A Newly Built Lookout
The La Vigie Lookout in all its entirety atop the mountain top.
The La Vigie Lookout is a new lookout/ tourist attraction in the northern range of mountains of Trinidad that the government built in order to develop the jewel of a town called Paramin. This town is one of the quaintest and most charming mountain-top villages that one could find in Trinidad that is untouched by rampant industry, urbanization or air pollution. The air is chilly, pure and crisp as opposed to the rest of the country that is hot and humid and is an absolute pleasure for us Trinidadians to visit. It is much like a dream where the clouds are touchable and the people are all so friendly that they hail out every passing vehicle and when you speak to them for even more than a few minutes, they invite you to their homes for hearty meals! One time we visited, we left with huge bundles of green onions that some residents just harvested from their mountainside farm! Today we visit and explore the newly built lookout with its wooden decks and viewing galleries that is all free to visitors!
Our journey takes us through the north coast road that meanders through and into the Northern Range of mountains of Trinidad all the way to the sleepy Paramin. The above shot shows what the entrance looked like. As you can see from the first drone shot, we were literally on top of a relatively narrow peak of a mountaintop with steep drop offs on all sides except the one the road that lead to it was built on.
Upon entering the stone archway, we were immediately greeted by a choice of two pathways, one that lead to the left (as seen in the photo above) and up a hill as well as another on the right that seemed to lead to a lower deck. To the left we immediately saw the sign that was quite beautiful! There stairway with its classy wooden railings were such a nice touch!
Here is a closeup of the sign. One of the caretakers of the compound informed us the La Vigie literally means the lookout or the view in French and so they did not want to put "The Lookout Lookout" and so put La Vigie then "Paramin Lookout" instead. I would have just left it as La Vigie though!
We decided to ascend the stairway first as it seemed most beautiful and more interesting than the other. The above shot shows what we saw at the top, the first gallery or gazebo labelled Deck A by a large green sign.
The view from viewing deck A was phenomenal as you could not only see the northern ocean but the length of the western coastline, the eastern north coast as well as some towns located in the valley over!
If you look closely, you can see the valley between the mountains in the distance. It was quite amazing as I was not aware that this town called Diego Martin was visible from here! That meant that we were extremely high up as when one is in Diego Martin, the Mountains that surround you are really high so imagine how high we were to see over those!
This other angle is the view from Deck A towards the east where you could see the ocean as well as small islands as well as the rest of the coastline that ran all the way east.
This is a drone shot of Viewing Deck A as well as a better view of the coastline I was speaking about! While we were still taking in the beautiful view that Deck A allowed, a raincloud, YES a literal rain cloud came and enveloped the whole lookout! It was surreal how the whole place went from colorful and vibrant to grey and moody!
Look at that immediate difference in view and mood! This was so awesome! we could no longer see the mountains or the coastline or the ocean in the distance, visibility was zero! We knew it would not last long so I decided to take some moody shots before it become colorful and vibrant once again.
Looking back at the stairway we walked up to get here, we saw a spooky misty forest that looked like it was taken in Europe somewhere, a complete change from what it was before, a bunch of tropical trees with open sky!
These are the two quick portrait shots I took of my friend before the sun and its colorful vibrance came back. This was honestly my favorite shots of the whole trip as I was not expecting to get these kind of moody shots on a tropical island like Trinidad! I have not and may never get these lighting conditions again in this part of the world so I was glad to have seized the chance.
Just infront the entrance to Viewing Deck A was this little shed with nice concrete benches amidst the shade of trees. There was spaces for portable stoves and grills. If one thing Trinidadian people love to cook out especially when we visit the beaches or the rivers and so here would also be an area for cooking and having a great time with the family!
After the cloud had passed, we descended another wooden railed stairway that was, this time complemented with ropes to a pathway that lead either to Viewing Deck B or C. Since it was closest, we went with viewing deck B (as seen on the the left side of the above picture). Look at the the dramatic difference in color and vibrance once the cloud had passed by the way!
Deck B was one of the open top ones with no roof and it felt like you had a truly full, all encompassing and immersive view of that gave you the best of what Paramin had to offer! You can also see viewing deck C on the right side which is the larger open viewing deck of the two
This is the view of what we saw while standing on deck B facing the east. You can see the Maracas peninsula as well as pieces of the hidden Paragrant Bay, a not well known beach I did a blog on recently! Deck C can be seen on the right hand side.
This is the of what we saw straight head. There was this little island that looked so perfectly round and domed shaped! The lush greenery of the verdant peninsula that extended from beneath us towards the ocean is what you see ahead as well.
We could also see viewing deck A from here as well a it was a just a little lower and and protruded a little more.
Here is a telephoto view of the peninsula of Maracas from viewing deck B.
Viewing deck C was next that provided a view similar to that of viewing deck B but also a great view of Paramin itself and all of its amazing mountain sides and roads that meander between them.
You would have noticed that viewing deck C was the largest and most populated at the time! All the others were empty except for this one! THe views were mostly the same as deck B so I won't bore you with those except for that of the view of the mountains and that of Paramin's roads and buildings that can be seen above!
While here we also managed to capture a shot of the inter island ferry (between Trinidad and Tobago) which is usually huge but we were so far up and far away it looked like a little spec with an 85mm lens!
Last but not at all least, was the larger of the two covered viewing decks. This one did not even have an assigned letter and just had a sign written "Viewing Deck" which was quite funny to me!
The views from this gazebo or deck was my utmost favorite as one could see all of Paramin, the ocean as well as All of the eastern side's worth of the Northern Range of mountains as far as the eye could manage to see! It was quite magical and quite seldom that Trinidadians get to see their country like this!
I was quite glad the low clouds that would have blocked our view had passed and allowed us a panoramic view for as far as the eyes could see! Imagine if we had arrived there and it was cloudy and misty the whole time!
This was the other view where you can see the peninsula in the background. In the mid ground, you can see the Paramin road as well as some houses as well as some other patrons who could not be controlled being in the shot.
The above photo shows the pathway just as you exit the last viewing deck that leads strait to the where we entered from the carpark. We decided, as it was getting late, that it was time to leave.
The experience was amazing and quite new as well as thrilling! We got to be inside of a cloud as it passed into the mountain top, changing the mood and feel of the surroundings as it did so. We also got to see Trinidad as not many have seen before! This was so unforgettable and it was awesome to have you along with us! Thanks so much for reading, cheers!