Notes on the Geography of Trinidad: Trinidad: What Oil Money Buys

The pictures in this folder were taken early in 2008, perhaps a decade later than those in the previous two folders, and they record some aspects of Trinidad's recent economic development.

Make default image size larger

Downtown Port-of-Spain. There's always somebody with a pocket full of cash.

On the outskirts of town, an overpass is under construction.

The overpass itself suggests a role for foreign assistance. It comes from Europe with a smile. If it came from the U.S. it would have no smile. Trust me.

The Trincity Mall.

Pretty fancy, no?

This should settle the matter: super-premium ice cream by the pint, quart, and half-gallon at the Trincity SuperValu. You can't even buy half-gallons of this stuff in God's country. Amazing.

Is housing a leading indicator?

Houses in that subdivision.

Close-up.

Under construction.

Roof detail.

Hollow-block walls.

Here's the runway at Waller Field, built in World War II so American planes could make their way to Africa. It's under conversion here to a college campus.

We've gone past Waller Field to Toco, at the northeastern corner of the island. A new police station.

Under construction.To

Toco is at the island's economic periphery. Here we're on the main axis running south the Port of Spain. Meet the Grand Bazaar, on the road to Chaguanas.

Here's the supermarket at Chaguanas.

Do you mean to say that Trinidad has socialized medicine? (Answer: sort of; it offers free primary care.) Is there no end to such wickedness?

Old cane fields are being converted to residential subdivisions.

Sign posted near the site shown in the previous picture.

Here are some surviving canefields on the outskirts of San Fernando.

Boundary marker at Cedar Hill, near the fields shown in the previous picture.

House in the Cedar Hill Settlement. The homeowner was in the cement business.

More cane fields under conversion, this time in a government program.

Nearby, a branch of the RBTT, formerly the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. The bank is a descendant of the Royal Bank of Canada, which opened for business in Trinidad in 1910. Do the banks here offer mortgages? You bet.

Typical new housing nearby.

Satellite dishes in houses in the hamlet of Jacob Settlement, near Siparia, south of San Fernando.

Nearby convenience store.

Entertainment, near Jacob Settlement.