BATS

Tamana Bat Caves...I have been looking forward to going to the bat caves since I came to Trinidad, and last night I finally got the chance. The caves are home to millions of bats that fly out at dusk in search of food. There are mostly fruit bats and insect bats found there. Dave (fellow Fulbrighter), Mary (friend from church) and I went with a small group from Hike Seekers, heading to the famed Mt. Tamana. The journey began with the narrowist, bumbiest, most unlevel road I've ever seen in my life and ended with a barely visible path through the bush. We suddenly just stopped next to a fig tree and our leader said, ok we're here! We got there right around 6pm and as we made the steep, slippery climb to the mouth of the cave we could see a couple of bats flittering around. The higher we climbed, the more bats passed by overhead and the excitement built! Finally we reached what looked like a big hole in the ground that was the mouth of the cave. We took up a place in front of the mouth of the cave as the darkness began to descend on us. The darker it became, the more bats began to trickle out of the cave until there were hoards of them whizzing past us. You couldn't move, you just had to stand up straight and still and they flew by all around you. I could feel them whoosh past close to me on either side and tried to become as small as I could so they wouldn't hit me!




We all did get hit though...some of the younger ones didn't have the best radar! I got nailed on the back of the leg (and after letting out a bit of a scream) discovered that I had quite disorientated the bat and one of the guides grabbed him and stretched him out so we could see it. The bat seriously had the scariest little face I've ever seen. It had a little horn on its nose, intense eyes, and its miniature fangs were biting at the air. It's face kept contorting trying desperately to fight off his captor. (Don't worry, we let him go and he was just fine!)


We then ventured around the back of the cave where we could actually go inside. The place was littered with bats, they were in every nook and cranny. There seemed to be a lot of younger, little bats in this part and they weren't flying around, just hanging. The place had quite a smell to it and water kept dripping from the cave ceiling...at first we thought it was bat poop and were VERY happy to discover that it wasn't!




Overall, this has been one of my favorite experiences here in Trinidad so far. It was so cool to feel the bats whizzing by and then to see them all over the cave. Not something that I want to repeat frequently, but a priceless experience for sure!