Fly­ing their East­er kites, chil­dren from Joanne's Lit­tle An­gels, Arou­ca, spread out on the grounds ad­ja­cent to Compte de Lop­pinot His­tor­i­cal Com­plex-an his­tor­i­cal land­mark in the com­mu­ni­ty.Teacher Joanne Agard said: "We came here be­cause it is peace­ful. We had the East­er egg hunt and now we are fly­ing East­er kites. We will be pic­nick­ing. The breeze is love­ly for kite fly­ing."Con­sen­sus among lo­cals and tourists was the typ­i­cal plan­ta­tion house set amid the sprawl­ing samaan tree, bam­boo groves and ver­dant green­ery with pink bursts of peri­win­kle was a sight to be­hold.Clutch­ing his gui­tar, tour guide Mar­tin Gomez gave the chil­dren a tra­di­tion­al parang ser­e­nade.Be­fore, Gomez said they were get­ting ready to re­place the arte­facts in the Great House by next week.Among them was an eclec­tic col­lec­tion of pho­tographs, pot­tery, mor­tar and pes­tle and snake an­ti­dotes.The fresh coats of yel­low at­test­ed to the restora­tion and beau­ti­fi­ca­tion works which were done.

Gomez said: "The fur­ni­ture is 208-years-old. The tile and mar­ble is about 100-years-old. The fur­ni­ture dates back to the 18th cen­tu­ry."While the fur­ni­ture with­stood the test of time, the cashew tree un­der which the French count's ghost was spot­ted died.Gomez said: "We plant­ed an­oth­er in the ex­act spot. The juice was as red as blood."Gomez al­so had a chance to share the leg­end of Compte de Lopinot with Sci Fi chan­nel and Ghost Hunters In­cor­po­rat­ed.In 1806, leg­end has it that Charles Lopinot set­tled in the Val­ley, nam­ing the es­tate La Re­con­nai­sance.Gomez and his daugh­ter, Pres­i­dent of the Lopinot Vil­lage Coun­cil Don­na Mo­ra will be fea­tured in a se­ries from June.

Poui bloom at Lopinot

Me­an­der­ing along­side the Great House, the Lopinot Riv­er of­fers many cool spots for bathing and re­lax­ation. Along the wind­ing road, yel­low poui bloomed pro­fuse­ly.Lopinot res­i­dent Shirley Bap­tiste views it as a labour of love to sweep up the del­i­cate blos­soms which lay­er her roof.She said: "As it falls, I sweep it up. I don't mind. A lot of peo­ple pass by and ad­mire the poui tree. They take pho­tographs. Af­ter the yel­low, the pur­ple poui will come in. The pur­ple is gor­geous."

Apart from the ma­jes­tic poui, there is a sig­nif­i­cant rem­nant of the co­coa in­dus­try. Red and yel­low co­coa hang at Cafe Mari­posa-where na­ture tours are con­duct­ed.There is al­so a co­coa house and im­ple­ments like the co­coa rod for pick­ing and pic­a­dol for shelling and sweat box­es for fer­ment­ing the beans sought af­ter by choco­late con­nois­seurs.Glo­ri­ous cit­rus hung in the groves. Rare fruits like tam­bran dayzah (Chi­nese tamarind) and caimite sprung forth from the fer­tile Lopinot land. The odd don­key brayed.But it was the wel­com­ing na­ture of the peo­ple which came in for top marks. Decked in tall boots, with poya case (cut­lass) at their sides, farm­ers trudged peace­ful­ly to their homes. At times, the dog-man's best friend-bound­ed along­side his mas­ter. (ML)