AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Tourism Trinidad Ltd (TTL) has vowed to pro­mote the beau­ty and seren­i­ty of the coun­try through tours, start­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty of Paramin.

The Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts has en­tered in­to a col­lab­o­ra­tive project be­tween TTL and tour op­er­a­tor Lim­it­less Liv­ing called Bel­la Plas De Paramin (Beau­ty of My Paramin).

Last Fri­day, mem­bers of the me­dia were in­vit­ed to par­take in a tour, spe­cial­ly de­signed to show­case the nat­ur­al at­trac­tions and cul­ture that em­anates from the Paramin com­mu­ni­ty.

Through the con­gest­ed streets of Port-of-Spain and through the wind­ing roads of Mar­aval, the state of seren­i­ty be­gan ear­ly from the mo­ment trees pro­tect­ed one’s skin from the harsh sun rays. While the steep ter­rain just off the North Coast Road may de­ter per­sons from en­ter­ing the com­mu­ni­ty, the Jeeps act as Paramin’s own taxi ser­vice, as­sur­ing the safe­ty of all pas­sen­gers, as it nav­i­gates through the North­ern Range vil­lage.

Jeeps heading up Paramin’s steep hills

The first stop, at Ma­hogany Ridge, was per­fect for all per­sons to ad­just their sens­es to the clean air, chill­ing breeze and breath­tak­ing views. Lo­cat­ed 1500 feet above sea lev­el, the re­mote lodge was ex­em­plary in show­cas­ing the tran­quil­li­ty that Paramin pro­vides.

“From Tourism Trinidad’s per­spec­tives, we view these type of ex­pe­ri­ences as one of those ex­pe­ri­ences that the new vis­i­tor, af­ter COVID-19, they want to ex­pe­ri­ence these things. They want an im­mer­sive ex­pe­ri­ence,” said TTL in­ter­im CEO, Car­la Cu­pid.

While be­ing served home­made sor­rel fizz and hi­bis­cus tea would be enough to quench any­one’s thirst, be­ing led in a med­i­ta­tion ex­er­cise over­look­ing the city on the right and the ocean on the left just added to the over­all health ben­e­fits that the Paramin hills can pro­vide.

The tour al­so act­ed as a lin­guis­tic crash course in Pa­tois and the rich his­tor­i­cal back­ground be­hind the North­ern com­mu­ni­ty.

“We ask peo­ple as much as pos­si­ble if you’re com­ing in­to Paramin, try and use the tour guides. We have ca­pa­ble tour guides who have ex­pe­ri­ence dri­ving these moun­tains. There is a wide range of tours which are avail­able,” said Paramin na­tive, Pe­ter Tardieu.

Meyah River Spa Experience

The tour con­tin­ued deep­er in­to the Paramin com­mu­ni­ty mak­ing a much-need­ed stop by Ju­lia Lu­cio (Aunt Julie) and her dirt oven cafe for a fire­side brunch. Aunt Julie’s wel­com­ing warmth was enough to make all vis­i­tors stand along a prop­er­ty built on the precipice of the Paramin hills. Her mud oven blazed with the smoke pushed the en­tic­ing scents of bake, sig­nalling the soon con­sump­tion of the ital meal. The per­fect­ly made roast bake was laden with salt­fish buljol, baigan, zabo­ca cho­ka and fried plan­tain. Eat­ing in a cal­abash bowl and fresh­ly made co­coa tea in an enam­el mug was enough to spark nos­tal­gia, re­mind­ing all of the beau­ty of a sim­pler life, and al­so pro­mot­ing a ze­ro-waste ex­pe­ri­ence.

Once again well-nour­ished, phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly, it was time to meet Paramin’s Moun­tain Man.

Pe­ter Ce­lestin is Paramin’s re­al-life su­per­hero, demon­strat­ing re­silience liv­ing with one foot, farm­ing and hunt­ing with no hin­drance. Moun­tain Man, just like many oth­er res­i­dents, shared that liv­ing in Paramin taught them the im­por­tance of bask­ing in God’s na­ture and how he de­signed this thing that we call “life.”

High­er up Paramin’s hills, the La Vigie Look Out stands out among the clouds, pre­sent­ing a pic­turesque view from the moun­tain­side.

Fireside Mud Oven at Aunt Julie’s

The sounds of parang ser­e­nad­ed vis­i­tors, com­plet­ing the feel­ing of liv­ing in a mul­ti-cul­tur­al par­adise.

Ac­cord­ing to TTL, dur­ing the fis­cal pe­ri­od 2022/23, the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts in­tend­ed to up­date var­i­ous tourist sites and at­trac­tions na­tion­wide, in­clud­ing Lopinot His­tor­i­cal Com­plex, Fort George, Wa­ter­wheel in Diego Mar­tin and Las La­pas in Ari­ma. Up­grades are al­so planned for Los Iros Mud Vol­cano and Fort Aber­crom­by in Las Cuevas.

Af­ter an al­ready packed day, in­vi­tees were able to have a spa ex­pe­ri­ence in the mid­dle of the re­fresh­ing Meyah Riv­er or take a re­lax­ing walk to the near­by wa­ter­fall.

Ac­cord­ing to Lim­it­less Liv­ing, while this was just a sneak peek in­to their lat­est tourism com­mu­ni­ty project, they are ex­cit­ed for mem­bers of the pub­lic to sign up to ben­e­fit from the un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ences of Paramin that they can pro­vide.

“Through­out our ex­pe­ri­ences, we in­cor­po­rate el­e­ments of mind­ful­ness and our clients are en­cour­aged to leave their wor­ries at the meet­ing point and to be present with the beau­ty around them,” the com­pa­ny states.

Cultural Explosion: Blue Devils

A se­ries of breath­tak­ing views con­tin­ued as the me­dia were tak­en on the Chive Field Tour. Lo­cat­ed at Farmer’s Lane, lies sprawl­ing acres of chive lin­ing the moun­tain­side. But the nar­row rows of crops lead to an­oth­er mag­nif­i­cent view, the Colos­se­um Cave. The home to over 500 species of bats, the mas­sive cave is like no oth­er, be­ing the most ac­ces­si­ble and the near­est to civil­i­sa­tion.

Ex­cit­ing fears were height­ened on the way back as blue dev­ils greet­ed sight­seers full of rev­el­ry but lo­cal love.

The full day of view­ing the nat­ur­al at­trac­tions of Paramin end­ed with a meal, plates over­flow­ing with a tra­di­tion­al lo­cal Christ­mas lunch. One last glass of sor­rel left a mem­o­rable last­ing af­ter-taste that the Paramin tour is over but will for­ev­er be re­mem­bered and cher­ished.

With the TTL con­tin­u­ing their mis­sion to en­sure the De­vel­op­ment of Trinidad’s tourism of­fer­ings and the pro­mo­tion of Des­ti­na­tion Trinidad, Paramin is cer­tain­ly a sta­ble com­mu­ni­ty to be toured.

The be­lief of Paramin’s res­i­dents clear­ly rings true be­cause “what­ev­er you think of it will come true here, be­cause there is no place greater than Paramin.”