Snorkelling advice in Trinidad?

Hi folks,

What's worse than missing that great business trip in a diving destination like Trinidad (the main island of the Trinidad & Tobago country, few miles aways from Venezuela)?

Well there's getting on the trip, but having no time for even a single dive there....

However i might have 2-4 hours private time to go snorkelling on Wednesday early morning (i've brought my Oly OM-D EM-5, its Nauti housing, and a Sola 600 light, just in case...).

Question to you: could you please advise where i should go for that snorkelling?

Knowing my hotel will be just next to Piarco airport.

Hope somebody has tips, as i understood the beaches in Tobago have very diverse quality.

cheers

Nicolas

I thought i'd share my experience after having been there.

The best place to be would be, according to locals, the Tobago island, where you do have nice reefs and clear water. The Speyside beach came highly recommended (more than some other spots that got famous after Cousteau, but degradated since then).

If you're stuck in Trinidad like me, well there's a part of the coast covered with mangroves that is a bit special (i did snorkel mangrove in Bali and liked it though).

My free time was very limited, but i went to some of the northern beaches:

1/ Maracas Bay.

Quite a large & beautiful beach, with a fishing village on the rocky west side. That's the place which came recommended for snorkelling as you could see baby sharks there.

Wheather was bad so i had terrible viz and not sufficient time to properly investigate, but there's probably some potential.

One thing to note is they serve "bake'n'shark" (shark burgers) on that beach, and you can see the reminders of shark heads on the beach, they attract the local vultures, plus quite a few pelicans.

I was sad to see one baby hammerhead's head in particular... But at least the locals are eating the whole fish, not just taking fins.

2/ Las Cuevas Bay

Beautiful beach, and here the rocky side + fishing village is on the eastern side.

On this one i spent more time snorkelling, but even going ~200/300 meters, you don't get much depth (3 meters max), and the viz was also terrible (due to weather? i don't know).

Underwater i saw small black fishes and sponges, i'll see if i have any decent picutre, doubt it.

3/ Blanchisseuse Bay

Litterally means "laundry lady" in French, i let you guess the sea conditions then - i haven't been there.

That's it for my very limited exploration (4 hours).

Bottom-line: if you're in Trinidad, it's recommended to take the cheap flights to Tobago (20+ flights daily, 25mins distance, 48 USD round-trip).

cheers

Nicolas

Don't bother. Anywhere you can get to in that short a time will result in you swimming in a slurry from the Orinoco and sewage from POS. You might get lucky and find an oil spill too. Did I forget to mention the styrofoam eddies?

On the other hand if you canfly to Tobago get someone to take you out to the Buccoo reef. You will like it there.

Thanks TQA, good to know it's not worth exploring too much in Trinidad.

I thought i'd share my experience after having been there.

 

The best place to be would be, according to locals, the Tobago island, where you do have nice reefs and clear water. The Speyside beach came highly recommended (more than some other spots that got famous after Cousteau, but degradated since then).

 

If you're stuck in Trinidad like me, well there's a part of the coast covered with mangroves that is a bit special (i did snorkel mangrove in Bali and liked it though).

My free time was very limited, but i went to some of the northern beaches:

 

1/ Maracas Bay.

Quite a large & beautiful beach, with a fishing village on the rocky west side. That's the place which came recommended for snorkelling as you could see baby sharks there.

Wheather was bad so i had terrible viz and not sufficient time to properly investigate, but there's probably some potential.

One thing to note is they serve "bake'n'shark" (shark burgers) on that beach, and you can see the reminders of shark heads on the beach,

 

I think it's called 'Shark-n-Bake'. RIchard's Shark-n-Bake was one of Andrew Zimmerman's all time top 10. (

)

 

I tried a couple, and I hate fish!

 

I spent a month working in Trinidad (2009) and traveled around the island. There was no diving them, so I flew to Tobago one weekend and dove there. Trinidad is not like a Caribbean island at all. Instead, it's more of a piece of the mainland that broke off. Tobago is your typical Caribbean Island though.

 

On Trinidad, you absolutely must go out to the various street vendors and try the 'doubles'. You can put on a lot of weight eating in Trinidad - as long as you don't want hamburgers. I never saw a burger joint, but there were chicken places two to a block.