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Photo: Jean-Marc /Jo BeLo/Jhon-John from Caracas, Venezuela, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Trinidad Carnival is one of the best in the world and hotels can be guaranteed to fill up when it is held and double their rates! Taking place in the days before Lent it is a mixture of parades and music and calypso competitions. Participants wear elaborate costumes and parade dancing through the streets to the sounds of a steel band or a soca band. Each year on Carnival Sunday a competition is held to award the King and Queen of Carnival. On Carnival Monday and Shrove Tuesday, the bands compete to win the "Band of the Year" title. Everyone takes part, from young to old and rich to poor. In the weeks before the events the Steel Bands rehearse nightly at their Pan Yards. There may be several in one stretch of road, such as Western Main, and you can buy a beer and watch the rehearsals.
The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is an annual event held on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. This event is well known for participants' colorful costumes and exuberant celebrations. There are numerous cultural events such as "band launch" fetes running in the lead up to the street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Traditionally, the festival is associated with calypso music, developed by Afro-Trinidadians in 17th century Trinidad; however, Soca music has begun to replace calypso as the more popular musical genre for Carnival. Costume, stick-fighting, limbo, and steelpan competitions are important components of the festival.
A major skyscraper development designed to revitalise the city's waterfront with the Hyatt Regency Trinidad at its heart. This is the only section of Port of Spain's waterfront which is accessible to the public.
Opened at the end of 2009, the construction of this building led to numerous allegations of corruption. The design is supposed to represent Trinidad's national flower but it has been much criticised as being out of keeping with the environment. "Copulating slugs" was perhaps one of the politer descriptions.
Trinidad and Tobago's only zoo, features a wide variety of tropical species including lions, tigers, monkeys, birds and fish. It is in the capital, Port of Spain. The Botanical Gardens contains many species of plants and is right next to the zoo, close to the President's house.
Established in 1818, these are one of the oldest gardens in the Caribbean. 700 trees of which 13% are indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago.
This is the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago. Founded in 1892, this striking colonial building houses an extensive collection of artifacts and antiques from throughout Trinidad's history.
Built in 1902 by a wealthy merchant, Mr. William Gordon, this house features a veranda made of white marble, hand hewn yellow limestone bricks, and a staircase constructed from wood from Guyana.