. We’ll try again on the way back.

Back on the main road heading east from Arima. One thing I loved about Trinidad was the roads. In Port of Spain the roads are wide, paved and in relative good repair. The farther we got from the City the roads got worse and worse. Down from 4 lanes to 2, then down to 1.5 and then a single lane for both directions of travel. The road went from a nice asphalt top to an old road that hadn’t seen new asphalt in 10+ years and even dirt roads at certain points.

The folks in rural Trinidad drive like bats out of hell. You are also driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road. This coupled with the poor roads make for quite a wild ride.

We stopped several times to take in the great beach views as well as on the way back we stopped to hike to a waterfall.

The ride was quite beautiful, but if you aren’t use to driving on the wrong side of the car and road this might not be the best little road trip.

When you travel, do you often rent a car? I haven’t ever driven on the wrong side of the car, do you find it hard? Do you feel as out of it when you just can’t find the proper road and even when you ask for help?