Come Tour Dong Tong Trinidad

Forget about wheels and take a stroll through the streets of ‘down tong’ Trinidad (town in dialect), as the locals call it the capital. In the last five years the horizon of Port of Spain has changed dramatically, with a many more towers lighting.

Along  with the Waterfront area ‘ including a Hyatt Regency hotel and an International Finance Centre and the National Academy of the Performing Arts, which, at the right angle, does a lilting impression of the Sydney Opera House.

But Port of Spain’s real attraction is not the awkward attempts to transform it into a modern city, but the many historic buildings and parks that have survived the onslaught of steel, concrete and glass from its most recent construction boom.

From the promenade named after our famous cricketer Brian Lara, you can walk north along any street in which will carry you magnificent Queen’s Park Savannah, whose one-way traffic makes it the world’s largest roundabout. On Frederick Street, which is like a Main/High Street, the pavements are always busy with office workers and vendors selling everything from newspapers and nuts to pirate CDs and leather slippers.

Architecturally, Frederick Street offers the stately Trinity Cathedral, and Woodford Square

For the adventurous, Charlotte Street is a rather lively route to the Savannah. This is Chinatown, and almost every store is owned by Chinese shopkeepers, who have been here for more than a century.

At the top of the Charlotte Street, you can rest your feet in the Memorial Park, and admire the National Academy of the Performing Arts just across the street. Then, in the afternoon grab a cold coconut from one of the trucks parked up by the Savannah, and get ready for the two-mile stroll around the largest park in the Caribbean.

 

To the west of the Savannah is the spectacular group of early 1900s great houses known as the Magnificent Seven. From early November to midnight on Carnival Sunday,  the Savannah is full of life you can easily get stampeded by the hundreds of Trinis ‘ men and women – walking around the Savannah, getting  into shape to fit into Carnival and Purchase several hand crafted tokens from the Carnival Boots.