Some time back in this space, I posed the ‘Why we stay’ question for Guyanese choosing to live here while mentioning some of the magnets that hold us to the homeland. While I made a passing reference to our landscapes it is a point that merits more elaboration than I did at the time.
Next time you visit Trinidad, for example, if you haven’t done this before, get a friend to take you, or rent a car and drive, from the North Coast Road to Blanchisseuse. The view is spectacular as the road comes out of the forest and opens out onto the coastline of the country below and the Atlantic Ocean, but the journey before that, in the forest is, for me, the most stunning part of the drive. The narrow road was cut through very dense forest, and you are literally driving through a dense blanket of towering trees and shrubs, hundreds of years old, and blocking out the sky. You are in a cocoon jungle for miles and miles as the road winds through the hilly terrain taking you to Trinidad’s most northern coastline. The photo opportunities abound, the sound of the birds is everywhere, and the air is a cool blanket that seems to have no end. Blanchisseuse, in fact, is a prime example of a landscape that is a magnet for the citizens of a country, and indeed visitors.
Trinidadians frequently visit the area and will tell you that it is a source of pride and enjoyment for them; it is truly a spectacular piece of territory.
