Bright birdies and blue Devils

At 8:30am we're bright(bleary?)-eyed and bushy-tailed, awaiting transport to Asa Wright Nature Center.
The front of the bus is the now six-crew "Babette", babbling away in Norwegian. The back is the Belgian "Stormy Monday" and friends saying about the same in French. We drive East and North, up into the rain forests, nestled under a white layer of clouds.
The road narrows. Steepens, gravely with the occational pothole. As we distract our new, partly nervous crew with interesting herbivourous rainforest facts. The Hindu prayer flags flying in the wind and the nets of Christophene vines all down the wide valley are a sight to see.
We all arrive without a scratch at the Asa Wright Nature Center in Arima Valley. A grand old home, from 1908, high-ceilinged rooms, large open verandas. And a view out to the rain forests and the feeding station where all the brightly-colored tropical birds whiz in and out. Honey creepers and tanagers the bananaquit, royal blue, turquise green, yellow and red. The hummingbirds all irredescent. Even more carneval-colored than in Tobago. And a tropic feast for "fresh" Norwegian eyes!

We go on a short guided walk into the rain forest. It's raining. A hard tropical rain filtered by all the leaves above us. The trees don't mind, but the birds do. We don't get a look at the males' dance along the logs to impress a female of two.
But the ants are hard at work. Leaf-cutter ants march along their wide, cleaned and well-kept path. (I can recommend them for hire for Trinidad and Tobago road work!) They are carrying large, for an ant, triangular pieces of leaves. Another ant is being caries with the leaf, busy licking in clean and preparing it for the burrow. When they arrive guards at the door send them back for more if the leaf doesn't pass inspection. A hard life. Wouldn't you rather be a hummingbird flying from big red flower to red sugar feeder. Now that's the life of a Riley!

Back at the Nature Center we're served a buffet lunch in the spacious dining room, coffee on the large, open veranda. That's where the bird experts/lovers stand with their huge lenses. Binoculars and cameras ready to catch the tiny creepers and hummingbirds in flight. Asa Wright was Icelandic, hence her Nordic name. She turned over the estate she loved and developed to an institute (from 1967) that continues her nature conserving work. The center has a small hotel which is where you'ld want to stay to catch the early bird. The best bird-watching times being dusk and dawn.

Blue Devils: A taste of J'ouvert's night creatures!
Back in Port-of-Spain we take a walk in the "Las Ramblas"-like avenue, Independence Square. The city is gearing up for carneval. Soca is blaring out of sidewalk boom-blasters. And, then, just in front of us, a wave of blue jumping somethings approaches. One is red-painted, red foam frothing from its mouth. We zig-zag slightly around the creatures. Are they following? Not quite ready for this yet.