12/09/2014
A MAN WHO IS A BOSS AT HIS WORK MUST BE HONORED
"Gianluca." ha scritto nel messaggio news:iWxYj.51120$[email protected]... > come si chiama? come trovarla? > si vede spesso in alcuni film. Il pitch lake In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh visited these shores while in search of gold. Instead of finding that precious commodity he found what was probably an overflow from the Pitch Lake and marveled at its abundance. He caulked the seams of his ships with it and said it was "most excellent good" and left. In subsequent years, a company called Trinidad Lake Asphalt found a wide range of applications for this commodity, mainly in the construction and surfacing of roads and airports. The origin of this mass of black pitch is still largely a matter of conjecture. Scientists claim the lake is the result of large quantities of asphaltic oil having seeped into a great quantity of mud with great pressures and gases. The lighter portion of this mixture evaporating over the course of centuries, leaving thick viscous residue, Although the surface of the lake is solid enough to walk on, the area is in constant impenetrable motion. A hole dug into the asphalt one day is refilled the next. The Pitch Lake at La Brea is the largest in the world. Two other such lakes exist, one in Venezuela known as Lake Maracaibo and another at Los Angeles, California. Long a tourist attraction in TT, the Pitch Lake, since last June, is now an organized event on the tour circuit. Kervon George is the man behind this new thrust at giving the Pitch Lake a new, upgraded image. "With the formation of this company and the use of qualified guides, visitors will no longer be harassed, exploited and overcharged by touts who have been fleecing them for several years," George said in an interview with the Sunday Guardian. Interestingly, the former touts are now bona fide employees of TTTC. Neil Langley, a former tout now employed as a tour guide, was born in La Brea. "I know everything about pitch, all around our house is pitch, so being a tout was the easiest way to earn a living. Now that we are working for a company, things are more organized," he told the Sunday Guardian. As a tout he ran after cars and hustled visitors. "You know how much fight use to take place before. Some visitors used to get embarrassed and leave. Fights were a regular thing among touts," he recalled. He charged anywhere from TT $40 to TT $100. Current fees are $20 for adults and $10 for children. Since June visitors to the lake have increased almost 200 percent. Daily visitors number about 60. The company has reopened the information booth and plans to set up a restaurant and bar for visitors. Plans are also in place to re-open the museum. A complete tour of the Pitch Lake takes about 45 minutes. Visitors are free to bathe in the "fountain of youth" which contains sulphur.
