Trinidad Jewel of the Caribbean.
Brilliant blue waters, sunshine, and island caressing trade winds, this is Trinidad.
Trinidad is also a lot more. Cosmopolitan, quick-paced and industrialized, Trinidad holds it’s own.
Music to food to festivals, Trinidad has a multi-ethnic culture. With ancestors from Africa, India, Europe, China, and the Middle East, speaking dozens of languages and professing dozens of faiths, a local common culture that is vibrant, colorful, and with a freeness of spirit.
Nowhere is the freeness demonstrated more than in the Carnival. It is full of traditions, color and music. The streets are filled with costumes, calypsos and steelband performances, truly a reflection of Trinidad's essence.
Trinidad's recorded history begins with the island's discovery by Christopher Columbus on July 31, 1498. Colonization of Trinidad did not begin until the end of the 18th century, when the Spanish King issued the historic Cedula of Population, to attract immigrants. The terms of the Cedula, offered free grants of land to citizens of any land friendly to Spain. Trinidad was transformed into a colonized island. In 1797, the British attacked Trinidad and the Spanish. Trinidad became a British colony, and remained one until its independence in 1962. Trinidad remained in the hands of the Spanish from the 15th Century until the British captured it in 1797 and then became a British colony in 1802.
Trinidad, everything you’d expect from a Caribbean island-sun, sea, sand, friendly people, music, and rich natural surroundings.