PITCH LAKE

Anyone who has looked at the local tourist brochures or talked to Trinidadians will agree that the bizarre geological singularity of Pitch Lake - the asphalt lake located in La Brea, a small village about 20 km south of San Fernando - is such a source of pride for all of Trinidad that many of its inhabitants do not hesitate to declare it the eighth wonder of the world. However, the famous lake has all the appearance of an old crusty tarmac that would smell like tar under the lead of a summer heat and unless you have a passion for geology, you are rather bluffed, even a little disappointed by this singularly unwelcoming place. But the site is indeed curious, at the limit of the improbable. A walk in the footsteps of an official guide - especially not to deviate from it, certain parts of the lake are moving, and one can sink into it - allows to approach more closely the reality of this asphalt expanse, already known and feared in the pre-Columbian era. The Amerindian legends report that, in a crazy arrogance, the chief of a Carib tribe captured and killed the sacred hummingbird. The gods took their revenge by throwing the whole tribe into the depths of black and viscous fluids. Still, the telluric movements that agitate this big pot of bitumen periodically send back to the surface pieces of wood and Amerindian handicrafts. (Some of these can be seen in the small hut of the tourist office, which serves as both a small museum and a place for the official guides) If no one really knows what the real relationship of the primitive populations with the lake was, what is certain is that its first discovery by Europe was made in 1595, when Sir Walter Raleigh, a famous English privateer under the orders of Elizabeth I, used the tar of the lake to caulk his ship. He recorded the discovery in his logbook. The industrial exploitation of Pitch Lake began in the second half of the ^19th century. It is still practiced today and has been for over a century and a half. Thousands of tons of high quality asphalt have been extracted, without reducing the deposit as the resources seem to be inexhaustible. The dimensions of the lake are indeed impressive: 100 ha in surface, 80 m in estimated depth. Only two other lakes of this type exist in the world, one near Los Angeles, the other in Venezuela. Pay particular attention to your footwear. In the dry season, asphalt tends to stick to shoes; in the rainy season, a pair of boots is a welcome comfort. The asphalt holds the rain on the surface of the lake, and you never stop wading in the puddles. A few last curiosities of anecdotal nature will reward those who will tread with their feet these rubbery expanses, often similar to chewing gum. You will surely be surprised by strange little fishes pushed by evolution to acclimatize to the sulfurous waters that fill the crevices of the asphalt and by the surprising spectacle of these old wooden houses built on the edges of the lake, which have become completely wobbly over time under the effect of the slow currents that flow through the subsoil. One would even think that some of them were built on several levels.