Filled with Flora and Fauna!
The Bush Bush Wildlife sanctuary is located within Trinidad’s largest freshwater wetland called the Nariva Swamp which is located on the mid eastern coast of the island. It’s home to ancient giant trees, endangered animals and so many amazing things along the way that made the experience so unique. It’s certainly an underrated experience being able to see white capuchins and red howler monkeys right in front of you as well as other animals! We headed to Kernaham Village located adjacent to the sanctuary where I met our tour guide Nigel Harripersad of Dynamic Nature Adventures for the tour through the seldom seen protected Ramsar site of importance.
The area is protected by law and our guide needed to be in possession of a permit to be able to even enter as well as to be additionally able to conduct tours with a certain amount of people. This sort of made the experience feel so much more exclusive. If you can read the sign you can see that a permit is needed for entry as well as some brief information of the endangered and protected animals that you may find in the area! We ended up seeing 3 of the four luckily enough!
Just for some establishing shots, you can see some aerial views of the wetland above and its proximity to the ocean on the east coast. You can see a large patche of dark green elevated trees, this is where the trail of the sanctuary takes you into that is dry and walkable. It is much like a forested hike.
You can see Nigel, our tour guide in purple in the shot above at the beginning of the trail. You can get an idea of how the trail feels here but as we go along, you will see that it gets more dense. It was early morning and the sun had just risen giving way to magical golden patches of sunlight filtering in through the canopies, foreshadowing the enthralling nature of the hike to come!
The first attraction and photo op we came to was not far into the trail. It was a naturally formed curtain of vines that draped perfectly over the trail almost as if hung by a rod! We were not a few minutes walk in and already there were amazing things to see! The camera did no justice on how tall this was but I hop it does some in a way of conveying the scale.
Heralded by their guttural growls from afar the red howler monkeys made their presence known before we could even lay eyes on them! Eventually as we were walking along, I caught a glimpse of red fur moving amongst the branches then I saw some eyes staring at us! As you can see from the photos above they sit and observe from a far and they got so quiet when we were close. It was very majestic to see them moving across branches silently and smoothly.
The white capuchins also made an appearance and as I was told they are hardly seen these days in the sanctuary for some reason. These guys were just as observant but less caring if they were seen or not. They literally were breaking branches and dropping them on us and seemed to be more interactive! Compared to the red howlers, they were definitely more bold and prominent.
Nigel was extremely knowledgeable of not just the fauna but also the fauna and wasted no time in explaining their names as their herbal uses as well which I found extremely fascinating! He pointed to a cocorite palm tree that was engulfed by what he called a parasitic strangler fig. He explained that the fig kills the palm and that's why eventually you will see that the stranger fig has a hollow trunk where the palm used to be! You can see a palm smothered by a fig in the left side of the photo above.
This shot above was of the natural viagra tree used for you know what! As you can see the bark is mostly stripped on its lower trunk for its use.
Next up was the incense tree. On its bark was a white substance he scraped off and he explained that it could be used as a natural deodorant as well as an ingredient to make soaps and candles. We got to smell the bark and it was quite fragrant and pleasant!
The forested trail got deeper as we went along seemed to get more magical as we did with amazing crepuscular rays filtering in here and there through the thick foliage. Nigel definitely knew this trail better than the back of his hand and there were areas where I did not see a trail at all and he just seemed to be at home!
Here he is showing us a plant that bats tend to interact with for food and so on. He explained that when you see them on the forest floor that the bats would have caused this but also that one should be extremely careful as Mapepire snakes could most likely be under it. These snakes a dangerously venomous especially during mating season which happened to be the time we were there!
The first of the giant trees we encountered was Sandbox tree identified with its trunk being covered in spikes which is why in some places it's called the "monkey no climb tree". These trees were so tall but I could not easily convey this with photography due to the canopies and so on but you can get a sense of scale with Nigel near it.
Even more larger and taller was the Cannonball tree that we could smell from meters away! It is characterised by its trunk being covered in its canoncall like fruits and red highly fragrant flowers that smell like a pungent lotion of sorts. The camera did no justice of its size and scale nor can I accurately convey its smell but just know that it was amazing!
He informed us that the monkeys would intelligently drop the canonball fruits on the forest floor from a height that would crack it open then leave it for insects to gather upon it. They would then feast on the said insects which I found so interesting!
In the two shots above there was a porcupine that we could also smell from a mile away. This time he was not as fragrant as the cannonball flowers but a musky sort of animal smell. I didn't even know that porcupines smell so high! The first wider angle photo was our view of the trees above what was amazing was Nigel spotting the porcupine with his naked eye and it took me ages to see what he was pointing at! (You can see the porcupine in the first image by the way, he's in the middle right of the photo).
Another giant tree we came across was the Wild Chataigne with its peculiar roots and dark brownish red bark. You can see it extend up far above the canopies where it disappears. Believe it or not we have even larger trees coming up!
We came to an area along the trail where there were alot of the plants you see above. There was a natural swing made of thick vines that was another photo opportunity. It was fun to sit in it and swing while taking in the all engulfing sound of the forest. The sunlight filtered in magically just on the swing itself as you can see in the photo above like a studio light making the photos look so perfect!
Here is the largest of the trees, and the largest sandbox tree. It was so huge that I thought one of the roots on the forest floor was a fallen log of a large tree! The camera does no justice once again but this thing is mind bogglingly huge and it trunk was covered with those spikes I show cased with the first sandbox tree.
Last on the trail but certainly not least was the largest Ficus in Trinidad! There were these large expansive ribbon like roots that were so huge and pervasive! You can get a sense of scale of how huge this thing was with the first image with Nigel standing at the side. This was by far my favorite tree of all the others because of the roots itself! There were some bats living on its trunk as well.
You can get a sense of scale with Nigel standing amidst and atop the ribbon like roots, the likes of which I had never seen anywhere else before in Trinidad! If you know me, you'd know that I've visited many places all over the the Twin island Republic! The sand beige color of the roots were so unique as well and stood out vibrantly from the rest of the forest compared to the other giants that seemed to blend in!
Bush Bush Wildlife sanctuary is an exciting and underrated experience with amazing flora and enthralling fauna that literally come out to meet you! This was my first time seeing both species of monkeys so raw and up close as well as the other animals. The colossal trees were just mind boggling and I was not even aware we had these in Trinidad! I hope you enjoyed the coming along on the tour. Thanks for accompanying us, Cheers!