Tobago
Tobago is the smallest of the sisters and lies around 30 km northeast of Trinidad, facing the Atlantic Ocean. It is a long island, stretching from northeast to southwest over a length of some forty kilometers. At its widest, it is about 13 kilometers long. Its total surface area is around 300 km².
Tobago is a mountainous island with numerous small coves and sandy, forested beaches. The center of the island is occupied by a small mountain range culminating at 640 m, at Pic du Pigeon, which can be easily climbed with a local guide. A superb primary forest, one of the oldest in the Caribbean, covers four-tenths of the territory and offers walking and bird-watching enthusiasts a real treat. To the north and south, the primary forest is bordered by valleys that are often lush and fertile, allowing for reasoned and often "organic" agriculture.
Tobago's coastline is very indented and offers many surprises for lovers of beautiful beaches, aquatic walks and diving. Near Speyside, in the north-east, there are several small satellite islands, the largest of which is Little Tobago, covering some 120 hectares. The surrounding seabed is as jagged as the coastline, and extremely rich in fish, thanks in part to the silt-laden current from the Orinoco, whose delta emerges some 100 km south of Tobago.
Trinidad
Trinidad's relatively recent separation from the mainland has given it a fauna and flora very similar to those found in the subtropical regions of South America, much more so than in the rest of the West Indies. Add to this the formation of a mountainous relief in the north of the island, as a result of tectonic movements in the region, and the abundance of the water network that covers the island, and the result is a very wide range of biotopes, from primary rainforests and those in mountainous areas to swamps, different types of secondary forests, savannah landscapes on the plains and large areas of mangroves on the coasts.
The oil windfall enjoyed by Trinidad, one of the world's top 50 producers of black gold, has indirectly helped to conserve the island's biotopes by curbing the development of agriculture, which has been steadily declining since the mid-20th century, when the British company Dominion Oil Limited discovered the island's largest oil reserves.
Trinidad is crossed by three mountain ranges that are a continuation of Venezuela's Cordillera Coastal. The northern range, known as the Cordillera Septentrional, is an offshoot of the Andes and consists of steep mountains running parallel to the north coast, crossing the island from one side to the other. These include Trinidad's two highest peaks, Cerro de Aripo (940 m) and El Tucuche, just a little lower (936 m).
Further south lies the fertile Caroni plain, well irrigated thanks in particular to the river of the same name that runs through it, and where most of Trinidad's sugarcane is grown today.
Continuing southwards, we find the CentralRange, made up more of hills than mountains, culminating at 307 m in Mount Tamana, home to the famous caves of the same name, home to tens of thousands of bats. Its undulating terrain stretches from the wooded hills of Montserrat in the north of San Fernando to Manzanilla Bay in the east of the island. To the south of the central range, the landscape evolves in undulating relief towards the Nariva plains to the southeast and the Naparima plain to the southwest, which ends in a large, rich marshland as does the Caroni plain to the northeast.
The Trinidad hills are the last relief to be encountered as you continue south, just before reaching the sea, facing the South American continent with a view of the Orinoco Delta.
It is this great Venezuelan river that gives Trinidad & Tobago a unique underwater feature in the West Indies. Its powerful current, which flows up the Gulf of Paria and along the entire east coast of Trinidad, crossing the channel that separates it from Tobago and surrounding the latter, drains numerous nutrients that the prey of pelagic species are fond of, attracting the latter close to the coast. As a result, the waters of Trinidad, like those of Tobago, are rich in manta rays and often see the passage of whale sharks, the Grail of many divers, as well as various other species of shark not usually seen. For example, five of the ten species of hammerhead shark known to date can be found in Trinidad and Tobago waters, to the delight of nature lovers and divers alike.
Over the millennia, the northern and central mountain ranges, which have a strong limestone component, have been carved out by erosion under the action of the many rivers that criss-cross the island. This has led to the existence of numerous caves and caverns, often linked in networks. These caves are often home to specific fauna, particularly bats in their millions. The most famous caves are those of Aripo and Tamana. The geology of the south and east of the country is characterized by the presence of large oil and bituminous deposits. Two geological curiosities are particularly noteworthy in this part of the island: the presence of numerous mud volcanoes and one of the world's largest natural asphalt lakes, Pitch Lake, south of San Fernando, which can be visited on organized tours. Mud volcanoes are cone-shaped sedimentary edifices of varying sizes. They are characterized by a mixture of fluids (usually water and gas) and mud (under-compacted clays), which flows from one or more vents in the middle of the crater. Like their magmatic counterparts, mud volcanoes are prone to eruption. Mud volcanoes are associated with gas escapes (mainly methane) that form bubbles on the crater surface and can sometimes ignite on contact with air.
