He­len Shair-Singh

Many of us have not seen much of what our in­cred­i­ble is­lands have to of­fer apart from the sun, sea and sand, yet there are many ways you can en­joy 'stay­ca­tion­ing'. A few ho­tels, main­ly on the sis­ter isle, of­fer in-house ac­tiv­i­ties, but al­most any ho­tel or guest­house can guide you to avail­able op­tions. If you're head­ing out from home, here are some ideas:

Sport­ing en­thu­si­asts:

�2 Kayak­ing: Both sea and riv­er kayak­ing, through pris­tine man­grove swamps & fresh­wa­ter marsh­lands, is avail­able on both is­lands.

�2 Div­ing: To­ba­go is THE dive des­ti­na­tion (with over 60 breath­tak­ing sites), but the is­lands off the coast of Ch­aguara­mas al­so of­fers div­ing year-round.

�2 Wa­ter­sports: To­ba­go is the ide­al place if you en­joy wa­ter­sports: surf­ing, jet ski­ing, kite surf­ing, para­sail­ing, and wa­ter­ski­ing are all avail­able.

�2 Hik­ing: Both is­lands are a hik­er's dream with trails me­an­der­ing through lush wood­lands, rivers and wa­ter­falls.

�2 Horse­back rid­ing: Trinidad has sta­bles in San­ta Cruz, St. Ann's, Ch­aguara­mas and Ari­ma. In To­ba­go you may al­so get to ride on the beach.

�2 Moun­tain bik­ing: To­ba­go is a bik­er's par­adise and Trinidad's coast­lines (es­pe­cial­ly the North/North-West coast), has bliss­ful (and some­times chal­leng­ing) rides.

Sight­seers/Na­ture Watch­ers:

TO­BA­GO

�2 To­ba­go For­est Re­serve: The old­est pro­tect­ed for­est in the West­ern Hemi­sphere of­fers ex­cel­lent bird watch­ing and a mag­nif­i­cent view of Bloody Bay.

�2 Fort King George: Well worth a vis­it for its his­to­ry, coastal views, light­house and mu­se­um.

�2 Buc­coo Reef: Take a glass-bot­tomed boat to see what Jacques Cousteau once rat­ed his third most spec­tac­u­lar sight in the world.

�2 Rich­mond Great House: A 10th cen­tu­ry re­stored sug­ar plan­ta­tion house.

�2 Scenic Is­land Tour: En­joy a dri­ving tour of the is­land from Wind­ward Road and re­turn­ing along the At­lantic coast­line. En­joy spec­tac­u­lar moun­tain scenery, beach ex­pans­es, rivers and nestling coastal fish­ing vil­lages.

TRINIDAD

�2 Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre: Al­most 200 acres in the lush Ari­ma Val­ley: a mi­cro­cosm of Trinidad's fas­ci­nat­ing eco­log­i­cal di­ver­si­ty.

�2 El Cer­ro del Aripo: Al­so lo­cat­ed in Ari­ma, but at 940 me­tres (3,084 ft), it's the high­est point in Trinidad.

�2 Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary: Home to the scar­let ibis, which turn the man­grove a bril­liant fiery red when they ar­rive by the thou­sands just be­fore sun­set.

�2 Dat­ta­treya Yo­ga Cen­tre: An ex­quis­ite ar­ti­san-built tem­ple, with a tow­er­ing 85-foot stat­ue of Hanu­man.

�2 Wa­ter­loo Tem­ple-By-The-Sea: A poignant a tes­ti­mo­ny to the love of a hus­band for his wife as the Taj

�2 Pointe-A-Pierre Wild­fowl Trust: A peace­ful wet­land habi­tat en­com­pass­es two lakes.

�2 Pitch Lake: The largest of on­ly three nat­ur­al as­phalt lakes in the world. The mu­se­um hous­es some (some­times bizarre) re­cov­ered ar­ti­facts.

�2 Galera Point: Take a breath­tak­ing walk out on­to the rocky out­crop be­yond the To­co Light­house, where the At­lantic Ocean crash­es in­to the Caribbean Sea.

�2 Ch­aguara­mas Mil­i­tary Mu­se­um: Lo­cat­ed on a for­mer U.S. mil­i­tary base, it's hard to miss the re­al BWIA L1011 jet parked out front.

�2 Gas­pa­ree Caves: A lime­stone cav­ern with sta­lag­mites and sta­lac­tites, plus the 'Blue Grot­to', where you can go swim­ming.