The Queen's Park Savannah

Lovingly known as "D Savannah" in Trinidad, The Queen's Park Savannah is the largest open space in the capital city of Port of Spain and so happens to be one of the largest roundabouts in the world that spans around 2.2 miles in its perimeter! On its western side, there is the magnificent seven which are preserved historical mansions. On its northern side is the country's only zoo and its largest and most diverse botanic gardens!

We arrived at the bustling Caribbean metropolis on a rainy noon. There were so many clouds but it was quite expected as it rains a lot more often than not here in the north west of Trinidad. You can see the northern range of mountains that line the whole of the east west corridor and all of the northern side of the city itself. As you can see, buildings go all the way up onto them.

This western view of the city shows off more of the residential buildings and much less of the few sky scrapers that form the town's skyline. You can also see the stretch of the norther range that goes all the way west towards Venezuela! I just loved how the clouds looked so ominous. This meant that my flight time would be shortened as well though.

The photo above shows how the the road looks that covers the span of the Queen's Park Savannah as well as its surrounding commercial and residential buildings as you would expect from a city centre.

We made our way through the city to the southern side of the savannah and parked the car as you can see above. This would be my base of operations and it was strategically chosen to be far away from anything that may get in my way such as really high powerlines in case rain falls and I need to land immediately. The wide open space would work very much in my favor soon enough as the rain did happen to come rushing down a little while after.

This was literally right in front of a literal steel pan yard where there was a large hustle and bustle in preparation for the upcoming carnival festivities. The thing about the Queen's Park Savannah is that most of the biggest Carnival events are held right here on the savannah in the Capital! Trinidadians take pride in their carnival celebrations and there is a lot of money in it!

The eastern end, as I mentioned, is lined with the Magnificent Seven historical mansions that are well preserved and up kept from during the colonial days with its amazing architecture. It is also quite the tourist attraction and the photography you can do with these buildings are always amazing!

You can see them lined up at the bottom of the photo above going form left to right. You can also see the savannah at the middle of the photo surrounded by large trees that hide the road that forms the roundabout that circumnavigates the savannah.

This large circle is where large events and the large carnival parades are held. People and tourists usually pay a fee to join a carnival band where they get to dress up with whatever costume that band has on offer that year. It is much like a designer thing and quite expensive. There is a large stage here in and on carnival Monday and Tuesday, each band gets to pass the stage and parade and dance to the music.

We've flown around full circle back to where I took off from but now you get to see what this side of the city looks like! On the bottom left you can see NAPA (National Academy for Performing Arts) with its unorthodox and round shapes. The pan yard we were parked at is on the right.

This is a closeup of the other side of the pan yard. From up here the buildings look so small! Way in the background you can see cranes in the actual sea port of Port of Spain! It recently won a regional award apparently, though I've never been there to see it.

This view is a southern facing view of Port of Spain Proper with some of its sky scrapers and its famous waterfront. You can also see the Caroni Swamp, another tourist attraction in the top left of the photo! The ocean in the background is called the Gulf of Paria.

Just as I was flying around back to where I launched the drone, the rain came pouring down! How lucky was I to not get caught in the precipitation for long. All in all, this was a great flight and I was glad to be able to cover most of the awesome aspects of the Queen's Park Savannah! Thanks a lot for coming along, cheers!