Trinidad And Tobago tourist information

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a country in the southern Caribbean Sea, situated 11 kilometres (7 mi) off the coast of Venezuela.

Places to go in Trinidad And Tobago ...

Claxton Bay Scarborough Speyside

The average length of Trinidad is 80 kilometres (50 mi) and its average width is 59 kilometres (37 mi). Tobago is 41 kilometres (25½ mi) long and 12 kilometres (7½ mi) at its greatest width.

The country is an archipelagic state consisting of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and 21 smaller islands with a total area of 5,128 square kilometres (1,979 sq mi). The estimated population for July, 2006 is 1,065,842.

The larger and more populated island is Trinidad, while Tobago is smaller (303 km² or 116 sq mi; about 6% of the total area) and less populous (50,000 people; or 5% of the total population). Citizens are officially called Trinidadians or Tobagonians or Citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, but Trinidadians are informally referred to as Trinis and both Trinidadians and Tobagonians are called Trinbagonians.

Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is a primarily industrialised country whose economy is based on petroleum and petrochemicals. People of African and Indian descent make up almost 80% of the population, while the remainder are mostly mixed race with small Euro-Trinidadian/European, Sino-Trinidadian/Chinese and Arab-Trinidadian/Syrian-Lebanese minorities. Trinidad and Tobago is famous for its pre-Lenten Carnival and as the birthplace of steelpan, calypso and limbo.

The capital city Port-of-Spain, with population in the metro area of about 350,000 residents, is currently a leading candidate, along with Miami, to serve as the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA-ALCA).

The country consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and 21 smaller islands, the most important being Chacachacare, Monos, Huevos, Gaspar Grande (or Gasparee), Little Tobago and St. Giles Is. The terrain of the islands is a mixture of mountains and plains. The highest point in the country is found on the Northern Range at El Cerro del Aripo which is situated at 940 metres (3,085 ft) above sea level. The climate is tropical. There are two seasons annually: the dry season for the first six months of the year, and the wet season in the second half of the year. Winds are predominantlly from the northeast and are dominated by the Northeast Trade winds. Unlike most of the other Caribbean islands, Trinidad and Tobago have frequently escaped the wrath of major devastating hurricanes including Hurricane Ivan, the most powerful storm to pass close to the islands in recent history in September 2004.

As the majority of the population live in Trinidad, this is the location of most major towns and cities. There are three major municipalities in Trinidad: Port of Spain, the capital, San Fernando, and Chaguanas. Of these three, Chaguanas is the fastest growing. The largest town in Tobago is Scarborough.

Trinidad is made up of a variety of soil types, the majority being fine sands and heavy clays. The alluvial valleys of the Northern Range and the soils of the East-West Corridor being the most fertile.

The Northern Range consists mainly of Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks, mostly andesites and schists. The Northern Lowlands (East-West Corridor and Caroni Plains) consist of Pleistocene or younger soft sands and clays with superficial gravel terraces and river and swamp alluvia. South of this, the Central Range is a folded anticlinal uplift consisting of Cretaceous and Eocene rocks, with Miocene formations along the southern and eastern flanks. The Naparima Plains and the Nariva Swamp form the southern shoulder of this uplift. The Southern Lowlands consist of Miocene and Pliocene sands, clays, and gravels. These overlie oil and natural gas deposits, especially north of the Los Bajos Fault. The Southern Range forms the third anticlinal uplift. It consists of several chains of hills, most famous being the Trinity Hills. The rocks consist of sandstones, shales and siltstones and clays formed in the Miocene and uplifted in the Pleistocene. Oil sands and mud volcanoes are especially common in this area.

Although it is located just off-shore from South America, Trinidad and Tobago is often considered to be part of the North American continent by virtue of its being a Caribbean country.

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Cuisine ^*

The Cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago is indicative of the blends of Amerindian, European, African, Creole, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese gastronomic influences.

Fruits
Fruits available in Trinidad include mangoes (bastapool, belly-bef, calabash, cedar, cutlass, doudouce, Graham, ice-cream, Julie, long, pawpaw, Peter, rose, round, starch, teen, turpentine, vert, zab(r)ico), breadfruit, sorrel (roselle), passion fruit, watermelons, sapodillas, pommeracs (malay apple), guavas, Tahitian apple (golden apple), caimite (star apple), abiu, juicy five fingers (carambola), zaboca (avocado), pawpaw (papaya), chenette, bananas, pineapples, oranges, portugal or 'puttigal' (clementines of various genetic breeding), governor plum, West Indian (Barbadian) cherry, bananas (sikye, silk, Gros Michel, Lacatan), barbadine (granadilla), balata, soursop, cashews (the actual fruit), and coconuts (several varieties).

Breakfast dishes
Many dishes are popular choices for the morning meal in Trinidad and Tobago.

