Welcome to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
EAGE is pleased to announce the First EAGE Conference on Energy Opportunities in the Caribbean
This event will take place in the city of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. It’s the hub of the republic’s booming economy, the home of government and the media, and the crucible of Trinidad’s rich cultural life, with legions of mas camps and panyards, art galleries and theatres. It was here that Carnival was first established in Trinidad, and – in the suburb of Laventille – that the steel pan was invented.
Spreading back from the Gulf of Paria and enclosed by crumpled green hills, Port of Spain has a dynamic, sophisticated feel that’s markedly different from the rest of the country. Some 128,000 inhabitants jostle for space in and around its compact centre, which displays a rather schizophrenic mix of the old and the new. The mishmash of architectural styles makes for an ugly first impression, especially downtown, with its traffic-choked streets and dusty commercial buildings. But there are many fine nineteenth-century buildings here, from dignified churches and state offices to quaint “gingerbread” houses, named for their decorative wooden fretwork, while grandiose mansions of colonial planters overlook the large open space of the Queen’s Park Savannah, which was created by enlightened town planners in the early nineteenth century and now affords the city some much-needed breathing room.