An­na-Lisa Paul

The long lines of traf­fic and beach­es crammed full of sea­go­ers were con­spic­u­ous­ly ab­sent at Mara­cas, Tyri­co and Las Cuevas yes­ter­day, as the tra­di­tion­al Ash Wednes­day Cool Downs seemed to fiz­zle out.

While there was a heavy po­lice pres­ence through­out the day along the main ac­cess road and the beach­front, as well as in the wa­ter, the bumper crowd that was ex­pect­ed to de­scend on the pop­u­lar north coast beach­es did not ma­te­ri­alise up to 2.30 pm.

It was not un­til 3 pm that more ve­hi­cles were ob­served head­ing to Mara­cas Beach, as it was re­port­ed that three par­ties were sched­uled for late yes­ter­day in­to the night.

Se­nior Pa­trol Cap­tain of the Mara­cas Beach Life­guard Unit, Karl Her­nan­dez, con­firmed, “The crowd ain’t re­al­ly build up to how it usu­al­ly does.”

Heart­ened by this un­usu­al de­vel­op­ment, as they had a skele­tal staff of on­ly sev­en life­guards, he ex­plained, “We have tried to keep the crowd in­side and with the jet-ski pa­trolling, we try­ing to con­trol the crowd.”

Her­nan­dez said Tyri­co Beach re­mained with­out any life­guards yes­ter­day, hence the need for a jet-ski pa­trol.

He, how­ev­er, re­newed the ap­peal for ad­di­tion­al life­guards ahead of this week­end.

“The week­end af­ter Car­ni­val is when we get the crowd. That is when every­body go­ing back home so they want to take a seabath be­fore they go back.”

Asked what could have led to such a dras­tic de­cline in the num­bers, Her­nan­dez spec­u­lat­ed, “I think every­body ex­pect­ed a whole lot of traf­fic. Last year, it was the same thing. Peo­ple just fed up with the traf­fic, so peo­ple come yes­ter­day (Tues­day). Mon­day had a good turnout. Week­end had a very good turnout.”

He es­ti­mat­ed that be­tween 30,000 to 40,000 peo­ple vis­it­ed Mara­cas Beach be­tween Sat­ur­day and Tues­day.

Seat­ed on a lounger as he sipped a cold Carib along­side his dad and broth­er, Bri­an War­ren, of the UK, soaked up the sun, sand and surf as he hap­pi­ly shared, “I just had some shark and bake. I had a few drinks and I am en­joy­ing the weath­er, the sea and the peo­ple.”

Promis­ing to re­turn fol­low­ing an en­joy­able and ex­cit­ing Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence he had thus far, War­ren said he on­ly had 12 years left to work be­fore he could re­lo­cate to T&T per­ma­nent­ly.

He jok­ing­ly said, “I want to come back and spend my pen­sion here!”

His broth­er Stephen War­ren, who has been to T&T sev­er­al times, said his last Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence was 20 years ago. While both men are of Trinida­di­an parent­age, he said the two had been able to get a bit of every­thing this time around and would def­i­nite­ly be back for more.

Aman­da Locke, of Cana­da, mean­while said this was her third time here for Car­ni­val, which was “al­ways su­per beau­ti­ful.”

Ad­mit­ting their sta­mi­na was a lit­tle low­er than in pre­vi­ous years, she laughed, “We’re not as used to it this time around.”

Earl James, of New York, de­scribed his Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence as won­der­ful and in­ci­dent free thus far had “just been a bless­ing.”

“Trinidad is such a won­der­ful place. It is a beau­ti­ful is­land,” James said.

Re­fer­ring to the lo­cal crime sit­u­a­tion, he said, “There are a lot of peo­ple abroad that wants to come back here, but is the crime.”

How­ev­er, he said he had gone around with­out wor­ry­ing about the crime sit­u­a­tion de­spite warn­ings from fam­i­ly and friends.

“They have to wor­ry about it be­cause they liv­ing in it,” he said.

Mean­while, al­though the crowd turnout at Cau­ra Riv­er in Tu­na­puna was al­so low­er than ex­pect­ed, those who turned up ea­ger to bub­ble a pot were de­ter­mined to have a good time.

Shawn Bab­wah said, “We have pro­vi­sion. We have a man­i­cou. We have cur­ry chick­en. We have white rice, toma­toes cho­ka. We hav­ing a time. We hav­ing a lit­tle drink.”

Re­gard­ing the low turnout, Sudesh Naipaul said, “I do not know why, if peo­ple over tired or it doesn’t mat­ter to them but I thought the riv­er would have been sold out.”

He added, “I thought you would be fight­ing to get a place to bathe but when we came up here about 11 o’clock, the riv­er was ba­si­cal­ly emp­ty. “

Meena, who lives in Ch­agua­nas, sur­mised, “Some peo­ple don’t go to work for the whole week, so lat­er they might come.”