Guanapo Gorges

Updated: Aug 7, 2023

Distance: 11.7km | Type: Out and Back | Difficulty: Moderate

Carnival Tuesday morning, everyone was up early ready for the road. There was a sense of buzzing, irrepressible excitement, a tingle of exhilaration running through the island like an electric current. Vendors lined the pavement, the smell of doubles and aloo pies in the air. The distant steady cadence of soca beats could be heard and you could feel the music seeping into your soul, tapping into the primal desire to move, to dance, to celebrate. At home, Carnival-goers were getting dressed in their costumes, a medley of feathers and beads, faces painted with all the shades of the rainbow.

This year, Anya, Dan, and I had other plans. We were taking the opportunity to escape the traffic, noise, and commotion of the celebrations to spend a day in the peace and quiet of the Guanapo Gorges.

This is another favourite hike of mine which showcases the power of water. A power that can carve immovable rock into smooth curves and gentle swirls. The feeling of being in the gorges with the sound of the water amplified, the outside world muted, and the smooth cold stone of the gorge surrounding you is quite surreal.

[As a note of caution, this is a hike that requires swimming and I've had one experience here with someone we met on the trail that was not a confident swimmer that almost ended in tragedy. So if you are planning to check out the gorges, make sure everyone in your group can swim, or has lifejackets and that at least one person is trained in extracting panicked persons from the water.]

There are several routes that you can take to get to the gorge, some take Lalaja road and park at the top and make their way down the river; others start at the bridge and make their way up through trails and some, like myself, start at the bridge and walk straight up the river. The hike upriver itself is fairly flat and is spent mostly wading through shallow river; but there is a fair amount of swimming and scrambling over rock formations. While this can be technically challenging for some, it is not particularly difficult once done an easy pace.

As you know, I've been hiking since I was a kid and I've been leading hikes for the last 10 years or so and over the years jokes have come up about me being a hike tour guide or making some form of nature show (you might have seen WILD Trinidad and Tobago which was just that). As we made our way up the river, Anya and Dan joked about making me taking this a step further and creating a video blog about my hikes. In good fun I decided I'd record a few shots and, funnily enough, these are making it onto my blog.

As you can see the hike is absolutely gorgeous (pun intended) and quite different from other river and forest/jungle hikes that we do and it is almost impossible to get lost if you are following the river (there are one or two tributaries that join closer to the gorges that I suppose you could wander down). There are a couple points of interest along the way other than the incredible beauty of the river and surrounding forest itself as the river passes through old estates and orchards, some of which see some active use.

Riverways are public in Trinidad and Tobago, but the land surrounding them is often private or at least privately occupied, and if you're ever hiking we recommend you heed any signs pertaining to private property and respect any crops you see along the way; however, fruit that has fallen to the ground, particularly in the river, are fair game. Roughly one-third of the way along the trek, you pass a bridge that has a grapefruit orchard just above; when grapefruit are in season you can usually find some amazing grapefruit, ripe and in good condition on the river bed just below the bridge.

Like every single day, the river was cold, and I decided as much as possible that I would scramble over the rocks to keep everyone's gear dry while getting some footage of the much more enjoyable and refreshing swims through the lower rock formations.

Then we arrived at the gorges themselves. If you think waterfalls are beautiful, wait till you see the gorges. They tower above you as you wade, walk, and climb through them. As you make your way through, they alternate from tight high formations to wider open spaces. While incredibly beautiful they always make me wonder what it would be like to see them during heavy rain and with flood waters passing through.

Eventually we arrived the mini-waterfall which I use as the functional end of this particular hike. There is a small pool you can swim in and a some comfortable rocks to rest on and have lunch. It also makes a great spot to take pictures. So we did all of the above. After a quick lunch break, we went for a swim and took turns standing under the small fall. Of course, no hike is complete without a waterfall photoshoot so we decided we would take turns posing with the rocks as well. Yes, yes, vanity is a hell of a thing.

We rested for a bit after the sheer exhaustion of posing for so many pictures and then made our way back down the river to the car. Moving with the water is always easier than moving against it and we made great time heading back down.

Towards the end of the hike we ran into Snake Man with a small group bathing in the river. Snake Man is retired member of the Trinidad and Tobago regiment who acts as a hike guide in his free time. When I was a teenager, he was frequently the hike guide for the Petrotrin hiking group that I hiked with on occasion and he took us on my first Matelot to Blachieuchesse crossing. We had a nice chat about the state of the trails in the area and reminisced about old hikes together before parting ways.

We made one other friend on the way back that I thought I'd introduce you to:

In case you don't know, Trinidad is a beautiful place and the people can be as lovely as the nature. When we got back to the bridge at the start of the river

There were a couple small groups of people having river limes when we got back to the bridge at the start of the hike. While exchanging greetings, I got into a conversation with one of the families there and they invited us to join them for lunch. We accepted and had plates with peleau and cole slaw and of course plenty pepper sauce.

Normally this is where my story ends, but the following morning I woke up with fever and chills and my stomach was not pleased with me. While it's possible the food we ate got me sick, I think the more likely candidate is that I picked up something when I was drinking water from the gorge. Growing up I'd always do this and I learnt early on to look for moving aereated water before drinking; but there is always a risk with drinking from rivers and streams. Even in areas where you expect the water to be clean, its always possible that an irregularity has occured upstream such as an animal dying in the river, or animals or humans defecating in or near the river.

Moral of the story: Always carry your water with you or make sure to have some method of water purification or filtration, whether its a filter, tablets, or drops.

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