A Different Kind of Pitch

If you tried to play football on this particular pitch in Trinidad, you’d soon find yourself sinking into its murky depths – the ‘Pitch Lake’ in the south of Trinidad is the largest commercially viable source of asphalt in the world.

Strange, but true – the tiny island of Trinidad exports most of the world’s asphalt. Many roads and surfaces in Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the US are covered in Trinidadian tar. China is importing vast quantities in preparation for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. No word on whether German demand increased in the run up to the World Cup.

There’s a perfectly valid geological explanation for the existence of this enormously valuable natural resource, but I’d pick the folklore version over the science any day.

According to the legends of the island’s indigenous peoples, the source of the Pitch Lake was the wrath of the Gods. It is said that one of the island’s tribes incurred the anger of their deities when, celebrating victory in battle, they slaughtered some hummingbirds. Outraged by this callous treatment of the sacred birds (the Amerindian name for Trinidad – Kairi – is said to mean ‘land of the hummingbird’), the Gods caused the earth to ‘open up and swallow the village’, leaving only the molten pitch in its place.

[Photo by Kerrie T Naranjit]