Trinidad's East Coast has mile after mile of magnificent wild beaches where lines of Atlantic breakers roll ashore on fine yellow sand strewn with coconut husks and chip-chip shells, backed by a million tall palms that line the shore. Cocal Beach on Cocos Bay is 4km long, deserted but for the occasional family of week-enders.
At the end of Cocos Bay a sand spit across the mouth of the Nariva River has created a mostly freshwater wetland of reed-fringed marshes with mangroves edging the more brackish channels.
Nariva Swamp is a RAMSAR wetland of international importance, a key habitat for many birds: waders, rails and raptors, and for the endangered West Indian Manatee. Much local effort was required to achieve its protection. At dusk flocks of red-bellied macaws sometimes come to roost in a stand of royal palms near the shore.
Almost surrounded by the swamp is Bush Bush Sanctuary, a delightful pocket of hardwood forest and silk cotton trees bordered by moriche palms. Here you can walk on forest trails with good chances to see capuchin monkey, red howler monkey, tree porcupine and perhaps white-bearded manakin at their leks performing competitive acrobatics on the forest floor.
On the lane into Bush Bush, Christians, Muslims and Hindus take turns to worship at a church with each faith's religious symbol painted side by side.
In the southeast just beyond Guayaguayare lie the Trinity Hills, named by Christopher Columbus on his third voyage. Its three peaks were his first landfall, seen just as his ships were running out of drinking water; he gratefully named the land 'La Trinite' or Trinidad.