Kalain Ho­sein

The Win­ston Nanan Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary’s vast bio­di­ver­si­ty and pris­tine en­vi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions cap­tured the at­ten­tion of Lind­blad Ex­pe­di­tions and Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic Ex­plor­ers ear­li­er this week.

The 48-mem­ber group ar­rived in T&T last Sat­ur­day, vis­it­ing Yerette (home of the hum­ming­bird) in Mara­cas, St Joseph, Ha­cien­da Ja­cana in Tal­paro, the Cen­tral Ex­pe­ri­ence and the Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary.

The ex­plor­ers were tak­en through a three-hour long bird­watch­ing jour­ney by Nanan’s Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary Tours, a third-gen­er­a­tion busi­ness now run by Al­lis­ter Nanan.

They al­so run spe­cialised ex­pe­di­tion tours in Trinidad with bird­watch­ing com­pa­nies from across the globe.

While the me­dia and ex­plor­ers were on­ly treat­ed to view­ing a por­tion of the 12,000-acre swamp, tour guides Nanan and Khem­raj used their whistling, at­tract­ing the pres­ence of a hand­ful of the hun­dreds of species of birds that call the Bird Sanc­tu­ary their home.

The ex­plor­ers, some in their twi­light years, were treat­ed to the sights of a red, white and black masked car­di­nal, which is on this coun­try’s $50 bill, as well as mul­ti­ple species of herons, the pygmy king­fish­er, which is one of four species of king­fish­er in the sanc­tu­ary, swal­lows, hawks, as well as a trop­i­cal screech owl nes­tled far away from the riv­er paths.

The group al­so spot­ted the mul­ti­ple silky anteaters and some of the crabs that fed on the lengthy man­grove tree roots.

The star of the show re­mained the evening ar­rival of the na­tion­al bird, the Scar­let Ibis, sweep­ing in through the twi­light skies.

Speak­ing about the vis­it, ex­pe­di­tion leader Lu­cho Verdes­o­to said, “The whole point of com­ing to Trinidad is ac­tu­al­ly to show our guests this in­cred­i­ble en­vi­ron­ment, this pris­tine ecosys­tem that you have.”

Verdes­o­to added, “This is a spec­ta­cle that you don’t get to see many places in the world. It is pret­ty much unique. This is what we want to see. We want to see things that are be­ing pro­tect­ed, and peo­ple care about these places.”

Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic Ex­plor­er doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er and Colom­bian bi­ol­o­gist Fed­eri­co Par­do echoed his col­league’s sen­ti­ments, say­ing: “Thus far, I’m im­pressed. Not on­ly by the warmth of the peo­ple but the di­ver­si­ty of the peo­ple. I was not ex­pect­ing to see such a mix which makes it very ap­peal­ing but al­so, it’s a Latin Amer­i­can coun­try with great bio­di­ver­si­ty.”

Lind­blad Ex­pe­di­tions-Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic left T&T ear­li­er this week on a world-class ex­pe­di­tion ship, head­ing to Guyana, Suri­name, French Guiana, and Brazil.

Car­la Cu­pid, the in­ter­im chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Tourism Trinidad, wel­comed the vis­i­tors.

She said, “From all re­ports, the in­ter­na­tion­al ex­plor­ers were cap­ti­vat­ed by our amaz­ing flo­ra, fau­na, and un­matched bio­di­ver­si­ty.”

Cu­pid added, “Trinidad con­tin­ues to be an ide­al des­ti­na­tion for eco­tourism and out­door ad­ven­tures, and we re­main com­mit­ted to at­tract­ing vis­i­tors from all cor­ners of the globe to show­case our bio­di­ver­si­ty and de­vel­op au­then­tic and mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ences. To­day’s vis­i­tors are look­ing for en­gag­ing and en­rich­ing trav­el with strong sto­ry­telling and im­mer­sive ex­pe­ri­ences, and Trinidad of­fers that and so much more.”

She com­mend­ed Nanan’s Bird Sanc­tu­ary Tours, which was the of­fi­cial tour op­er­a­tor for the Lind­blad Ex­pe­di­tions-Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic, for their con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with the group and “for their re­silience and in­no­va­tion in de­vel­op­ing unique tour of­fer­ings that in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors can place on their Trinidad buck­et list.”