As I mentioned before, I decided to go visit one of Trinidad's many waterfalls on my off day today...
Labor Day. One of the most talked about is Maracas Falls. I've mentioned earlier one of the most popular beaches on the island is
Maracas Beach which is a drop dead gorgeous beach. Well Maracas Falls has basically nothing whatever to do with Maracas Beach. The only way to get to the beach from the water falls is come back through Port of Spain. As I have come to expect, the drive started out with some pretty good road but eventually degenerated into "Am I still on a road?" mode. After a couple of wrong turns and getting vaguely lost and "Oh of course we can get my car and your truck past each other on this one lane road" moments, I eventually got to the trail head for the walk to the waterfalls.
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The hike is one of the tougher ones I've done including sections negotiating your way through some large wet rocks. The trail is wet both because it is the rainy season but also because there are small springs and watefalls along the way.
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But after a mile or so of trail, some sections rougher and hillier than others, you catch your first glimpse of the waterfall. In this picture you can just see the top of the waterfall among the tree tops. Given the terrain, it is clearlyquite a tall waterfall.
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Once you finally get into the open you can start to appreciate just how tall this waterfall is... about 200 feet. It isn't that great a waterfall if all you care about is a massive amount of water. It is clearly no Niagara. Still it is a very setting a very pleasant sight to see.
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| There is not a large pool at the bottom but there is a large open area and several folks seemed to be making a day of it there. At least until it started raining...
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