An Integral Part of Trinidad's History!

Today we head to a restored estate colonial cocoa estate turned into a historical museum and heritage park called the Lopinot Historical Complex! Charles Joseph de Loppinot de la Fresilliere was a French count who came to Trinidad in 1800 and was given 478 acres of land by the King of England. He used the land to establish a cocoa estate run by slave labour which the museum is all about. There is so much deep history in this location alone and a lot of heavy Trinidadian cultural influences from the town that was built around this estate! We also explore the history and origins of Trinidad's quintessential Christmas music called "Parang"!

The estate which was once called La Reconnaissance by the French count is nestled in the Lopinot valley, a scenic and lush but small and sleepy town. There is a playing field that is next to the complex that the residents use to host their sports days and town games. The estate and museum is the main attraction in the town except during Christmas when there are huge fairs with lots of food and drinks with the main event being a "Parang Concert and Competition". Parang is the Christmas music of Trinidad and Tobago and was invented here as you will see in a bit from the museum. I can't stress enough how much Parang means Christmas on the island!

We arrived, parked the car and walked to the entrance that involved a nice paved walkway with palm trees on the left and huge immortelle trees on the right. Immortelle trees are known for their gargantuan canopies that cover vast distances and as you can see, the whole area was shaded! As we walked in, the colonial archaic estate house peaked from behind the trunk of the immortelle and a hill that was braced with ancient looking bricks that formed a beautiful retaining wall. Some parts of the brick wall was covered with green leaves that looked so beautiful!

Remember that I mentioned Parang music? This is so ingrained in the history of the town. There is a nice "Parang Band" display with wooden visages of men dressed in green shirts playing small guitars called "quatros" named after their only four strings. The guy in the back has a violin and the one in the middle who is most animated in a parang band plays the maracas or as we call them, the "shack shacks". Even though Trinidad is an english speaking country, Parang is sung in spanish. This is due it originating via the spanish speaking native amerindians, the town being populated by their descendents now mixed with african, mestizo and pardo heritages! If you want to hear what it sounds like, this ONE is quite popular!

Here is a better view of the main estate house itself with its French styled architecture. THe white walls, brown highlights and yellow window shutters and balusters is very apt for the chocolate it is much associated with as this was a cocoa estate back in the day. I just loved how the the whole area was under the covering of just one or two immortelle trees that rendered a magical and serene feeling while touring the estate!

Here are some better front views of the estate house! The legend goes that at night you can see the ghost of the French Count roaming the house and even more so when it was raining. When we were primary school students, as do most schools, field trips were taken to this historical place and the first thing the guides tell the visiting classes was this! Some would swear that they saw the ghost and that the whole park was haunted with its dark and shady visage!

Next up were the jail and cocoa houses. The jail is the in the foreground while the cocoa house is in the background where the cocoa was stored, dried and danced! Dancing the cocoa is the way the slaves would jump and step around on the beans to remove the outer layers to prepare it for the next steps of the processing.

This is a better view of the cocoa house at the back of the jail house. The top part with the peaked roof is used to sun and dance the cocoa.

This is the back view of the jail house that is now used as part of the museum to store and showcase the artifacts found from the Enslaved Africans and indentured Indians who worked at La Reconnaissance and the settled around the Estate. You can see the thick black bars in the windows that kept the slaves in during punishment.

Here is a view of the side of the jailhouse with on the top doors open where the coco is stored.

We managed to be there when the caretaker of the now historical complex was milling around and he managed to give us an interview and explain a lot of the photos and artefacts in the museum, information that was not available to the open public! Now you get to hear about it!

This is the view of the jail cell bars from the inside as the morning sun shone through them in a sort of oxymoron kind of way.

You can see the the caretaker pointing to a photo here of the estate house when it was in its original condition before it was restored and renovated. He explained that it was restored a good many times before the estate was made into a historical complex and then a few times thereafter as well.

Next he pointed to a photo of a church which he explained was originally located in a town a good few miles away but was actually, by hand, taken a part, transported and rebuilt here on the estate! I found that extremely fascinating and to be quite the feat for 19th century slaves and indentured laborers!

We then turned to the other side of the room where photos of old men were hung in a line. These were the legendary Paranderos (people who belonged to a parang band and sung parang). Each one of them had their story. These were people who played a hand in the invention and pioneering of the genre of music, making their instruments by hand.

Next he singled out a photo and said it was of "Papa Guhn" also known as Pedro Segundo Dolabaille. He was a cocoa expert in his time but more feverently, a Parandero who was known as the parang King in Lopinot and by extension, Trinidad and Tobago!

Next he pointed to the instruments on the wall which were all made by hand in Lopinot except for the violin. You can see a few of the different types of quatros used in a parang band, all lending their beautiful sounds to the cheerful folk music that has come to be known as Christmas as sound incarnate all over the Caribbean island!

There were other artifacts on in the jail house from the african slaves that were quite creepy and weird at times but so interesting! There was an effigy made of coconut husks, some wooden chain links that was expertly crafted from one piece of wood as well as somn indigenous bottled and preserved snakes, the purpose of which were not explained to us!

Next we visited the side of the estate house where there was a dirt oven which was known as the village dirt oven. This is no longer used but was once used to make daily bread, special treats and christmas ham for the villagers/ estate workers! People say that bread baked in a dirt oven has an amazing taste due to the smoky wood and clay walls. This has become a thing of the past but there are places that have been opening up that sell dirt oven bread just for this reason!

The Lopinot Estate, even though people claim it is haunted, has some of the most deep rooted and fascinating histories on the island and this little sleepy town has had huge influences on the whole island including the integral parang music! Every Trinidadian child in elementary school has been on a field trip here and even though the town is small, it has a huge significance in our hearts! Thanks for coming along, Cheers!