Hot Breakfasts - Sada roti with bodi (cowpeas), doubles, bake (a sweet, unleavened bread) and shark, fry bake (a fried bread like a Jonnycake), fried aloo (potato), roasted baigan (eggplant, aubergine or melongene), tomato choka (often served with roti), saltfish (dried and salted cod), buljol (saltfish with fresh peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and sometimes boiled eggs); black pudding with home-made coconut bread; fried accra (saltfish fritters); tannia cakes (fried dasheen cake) and boiled cassava with butter; fried fig (green banana) with saltfish; fried left-over provisions (root vegetables such as cassava and dasheen) with saltfish; fried corned beef with onions and tomatoes.
Cold Breakfasts - Various home-made breads, including roast bake, coconut bake, warm hops bread and New Zealand cheddar cheese; or the popular local biscuits (crackers), "Crix" with anything.

Lunch and dinner
A nationally well-known main dish of Trinidad and Tobago is curry chicken and roti. This dish was adopted from Indian roots, where other favourite local dishes include: curry crab, curry shrimp, curry duck, curry aloo (potato). These meals are often served with various rotis such as dalpuri, bus-up-shot, and of course sada. In addition, Trinidadians often add various pepper sauces to their meals, for example, "mother-in-law", as well as curry mango, chataigne (breadnut), channa, pumpkin, or mango kuchela.

Another very popular and nationally well-known dish with distinctly African roots is callaloo, a creamy and spicy side dish made of dasheen leaves, ochro or okra, crab, thyme, coconut milk and shado beni (from "chardon benit," French thistle or Fitweed) or bhandhanya or cilantro. Callaloo is often prepared with cornmeal coo coo, plantain (similar to a banana), cassava, sweet potatoes, and sometimes made with crab. Pelau, a rice-based dish, is a very popular dish in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as stewed chicken, breadfruit oil down, macaroni pie, pepperpot, ox-tails, among many others.

An array of fish can be bought at local merchants throughout Trinidad and Tobago, such as flying fish, king fish, carite, sapatay, red fish, bonito, lobster, conch and crab. Tobagonian food is dominated by a wide selection of seafood dishes, most notably, curried crab and dumplings, and Tobago is also known for its sumptuously prepared provisions, soups and stews, also known as blue food across the country.

A popular Trini dish is Macaroni Pie, a macaroni pasta bake, with eggs and cheese, and a variety of other potential ingredients according to which particular one of the many recipes you are following.

Another local dish includes the rare delicacy cascadu (cascadura),which is a small fresh water fish. There is a local legend in Trinidad that s/he who eats cascadu will return to Trinidad to end their days.

Street foods
Hot Street Foods: Popular freshly-prepared street foods include doubles, phulourie, bake and shark (particularly at a Maracas Bay, a popular beach on the North coast), corn soup, geera chicken and pork, raw oysters (usually where there is a lighted flambeau) with a spicy sweet/hot sauce mainly with culantro (chadon beni), saheena, kachorie, aloo (potato) pies, fish pies, cheese pies, beef pies (many Trinidadian neighbourhoods boast a local Pie-Man), and pows (steamed buns filled with meat, of Chinese origin, typically Char Siu Pork).

Cold Street Snacks: On hot days, locals enjoy souse, sno-cones (served in various colours, flavours and shapes, often with sweetened condensed milk), ice-pops, freezies, coconut slushies and fresh coconut jelly.

Beverages
There are many different popular beverages in Trinidad. These include, various sweet drinks (Chubby, Solo, Peardrax[2]), and also Malta, Smalta, Shandy, portugal juice, ginger beer, sorrel, mauby, seamoss punch, barbadine punch, and soursop punch.

Coconut water is found on almost every metre of the island. Rum was invented in the Caribbean, therefore Trinidad and Tobago boasts rum shops all over the island, serving local favourites such as ponche-de-creme, puncheon rum, and home-made wines from local fruits.

Culture ^*

Trinidad and Tobago is famous for its pre-Lenten Carnival. It is also the birthplace of calypso music and the steelpan, which is widely claimed to be the only acoustic musical instrument invented during the 20th century. The diverse cultural and religious background allows for many festivities and ceremonies throughout the year. Other indigenous art forms include soca (a derivate of calypso), Parang (Venezuelan-influenced Christmas music), chutney, and pichakaree (musical forms which blend the music of the Caribbean and India) and the famous Limbo dance.

The artistic scene is vibrant. Trinidad and Tobago claims two Nobel Prize-winning authors, V. S. Naipaul and St. Lucian-born Derek Walcott. Mas' designer Peter Minshall is renowned not only for his Carnival costumes, but also for his role in opening ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympics, the 1994 Football World Cup, the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics, for which he won an Emmy Award.

Transportation

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Languages English (official), Hindi, French, Spanish, Chinese

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Terrain Mostly plains with some hills and low mountains.

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History The islands came under British control in the 19th century; independence was granted in 1962. The country is one of the most prosperous in the Caribbean thanks largely to petroleum and natural gas production and processing. Tourism, mostly in Tobago, is targeted for expansion and is growing.

Ethnic Groups East Indian (a local term - primarily immigrants from northern India) 40.3%, black 39.5%, mixed 18.4%, white 0.6%, Chinese and other 1.2%

Religion Roman Catholic 29.4%, Hindu 23.8%, Anglican 10.9%, Muslim 5.8%, Presbyterian 3.4%, other 26.7%