On a well-known curve of street between fishing villages on the north coast of Tobago, I’ve the distinctive expertise of feeling hummingbird toes on my arms. I’m at Shurland James Hummingbird Nature Park, a fowl sanctuary with an alfresco café positioned close to the doorway to Foremost Ridge Forest Reserve, the world’s oldest protected tropical rainforest. My household is initially from Trinidad and Tobago, and I’ve visited my grandfather usually since he returned in retirement, however this was my first time exploring the rainforest.
Tobago, the smaller of the 2 islands—it’s solely seven and a half miles at its widest—has an abundance of dreamy, accessible shoreline. The water is tempting, however Tobago has striven to broaden its id to incorporate ecotourism and off-ocean actions. On my final go to, curious, I reached out to David Rajpaulsingh, an skilled information and the co-owner of Island Girl Tours. He urged a mellow rainforest trek.
We stopped on the hummingbird park and café, the place fowl feeders have helped repopulate the uncommon, endemic, iridescent green-tailed sabrewing hummingbird. After a rainforest-to-table lunch of fried native fish, rice, plantains, and callaloo, we drove into Foremost Ridge, which was put aside in 1776 for conservation functions. After I marveled on the vary of flora enveloping the street, Rajpaulsingh defined that, as a result of it has remained so untouched, the rainforest is a window onto the island’s unique biodiversity.
Subsequent got here the principle occasion: a two-hour hike on the reserve’s Gilpin Hint path. Above a trickling stream, a blue-backed manakin fowl, one of many 260 or so species discovered on Tobago, contrasted with the greenery. The route, lined with waterfalls, ended on the picturesque Bloody Bay seashore, the place I took a refreshing swim. It was simply us and the fishermen reeling within the day’s catch. As I processed this new expertise on an island I believed I knew so effectively, I understood much more why my grandfather had come dwelling.
This text appeared within the December 2024 problem of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the journal here.
