Huge Lake, Huge History

An Aerial View of the Pitch Lake and one its sub industry factories in the background

Right here in the Caribbean Island of Trinidad, we proudly have the world's largest deposit of asphalt located in a town called La Brea in south west Trinidad. You may have heard of it as the La Brea tar pits or most commonly as (locally), the Pitch Lake. History tells us that the British explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh, during his quest for El Dorado, was lead to the lake by the Indigenous tribes of the island to use the pitch to seal holes in the hull of his disrepaired ship. In present times, the pitch is dug up, refined in the nearby refinery and exported internationally to countries like US and China for use in road/ infrastructure building. We also use it locally. Today we head over to the pitch lake in the south western La Brea to see the natural beauty in person!

Aerial view of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway

Trinidad is a relatively small country and it takes at most, about an hour to go anywhere and we start the journey by heading onto the south bound Churchill-Roosevelt Highway. The weather was clear and perfect for exploration and photography.

A view of the entrance of the lake with some of the town in the top left

We arrived at the town of La Brea without much traffic but I will be honest with you. Once we got closer to the Lake and its environs, the roads were the worst one could imagine! I'm talking about huge rises and depressions where cars were too low to pass! You may be thinking that it is ironic that the town that is home to the pitch that paves the world's roadways has the worst roads! Many Trinidadians seem to think so as well but the state of the roads are due to the lake itself. The deposits of pitch run below the surface of the earth as well, not just at the lake, thereby distorting and convoluting the roadways above it and destroying buildings of the town!

View of the pitch lake entrance at eye level

After a really rough ride, we arrived at the entrance of the lake where visitors are allowed. There were not any industrial vehicles around that are normally used in the harvesting of the pitch as it was just as Sunday and so we were free to roam

First Aerial view of the lake, the rains that fell previously making it seem like a water lake

I sent up the drone and saw the pitch lake from an all encompassing aerial view for the first time! It was breath taking! Trinidadians mostly see it from eye level on the ground and it just feels like walking on rough pitch that was used to haphazardly pave an area but today the rains that had been falling for a few hours filled up the little cracks and crevices and it literally looked like a lake from where the drone was! As I flew closer though, the cosmically slow bubbling-up like nature of the asphalt as it flowed up to the surface became apparent. You'll see what I mean!

You can see the pitch and its crevices and mosaic like nature as it bubbles up from below

Flying closer to the middle of the lake, it was astonishing to see the mosaic like nature of the pitch as it "bubbled" up from the surface. You just have to imagine the Asphalt as an insanely viscous liquid that moves in extremely slow motion. As the tour guides will always tell you, this pitch has been dug up for years and used to pave millions of miles of roads here and around world, and it just keeps filling back up. Of course, geologists have done their surveys and estimated how much pitch we have left as well as within the veins that extend outwards amidst the town of La Brea.

In the background, you can see the refinery that is built right on the shoreline to accommodate ships that dock to pick up the pitch for direct export

The above shot shows the refinery in the background as well as the ocean, more specifically the gulf of Paria. It is such a convenient but natural location as ships can come directly to pick up pitch for shipment anywhere in world!

Flying lower down to get some detail in bubbles of the pitch, I could see tyre marks left back from the industrial vehicles. The looks of the mosaic pattern was so beautiful as well as the sulphur green and yellow (pitch apparently contains some of it) crevices. This almost reminds me of intestines or folds of skin! The size of the tyre tracks that are from large mining vehicles can give you can idea of the scale of how huge the lake is!

Here is another shot with more prominent tyre tracks that seemed to be used a lot. These tracks, we were told, do not last that long as they disappear relatively quickly and we were quite lucky to have documented them! You can also see more yellow, green waters as well as some plants that thrive in the pitch in the top right!

These plants usually consist of water roses, nymph lilies as well as birds of paradise! The water lilies seemed to be the most prominent and abundant with their vibrant greens! As you can see, it almost seems like some alien world with the oranges yellows and greens and I was piloting a remote probe exploring the alien planet, quite fascinating!

These were some of the first images that may have been taken of the pitch lake from an aerial view and quite honestly I was so grateful to have had the opportunity. Our country is small but actually does play a large role on the world stage being the richest nation in the Caribbean because of our large natural gas deposits as well as other natural jewels such as the Pitch Lake! Thanks for coming along and exploring the pitch lake with us like never before, cheers!