Hundreds of People’s National Movement (PNM) supporters took a long drive yesterday as they made their way to Toco for the party’s annual Sports and Family Day.
Party groups began gathering in communities across Trinidad well before sunrise to begin the journey to the northeastern tip of the island.
For anyone making their way to Toco, it was easily apparent that the party was hosting a major event as balisier flowers, the party’s symbol, adorned every single lamp post from Valencia to Toco.
A news team from Guardian Media left Port-of-Spain at around 10 am and drove for more than four hours but still did come within sight of the Toco Secondary School as standstill traffic began more than two kilometres before the location.
The gridlock traffic was mostly due to a large number of heavily packed maxi-taxis and excursion buses that were chartered for the event, finding it difficult to manoeuvre the winding Toco Main Road that was made narrower by the vehicles parked on the side.
Many attendees opted to abandon their communal transport as they chose to make their way to the venue on foot.
In a brief interview, Sherwin Joseph, of the Moruga/Tableland party group, said his team left St Mary’s Village in Moruga around 6 am.
“We wanted to leave half past four but we end up leaving at six and as you can see we now reached,” Joseph said.
Joseph said he was especially excited to hear the feature address delivered by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and other party leaders.
“I want to hear what innovations they are going to put in place to better the lives of the youths,” Joseph said.
Joseph said he and his friends were not perturbed by the traffic as they were able to enjoy the calm scenery which reminded them of their community.
His friend, Quasi Swamber, said with the bus stopping constantly, he was able to sample mangoes from numerous roadside vendors.
“I find Moruga and Toco are like the same with the hills. The only thing it has better than Moruga is the mangoes,” Swamber said.
The influx of visitors into the community was warmly welcomed by Toco residents, especially those who operate bars, shops, and roadside stands.
One shop owner, who only identified himself as Papi, said he hoped the party would host the event in the community for a third time in the future.
“This is the second time we have this kind of crowd and we are glad to see everybody,” he said.
He noted that residents suffered greatly with the closure of beaches and other restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic but were hopeful as they have noticed a slight increase in domestic tourism.
“They could have this more regularly. It is a blessed love with everybody,” he said.
Another resident, Kerry Yan Hip, said that despite the traffic the community could easily accommodate the large turnout. “The way it looks we could have taken double the crowd if people used all the back roads,” Yan Hip said.
