Trinidad- Part 2
Our second hike in Trinidad was to Mount Tamana Bat Caves. It was a easy 35 minute hike up and a super muddy slippery 40 minute hike down. We met up with Emile once again and were also joined by a Canadian diplomat with his two teenage children. On our way up Emile showed us the flora and fauna of the area. Nutmeg, cocoa trees grew naturally in the rain forest. Once we made it to the bat cave, a hoard of 3.2 million bats came rushing out at dusk. Tamana Bat Cave is the second largest bat cave in the world and is the home to both fruit and vampire bats. We stood at the mouth of the cave as the bats rushed and flapped toward us. I could feel their wings barely miss my head or shoulders. There was bound to be one bat to have a slow sonar system and I was hit in the head with a full wing at one point. The smell of the ammonia off the guano wasn’t too overwhelming luckily, so standing at the mouth of the cave was not too bad. We learned that we shouldn’t make too many quick movements because the bats’ sonar systems can’t handle that. Rhut might have hit one with a stick he was waving around by mistake. It was such a National Geographic-esque experience and once again Trinidad gave me another one in a lifetime moment. After an hour of watching the bats we started hiking down to the car. Then it started raining and the already muddy paths became a pit of sticky clay-like, shoe-suctioning mud that was impossible to walk through. I fell on my butt about three times and we all decided that we are just going to go with the mud and slip along down the trail. After a long, careful walk down, with everyone caked in mud we washed up and went on our way back to our hotel.
