Amazonia: Our Adventure up the Marieanne River

Last week we got up nice an early, as always, to head up the top coast of Trinidad to Blanchisseuse Bay, which is past Las Cuevas, and is the last bay N.W. of the island that is accessible via car. Our aim was to head to the beach to explore, have lunch, and then begin our swim/walk up the Marieanne River, not far for from Blanchisseuse Bay. The sea at this bay, on a normal day, is somewhat too choppy and the day we visited the weather was quite bad, so we spent most of our time in the fresh water river close by, which is actually the end of Marieanne River, but not where we started our walk! The freshwater part of the bay was really weird because after about two or three paces in, the ground became slimy and warm! A bit too weird for some of the team members. Chloe and Emma decided to use Liam as a life craft. It had also been raining since we arrived at the beach which was a bit down heartening but we ignored it, and had a fun game of red rover.

We parked the cars, just before a rickety suspension bridge crossing, which looked rather daunting, and began our journey (our next adventure would entail crossing this bridge, eeeks). Leaving most things behind; taking only waterproof cameras and a small collection tub, for possible findings of cool and interesting creatures to show you guys! Chloe used this tub as a floating device, pushed up the back of her top. Sadly we did not find any cool creatures, or at least any we could catch ahahaha...But we did get lots of nice photos of nature (below).

There were 1-2 groups of others heading in the same direction, but we seemed to be the only ones that took the more ‘non-tourist like’ route, and jumped straight into the river, with others taking the trail alongside the river – it’s way more fun in the water!!! The water was very cool, and quite clear, and it is lots of fun alternating between walking, climbing and swimming... And the weather slowly perked up as we walked becoming a nice sunny day

At the start of the river, there was a little pile of rocks, about 40cm high; all stacked up on top of each other very nicely. So our team added their own little rock, for Chris then to knock the entire pile over, causing us all to believe he was now cursed ahahaha, which later turned out to be true, as he nearly lost his glasses after jumping off a huge rock.

It took us approx. 1-1.5 hours to walk up as much as the river as we could. As mentioned, on the way up the river, we alternated between walking and swimming as some parts were quite deep, there was one particular stretch which was really hard because of the strength of the current. We continued up before reaching a section, which for our team, was not accessible further than this point. However this point was beautiful, with lots of canopy cover, insects flying past, (e.g. dragonflies, damselflies, and beautiful Blue Morpho butterflies) water rushing down small waterfalls, which we all had a slide down (with a local advising us about a big hidden rock, beneath the water), and all the time the sun shining down from above. The little waterfall we reached, which the team last year had visited, had jumble of rocks on the right hand side to climb up so you could go down the waterfall which was worn by years of flow so it was as smooth as a slide. FUN!

We also found this amazing, very large, fallen tree hanging over the river. The minute we saw it, we knew it was a photo opportunity for the team. However, with Mhairi unable to get up onto the slippery log, she took the team photo (below). After the photo, one or two of us were a bit unsure about jumping from the log into the river, but with some encouragement, we all managed to jump off safely back into the water to continue onto our next fun bit; jumping from a really high rock, though not all of the team took part in this event ahahaha. The brave ones were Liam, Chloe, Martin and Chris (photos below).

Whilst in this little pool of water, and with team members jumping from every rock possible, we came across Trinidad’s largest tree-frog – The Gladiator tree-frog (Hyla boans). The frog was clinging onto the side of a rock, until we got too close, to which he swam off in the other direction (quite an impressive swimmer, as the river current was strong). Chris was happy to see this species, as he had not done so since being on the island. Last year, Gillian left the island with only managing to see some individuals from a distance, and her aim this year was to see more up close and personal, so from experience she didn’t want anyone leaving Trinidad without seeing this amazing frog (thankfully Gillian has now seen plenty of Hyla boans, due to her continuous excursions to Lopinot stream, to collect Cane toads for Becky’s project; Hyla boans are quite abundant in this area).

After a while liming (local word for hanging out), we decided to head back down the river, before the sun started going down (we didn’t want to be in the river when it was dark, due to water snakes and other creatures lurking, waiting for darkness to fall). On the way back, most of the team had fun skimming stones. Chris is confident he got the most skims, with an impressive 7, sadly for him, no one saw this and so we do question his skills ahahaha. Finally we reached the cars, soaked to our bones and extremely hungry = home time!!

As we drove back home, we passed Las Cuevas bay and so decided to stop for a dip in the sea and a small snack before diner. However, only 3 of us (Gillian, Chris and Marie) actually got in the sea, as the others were expressing that they were too cold for a swim in the warm sea - what, in this weather? Ahahaha, but I guess we had been in water for quite a while, and Trinidad can be windy at times...So after a short stop at Las Cuevas, we headed home for a well deserved rest. Sadly empty handed (last year we discovered some amazing caterpillars) but plenty of photos to remind us of our adventure (below).