KALI­FA SARAH CLYNE

Safe. That was the word used by beach­go­ers to de­scribe the new­ly opened board­walk at Williams Bay, Ch­aguara­mas. Safe­ty was what the ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple at the board­walk last week­end-most­ly fam­i­lies and cou­ples-said mat­tered most to them. The fa­cil­i­ty was opened just over a month ago in a cer­e­mo­ny at­tend­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the min­is­ter re­spon­si­ble for the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad's West­ern Penin­su­la, Dr Bhoe Tewarie. It's the first phase of a project to at­tract tourists and in­vest­ment in­to the area. The board­walk, with trees strate­gi­cal­ly placed, is bor­dered on one side by a grassy slope-ide­al for a ro­man­tic pic­nic-and on the oth­er by the seashore. It has dra­mat­i­cal­ly im­proved the look and feel of the area.

At the east­ern end there is a portable toi­let; ac­cord­ing to a sign at the west­ern end of the board­walk near the Ch­agua­nas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty (CDA) of­fice, vis­i­tors can pay $2 to use in­door fa­cil­i­ties. Signs along the board­walk cau­tion: "No sit­ting on the handrails. No Camp­ing. No Cook­ing or open fires. No Loud Mu­sic. No Climb­ing of Trees." I could eas­i­ly iden­ti­fy not on­ly the phys­i­cal im­prove­ments but al­so the at­mos­phere. It is friend­lier, clean­er, more pic­turesque and yes, safe. "The area feels safer," said 38-year-old Neke­sha Men­tor who was spend­ing the day at the beach with her two daugh­ters. "I im­me­di­ate­ly no­ticed the se­cu­ri­ty guards as I parked the car. There are ar­eas where the chil­dren can play in the sand, or run about as they wish and it's re­al­ly a lot more at­trac­tive. It looks like a place tourists would en­joy."

The ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple en­joy­ing the fa­cil­i­ty the day I vis­it­ed were fam­i­lies. Par­ents with their two daugh­ters played with plas­tic in­flat­able toys near the wa­ter's edge. A man sat with his lap­top en­joy­ing free In­ter­net ac­cess as a lit­tle girl at his feet played with bright­ly coloured plas­tic buck­ets and shov­els. A short dis­tance away, a moth­er gath­ered peb­bles and seashells with her daugh­ter. With the ap­proach of sun­set, more vis­i­tors ar­rived, in­clud­ing young cou­ples. A young woman held hands with her boyfriend as they strolled along the board­walk. A pho­tog­ra­ph­er fol­lowed a mid­dle-aged cou­ple, snap­ping pho­tos with the wa­ter pro­vid­ing the per­fect back­ground. "I've been to the board­walk in New York, and mi­nus the rides and oth­er forms of en­ter­tain­ment, this isn't a far cry from it. It's re­lax­ing to just sit on the deck and let your feet touch the wa­ter," said Shali­ni Mo­hammed. Mo­hammed and her hus­band Rishi drove from Cara­pichaima to vis­it the board­walk af­ter learn­ing about it from a news pro­gramme.

Wicome John, a CDA lit­ter pre­ven­tion and se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer, said in the weeks since the board­walk opened there have been large crowds. "This is on­ly a hand­ful of peo­ple. There are evenings when peo­ple come to rollerblade, or cou­ples come to pic­nic here," he said. "I love it here," said 72-year-old Lily Ra­haman. Since the board­walk was opened she has ex­er­cised there five times a week.

"I think it is a won­der­ful idea. I like to see all of the young cou­ples strolling along. It's so pleas­ant. "My hus­band sits and waits be­cause he can't walk, but he loves the sea breeze," Ra­haman said. Four of the six ven­dors' booths at the board­walk were opened when I vis­it­ed, sell­ing fried foods, gy­ros, snacks and sno­cones. Ven­dor Sabitha Suther­land said busi­ness has been slow ex­cept for on week­ends. "I don't feel 100 per cent safe-but com­pared to be­fore, it is a lot safer," she said.