Trinidad and Tobago
La Brea Tar Pit

La Brea Tar Pit aka Pitch Lake is located in the village La Brea in Trinidad, some 55 miles from the capital city Port of Spain. La Brea, which means 'tar of pitch' in Spanish. La Brea is famous for its pitch lake, which is the largest in the world. Local residents refer to this treasure as the Eighth Wonder of the World. A tar pit, or more accurately known as an asphalt pit or asphalt lake.

The La Brea Tar Pit aka Pitch Lake is one of three natural asphalt lakes in the world, the others being in California - the famous La Brea Tar Pit - and Venezuela. Pitch from La Brea is used to pave roads around the world. It quietly replenishes itself after quantities have been removed. It is recorded that this Pitch Lake is the only one where the surface is hard enough that people can walk on it. There are a variety of small craters in the lake and when the rain falls, the rain water settle in these craters like little pools. The gas that eminate from the pitch is sulphur and it is said that the sulphur in these pools has human healing remedies.

The roads in La Brea as basically impossible to repair. As the pitch continues to grow, it unlevels the roads in the area. Whenever I travel to La Brea, I always know when I have arrived in the area. The roads are like a roller coaster. There is one house that is basically destroyed by the ever growing pitch in the owners yard and would you believe, the owner still lives in the house!

If ever you have the opportunity to visit this Pitch Lake, please be very selective in choosing your guides. The media is always advertising that visitors to the Lake should hire a guide wearing a red t-shirt and labeled La Brea Pitch Lake tour guide etc. When I visited the area in 2011 I was approached by a guy who was not wearing the required uniform. I refused to use his service. There have been many reported thefts by un-uniformed guides on tourists.

Now that we have choosen our guide and paid our entrance fees, we were guided into the pitch lake by our tour guide. He told us about the history the lake etc, he was very thorough, informative and answered all our questions. The tour took about 30 - 45 minutes to go around the lake. As we were standing in the center of the Pitch Lake, our guide stuck a piece of stick into the ground and then pulled it out. A black liquid, sticky thing was on the stick - pitch in its liquid form. Eventhough we walked on the Pitch Lake it was a little soft. Some spots were in its liquid form. We were unable to walk without our shoes as the lake was a bit to hot to bear without foot wear. I remember some years ago, I first time I had the opportunity to visit the La Brea Tar Pit aka Pitch lake, I was able to swim in one of the pools. I was amazed at how warm the water was.

The pitch is mined and place in large iron containers. These containers are attached onto to iron rails. When the containers are filled, they are mechanically pulled back to the factory where the pitched is processed and exported.