Top 5 Interesting Events & Sites of Aripo

The following are the Top 5 Interesting Events & Sites to know about Aripo Village, Heights of Aripo. This community is a serene community with beautiful sites, rural culture and a wealth of research potential. 

Check out the following images and the captions are links to more information about each item.

1. The Aripo Cottage: 

The Aripo Cottage 

2. Aripo Caves with Oil Birds:

Aripo Caves

Aripo Oil Bird Cave - Chris Anderson

3. Independence Carnival in Aripo:

Miss Aripo Independence Carnival Queen - Angelo Marcelle (Guardian)

4. Research inb Watershed Management:

Importance of watershed management for Aripo and Plum Mitan - Prof Dyer Narinesingh, from left, Dean, FSA; Prof Clement Sankat, UWI Campus principal, St Augustine; Prof Carlisle Pemberton, Project Leader, Trinidad, and Linley Geeban, Embassy the Kingdom of the Netherlands, at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding.

5. Cocoa Growing in Aripo:

Sustainability: Organic cacao in Aripo Trinidad.

More sources of information about Aripo:

Paradise waiting to be explored: Great read!
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Paradise_waiting_to_be_explored-127703668.html

The National Trust - Aripo Cacao Estate: 
http://nationaltrust.tt/location/aripo-cacao-estate/

Aripo Cave No. 1 - Oil Birds: 
http://sta.uwi.edu/ffa/geography/img/content/research/caves/cavedetails/Aripo_Cave_1.html

Drawing the Connections: Sun 16th Oct, 2016.

Labelled houses from the community. (D. Arlen. 2016)

The second meeting , the President of the Council, Mr. Victor, met with us for the first time. We brought with us a map that was created for the community so that the members would have a better understanding of the process with a visual representation of the area. Aripo is much larger then we had estimated as the community pointed out that there are several areas that branched off the main road  leading into other areas.  So it is a learning process for everyone. 

Members of the community filling out the map of their
community. (D. Arlen. 2016)

After our explanations of the Participatory Mapping process, we decided that it would be best to give the attendees a visualization of the mapping process by having them populate the map. We started marking public spaces, such as the church and school, and then the participants started to identify each house by occupant (not by the family name by the "home" name of the most well known members of the house) and then it moved to drawing the connections of relationships between the houses (Families generally stayed within close proximity to each other for several generations). 





The energy in the room, from the members of the community,  skyrocketed when they started to identify mapping their neighbours, friends and family. When it became personal, we felt that the members of the council took ownership of the project. The transfer of information also created a transfer of energy. Initially, the participants were more being informed and when they were explaining where each location is and how it relates to others they became the experts in the topic of Aripo and we became the informed. 

It was really an interesting experience and I do hope that as the project continues that we see that the community continues to take more ownership of the project. To become For Aripo By Aripo. 

Members of the community pointing our features on the map. (A. Thorne. 2016) 

Aripo Village First Encounter: Sun 9th Oct, 2016.

Heights of Aripo Welcome Sign. (E. Mc Curdy. 2016)

Aripo Village in the Heights of Aripo is a small linear community nestled in the Northern Range. In this community, a sacred Hindu Site (a river connection to the Ganges), a simple church, a bar, "parlors" (small snack shops), a primary school, a community centre and so much more can be found in such a rural village in the Trinidadian context. 

Another CCRIF Collegue, Elon Mc Curdy, and myself  along with Dean Arlen, met with some members of the Aripo Village Council and  gave them an idea of the role the Department of Geography would play in the Participatory Mapping Approach. There were introductory discussions with the Youth Council of the area before and the Aripo Village Council became interested in taking up the project. 

Before this meeting, I had never been to Aripo Heights (surprising as I have been almost everywhere else in the Northern Range) and this was my first official introduction to this project. I am curious about Aripo Village and how it is from a community point of view; where they want to improve, what they expect out of the project and where they want to go from there. 

Sunday afternoon football. (E. Mc Curdy. 2016)

Members of the Council spoke of building on the main economic activity, agriculture, and the potential for chocolate and other cocoa products to be produced within the community. Dean Arlen ,  a stakeholder of the community and artist and designer by profession, suggested that the community should consider cooperatives and to form for their cocoa industry and other foods they produce.  Visualization of the community is done through participatory mapping. 

The objective of the project is to map the Aripo Village to help the community to visualize what they have, risks to the area, what areas and spaces can be used safely, where people live, recreate, socialise etc. and  lastly what future plans they can realistically consider.