Trinidad Music and Nature: Soca Carnival, Panorama Pan Competition, Asa Wright Birding, and the Scarlet Ibis Roost
The music and nature of Trinidad and Tobago combine the energetic soca carnival and Panorama steel band competition with the world-class Asa Wright birding destination in the Northern Range and the spectacular scarlet ibis evening roost in the Caroni Swamp sanctuary.
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Calypso and Soca: The Music of Trinidad
Calypso, the socially satirical music tradition of Trinidad that emerged from the chantwells of the 19th century carnival and that produced the iconic recordings of Lord Kitchener, Mighty Sparrow, and David Rudder, is the foundation on which soca, the fast tempo dance music variant created in the 1970s by Lord Shorty, was built. The soca music that drives the Trinidad Carnival is the most energetically choreographed and musically complex popular dance music tradition in the Caribbean.
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Panorama: The Steel Band Competition
The Panorama competition, held on the Saturday before Carnival at the Queen's Park Savannah, is the culmination of the pan yard rehearsal season and the most important single event in the Trinidad musical calendar, in which the major steel orchestras of more than 100 panists compete in a performance lasting 15 minutes. The Panorama competition is the most concentrated display of musical talent available at a single event in the Caribbean.
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Chutney and Indian Trinidad
Chutney soca, the music genre that combines the East Indian folk music of the Hindu community with the soca rhythms of the Afro-Trinidadian tradition, is the musical expression of the Indian Trinidadian community that constitutes approximately 40 percent of the population and that arrived as indentured laborers from 1845 to 1917 to replace the enslaved African workers on the sugar estates. The Indian cultural heritage of Trinidad, including the Divali festival and the Holi Phagwa celebration, creates a distinctively multicultural Caribbean society.
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Asa Wright Nature Centre: Birding Paradise
The Asa Wright Nature Centre in the Arima Valley on the slopes of the Northern Range, 40 kilometers from Port of Spain, is the most internationally recognized birding destination in the Caribbean, with more than 400 species recorded on the estate including the oilbird, the only cave-nesting nocturnal frugivore in the world, and the hummingbird species including the copper-rumped hummingbird that feed at the centre's open verandah bird feeders.
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Pitch Lake: The Natural Asphalt Reserve
The Pitch Lake at La Brea on the southwest coast of Trinidad, the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world covering approximately 40 hectares and used by Sir Walter Raleigh to caulk his ships in 1595, is one of the most extraordinary geological features in the Americas and the source of the asphalt that was used to pave roads throughout North America and Europe in the early 20th century. The lake surface, which is sufficiently solid to walk on in most areas, slowly circulates and renews itself.
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Caroni Bird Sanctuary: The Scarlet Ibis Roost
The Caroni Swamp national wildlife sanctuary south of Port of Spain, accessible by flat-bottomed boat tours from the sanctuary entrance, is the habitat of the scarlet ibis, the national bird of Trinidad, whose evening roost in the mangrove trees of the Caroni Lagoon creates one of the most spectacular wildlife spectacles in the Caribbean as the bright red birds fill the green mangrove canopy in the golden hour light.