Trinidad

The road on from Ascension was rough and clouded with smoke.  There was destruction not only by burning but also by clear felling using bulldozers.

Panorama of forest land being cleared by crushing by bulldozer

Three more panoramas of forest land being cleared by crushing by bulldozer

More smoke up ahead

Next we came upon a wild fire completely unattended burning away in forest beside the road. When we stopped to film it flared up so that we had to take off after a short filming sequence because the land cruiser was getting too hot and the paint would have begun to sizzle.

A little further on were large tracts of flatland that had been torched over by fire.

Panoramas of San Juan on the way to Ascension

These guys were chopping a tree with a chainsaw but when I started filming they hid behods a tree (below).

These guys were chopping down the one remaining big tree in their devastated area but hwne I started filming a kid in the house ran shouting to them to tell them someone was watching them.

Panorama of their clear-felled area

Many areas alongside the road were clear-felled leaving them dry and brown.

This area had just been burned through and was still smouldering far into the distance.

Bulldozers clearing logs on the "Propriedad Moron".

The remains of an isolated stately forest tree now in an open clearing by a little lake.

Panoramas of more clear felled tropical forest

he forestry control unit at Santa Cruz was manifestly inadequate to deal with the massive logging in the country.

The road was a dusbowl which became impenetrable whenever a vehicle passed

Panorama of fires burning under the palm trees

Panorama of a just burned plot still glowing with embers

This clear felled area had a tree covered in white herons roosting by the water

Panorama of the clear-felled plot

The white herons flying off to alight in a taller tree

Fires in the night as we come to Trinidad

Trinidad main square and gardens

Panorama of Trinidad main square and gardens

The streets were full of young people out on the town on small motor cycles

Panorama of the Trinidad ride past

Dinner in a restaurant on the main square

We stayed in the Hotel Jara Jorechi a motel style hostal with a drive-in front portal which also doubled up as an ecotourism and conservation headquarters for local ecologists and environmentalists to help protect the area.

Ecology books at the hostal

Panorama of the hotel and neighbouring streets

We spent some time interviewing both tirbal mambers struggling with deforestation, threat from burning and logging  and encroachment on their land as well as ecologists attempting to monitor changes in land use and its impact on local native settlements.

Interview with a leader from a tribe affected by deforestation

Teresa and Adam in the conservation unit

An ecologist working to monitor and prevent encroachment on to tribal lands

The land cruiser exits the hotel through the front vestibule.