| One of the youngest independent
countries in the Western Hemisphere, Trinidad and Tobago, became a nation on
August 31, 1962. For a long time this nation has attracted tourists——it is the
home of calypso music and limbo dancing——and in recent years its healthy economy
has attracted investors as well. Trinidad and Tobago is a single country composed of two islands.. Trinidad, with the majority of the country's 900,000 inhabitants, is a rectangle of roughly fifty by forty miles. Tobago, nineteen miles to the north, is smaller and has a population of about 35,000. Situated at the end of the long chain of Windward and Leeward Islands, Trinidad is at one point only seven miles off the coast of Venezuela. Its geology, flora, and fauna are similar to those of the South American mainland. Like Venezuela, the backbone of Trinidad and Tobago's economy is petroleum and its first colonists were Spaniards. Three mountain ranges, with summits of up to 3,000 feet, cross Trinidad from east to west, while Tobago is a relatively flat coral island, rimmed with fine beaches. The broad plains between Trinidad's mountain ranges are dominated by vast fields of sugar cane that present a symmetrical green pattern when seen from the air. A closer inspection reveals the coconut plantations along the coast and the profusion of brilliant red and yellow flowers of various species that are found all over the island. Houses on both islands tend to be light-colored, with an open style of architecture, in many cases with open space under the entire dwelling. Port-of-Spain, the capital, is a bustling modern city where the pulse of the people reflects Britist, Spanish, and East Indian influences. |