Natasha Said­wan

Pro­duc­tion Ed­i­tor

natasha.said­wan@guardian.co.tt

While the north coast of Trinidad draws vis­i­tors with blue-green wa­ters, ac­tive cur­rents and waves, and the east coast fea­tures a pow­er­ful At­lantic surf, the is­land’s south­ern and south-west­ern shores of­fer a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent ex­pe­ri­ence. Shel­tered by the Gulf of Paria, the sea fea­tures gen­tler wa­ters, ex­pan­sive, shal­low shores—tru­ly fam­i­ly-friend­ly en­vi­ron­ments.

To­day, we jour­ney South to ex­plore four such beach­es in and around La Brea.

Ves­signy Beach

Found just about five min­utes South of the world-fa­mous Pitch Lake, along the South­ern Main Road, Ves­signy is pic­turesque, fea­tur­ing a well-main­tained park and fa­cil­i­ties. The land­scape is ide­al for pho­tog­ra­phy, from its In­s­ta-ready wel­come sign to the sprawl­ing out­door space which can be used to host des­ti­na­tion wed­dings, pic­nics and dif­fer­ent func­tions giv­en its ac­tive restau­rant and bar. Stat­ues and paint­ings of macaws adorn the com­pound, and there are a lot of beau­ti­ful macaws fly­ing around the beach area.

Known for its placid shal­low wa­ters and ex­treme­ly wide ex­panse of seashore, Ves­signy is fam­i­ly-friend­ly in many oth­er ways.

There are wash­room and bath­room fa­cil­i­ties which are open from 9 am to 5.30 pm.

There is more than am­ple park­ing for ve­hi­cles.

There is se­cu­ri­ty on the com­pound and life­guards on du­ty from 10 am to 5.30 pm.

It’s al­so a rock col­lec­tor’s dream; chil­dren and con­nois­seurs alike can spend hours pick­ing up unique peb­bles.

And for those who are im­mo­bile, wheel­chair ac­cess is ac­com­mo­dat­ed.

The home of the Ves­signy Vikings Sail­ing School, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the South­ern Sail­ing Acad­e­my, this is the venue for sail­ing camps for all ages.

Just re­mem­ber to pay at­ten­tion to signs (Stay Clear of Por­tuguese jel­ly­fish Man-o-War), and you may have to leave your four-legged fam­i­ly mem­bers at home, as pets are not al­lowed, ex­cept, of course, for the many stray an­i­mals on the com­pound.

Sta­tion Beach

This pop­u­lar beach got its name from its lo­ca­tion, which is less than a minute from the La Brea Po­lice Sta­tion; along the same road you use to vis­it the Pitch Lake.

Though the fa­cil­i­ties here are ba­sic, there are con­crete ta­bles and bench­es shad­ed by poui trees that bloom bright­ly dur­ing the dry sea­son, as well as three clean chang­ing rooms on site. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, there are no full bath­room fa­cil­i­ties.

The La Brea In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion or Labid­co, can be seen on the left and to the right is Cof­fee Beach.

The area is ripe with his­to­ry.

On the com­pound, there is an aban­doned mag­is­trate’s of­fice and cour­t­house, two beau­ti­ful rem­nants of colo­nial ar­chi­tec­ture. Low­er down there is a WWII US mil­i­tary tow­er built to mon­i­tor the coast­line.

Carat Shed

An­oth­er pop­u­lar beach, Carat Shed beach is lo­cat­ed on O’Con­nor Street in La Brea, just a short dri­ve or about 1.3 km from the town cen­tre and near the Pitch Lake.

Main­tained by the area’s fish­er­folk as­so­ci­a­tion, it fea­tures a large open-air shed suit­able for groups, com­plete with ba­sic kitchen spaces and clean toi­let/bathing fa­cil­i­ties. Space is open and avail­able for ad­di­tion­al tents on the left side as you dri­ve in.

Al­so known as the par­ty beach, this is a favourite spot for fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, out­door cook­ing, and week­end re­lax­ing, as there were al­ways ex­cur­sions and large group en­joy­ing the fa­cil­i­ties.

Safe, se­cure and chil­dren-friend­ly; park­ing comes at a price of $10 per ve­hi­cle. This small con­tri­bu­tion goes to­wards the up­keep of the fa­cil­i­ty.

The open sandy ar­eas make it ide­al for groups, so come ear­ly as Carat Shed is usu­al­ly packed.

Point Sable Beach

Lo­cat­ed along Point Sable Road in Point D’Or, Point Sable Beach of­fers a longer, more se­clud­ed stretch of coast­line for vis­i­tors seek­ing a qui­eter en­vi­ron­ment.

Stretch­es of sandy shores and gen­tle waves make this beach ide­al for bathing, swim­ming, and strolling, es­pe­cial­ly for those look­ing to trade the hus­tle and bus­tle for a qui­eter space.

Be­yond its tran­quil and pic­turesque land­scapes, Point Sable Beach is al­so a fan­tas­tic spot for na­ture en­thu­si­asts. From lo­cal wildlife, in­clud­ing colour­ful birds, to ma­rine life, the sur­round­ing area is rich in bio­di­ver­si­ty, mak­ing it a great place for eco-tourism and ex­plo­ration.

Un­like the At­lantic-fac­ing coasts, the shel­tered Gulf of Paria of­fers lim­it­ed wave ac­tion, which al­lows these four beach­es to be tran­quil, shal­low and ex­treme­ly fam­i­ly-friend­ly. It is al­so the rea­son for the brown-coloured sea­wa­ter, as the lack of heavy waves al­so means sed­i­ments are sus­pend­ed near the warm shores and are not rapid­ly dis­persed.

Look out for reg­u­lar beach clean-ups or­gan­ised by Cor­po­rate T&T to add to your fam­i­ly ac­tiv­i­ties. One ex­er­cise is sched­uled for Sat­ur­day, Au­gust 22 at Sta­tion Beach.

And be sure to stay back in­to the late evening as the sun­sets on this side of the is­land are quite spec­tac­u­lar.