Places to hike in Trinidad: Tamana Bat Caves

Been a while since I hiked anywhere. Lordddd where has my motivation gone? Bring it bacccck. 

But anyway, I was persuaded to do something other than sleep away the Indian Arrival Day holiday and get up and go in the bush. 

I'd never been to Tamana Bat Caves before, but I always wanted to go. A friend and I booked the hike with a group called Hummingbird Tours. It cost $160 per adult and $120 per child, transport and drinks included. 

Now, this is an evening into night hike if you want to actually see the bats swarm out of their caves, because bats are nocturnal creatures.

We met up with the maxi transport at 3 pm to set off to Tamana from Mt Hope. But we didn't actually start the hike until around 5:30. Tamana is farrrr. We spent more time on the maxi to Tamana than the actual hike. 

The maxi dropped us off very near to the start of the ascent to the caves, so it was a very short hike. Just about 25 minutes or so. But navigating a 24-seater maxi through some of those narrow, winding tracks was an experience! 

If you want a more challenging hike to the caves, you can start further away from the ascent. But the hike leaders wanted to make sure we got to the caves in time to see the bats exit, so we went as far in as the maxi could go. 

It was a short hike, but it is all uphill. So, it was still a leg-burning, chest heaving workout. And ya girl ain't been active in a while so the way I huffed and puffed my ass up that little incline was a sight to see.

Nevertheless, I may reach last, but I always reach. LOL. We made it to the caves at dusk, just in time for the bat exodus. 

We stood at the mouth of the caves and experienced the bats swarming out. I was ducking and shrieking thinking they would be bouncing into us, but I am happy to report that not one bat touched me. Because, as my teenaged son pointed out when I showed him the videos,..."allyuh know this is how coronavirus started, right?" 

The bat exodus in all its glory

Here is a very informative video from Hummingbird tours taken on this very hike. 

Anway, we observed the bats for a while before beginning the journey back out. By that time, it was already dark. 

The hike leaders had dropped glow sticks on the way in, so they aided in finding the way back out in the darkness and everybody had their own individual flashlights. I think I enjoyed that part the most. It just felt thrilling making our way out the forest in the darkness. I'd never been on a night hike before. 

We made it back out to the maxi by 7:15 pm. And so, the long ride back from Tamana began. At one point coming back out of the dirt trail, the maxi had some trouble going up an incline. After multiple attempts at reversing and trying to go up, we all had to disembark to make the maxi lighter to see if it that would help. It worked and the maxi made it up the incline and we were on our way again. 

The maxi successfully went up the incline after we all got out.

We got back out to my drop off point in Trincity a little after 9 pm. My only complaint is the long ride to get to and from Tamana. I will probably not do this hike again simply because of the distance to get there and the shortness of the hike itself. If I'm going that far, I want a nice long hike to make it worth it. I didn't track the distance of this one but I estimated it to be less than a mile of hiking one way from where we started. 

I would call it more of a sightseeing experience than a real hike to be honest. But it was enjoyable, nonetheless. 

And I can tick another location off my bucket list. Yayy! And y'all KNOW, I do not ever leave the bush empty handed right? Ya girl found a mango.

...and turned it into mango/banana bread. LOL.