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A Diverse Pair of Islands

south, is the hub of the island’s booming oil industry. The island’s economy is heavily dependent on oil, which is plentiful in the south as well as in sur- rounding waters. Trinidad’s most popular tourist beaches are located on the north coast. Leatherback turtles make their nests along the more secluded beaches. Off the northwest coast of the island are the Bocas—tiny islets that got

their name from the explorer Christopher Columbus, who dubbed the treacherous waters surrounding them the Bocas del Dragón (“mouths of the dragon”). The Nariva Swamp on the eastern coast is home to many exotic animal species, including caimans (a cousin to the crocodile), macaws, and red howler mon- keys, whose piercing yelps can be heard miles away. Trinidad is dotted with mud volca- noes, small mounds that spew sulfuric mud (and that technically aren’t volca- noes). Mud-volcano eruptions usually rise only a few feet, but occasionally a particu- larly violent eruption will occur. In 1997, a mud volcano near the south-central town of Piparo blew, sending mud hundreds of feet into the air and burying many homes.

A mud volcano at Devil’s Woodyard, Trinidad.