Trinidad: Lakes filled with water? How boring.

Have you ever heard of a Pitch Lake? Nope, neither had I. Here’s a little historical/science knowledge for you then. The Pitch Lake is an enormous natural deposit of natural asphalt bubbling and building its way from the Earth’s core. Imagine this, in Trinidad, an insanely tiny island which I didn't think I would ever go to, is the world’s largest pitch lake! And that was one of our day trips during our visit to Trini and Tobago a few summers ago. 

After walking for a few minutes on worn paths and through tall grasses, the Pitch Lake began to appear. The area seemed more like an enormous playground black top than a lake, but nobody planning on living through the experience would try and play kick ball on it. There were areas that were completely liquid, and insanely dangerous. Our guide told us the story of a local farmer’s cow who wandered onto the Pitch Lake at night and accidently walked into one of the areas of fresh pitch and was swallowed alive. We had to be careful. Most of the lake was hardened, or hard enough to keep us from plunging into the Earth’s core, though we do have pictures of depressions our flip flips made in some areas of softer pitch. It was absolutely sweltering hot, but I can’t remember if it was humid or just dry. It felt like I was frying in a cast iron skillet. Wow, there’s so many great similes I could use under that comparison…

A few times through the tour, the guide took a long wooden rod and pulled up fresh, liquid, pitch from the open areas of the lake. It looked a bit like melted chocolate, or pancake batter if you let it ooze from your spatula to the pan. 

At one point a group from a local girl’s school walked past, we made room for them, waiting on the edge of a path. The girls walked one in front of the other and were probably only 10 or 11. As they walked past, every one of them said hello to us, complete strangers, happily and politely. They didn't look up when they greeted us, but kept their heads down and smiled. At home, a group of children on a field trip would never be walking in a straight line, more like a huge clump washing through an area. Second, children are taught to be weary of strangers, especially adults, and never address them. In Trinidad it was the opposite, and seemed natural and expected. Just an interesting cultural difference. 

The Pitch Lake was a really neat experience…much cooler than posing stiffly in front of some monument somewhere. Not to say that we haven’t done our fair share of that though!