Brasso Seco hopes bazaar draws visitors and attention to roads

SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Nes­tled in Trinidad's North­ern Range, the moun­tain vil­lage of Bras­so Seco, Paria, is prepar­ing to wel­come hun­dreds of vis­i­tors for its an­nu­al Vil­lage Bazaar on Ju­ly 4, themed Christ­mas in Ju­ly.

Or­gan­ised by the Bras­so Seco Vil­lage Coun­cil, the event will cel­e­brate rur­al cul­ture, tra­di­tion­al cui­sine and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it. As res­i­dents pre­pare to show­case the vil­lage's at­trac­tions, they are al­so re­new­ing calls for ur­gent re­pairs to the road­way that pro­vides the com­mu­ni­ty's main ac­cess.

Vil­lage Coun­cil pres­i­dent Sinet­ta Janette-Her­nan­dez said the bazaar is not on­ly a fes­tive event but an op­por­tu­ni­ty to high­light a com­mu­ni­ty that has pre­served its her­itage while over­com­ing decades of chal­lenges.

"We're invit­ing peo­ple to ex­pe­ri­ence Bras­so Seco," she said. "Vis­i­tors can en­joy parang mu­sic, pastelles, pork dish­es, home­made wines, lo­cal pro­duce and the hos­pi­tal­i­ty our vil­lage is known for."

Sinetta Janette-Hernandez, president of the Brasso Seco Village Council, says the village has worked hard to preserve its traditions and heritage. Photo courtesy the Brasso Seco Village Council.

BRASSO SECO VILLAGE COUNCIL

Known as the "Val­ley of Life," Bras­so Seco is sur­round­ed by rain­for­est and moun­tain land­scapes. The vil­lage, whose Pa­tois name means "dry branch," can be reached via Blan­chisseuse Road from Ari­ma. The jour­ney takes about an hour for ex­pe­ri­enced dri­vers, while first-time vis­i­tors may take up to 90 min­utes. Taxis are al­so avail­able at a cost of about $30 per per­son.

Found­ed in the ear­ly 1900s by Span­ish and Pa­tois-speak­ing farm­ers, Bras­so Seco de­vel­oped as a co­coa and cof­fee-pro­duc­ing set­tle­ment. Its pop­u­la­tion ex­pand­ed in the 1940s when fam­i­lies dis­placed by the con­struc­tion of the Cau­ra Dam re­set­tled there, bring­ing agri­cul­tur­al ex­per­tise that strength­ened the lo­cal econ­o­my.

When glob­al co­coa prices col­lapsed in the 1960s, farm­ers di­ver­si­fied in­to ba­nanas, cit­rus and veg­eta­bles. An­oth­er mile­stone came in 1996 with the in­tro­duc­tion of elec­tric­i­ty, which trans­formed dai­ly life and ex­pand­ed eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Residents of Brasso Seco clear access roads into their community in 2025. Photo courtesy the Brasso Seco Village Council.

BRASSO SECO VILLAGE COUNCIL

A year lat­er, res­i­dents es­tab­lished the Bras­so Seco Tourism Ac­tion Com­mit­tee (TAC), lay­ing the ground­work for the vil­lage's growth as a rur­al eco­tourism des­ti­na­tion.

To­day, Bras­so Seco is known for bird­watch­ing, hik­ing trails, rivers and wa­ter­falls, in­clud­ing the pop­u­lar Madamas Falls. Vis­i­tors are al­so drawn to its agri­cul­tur­al tra­di­tions, with farm­ers re­ha­bil­i­tat­ing his­toric co­coa es­tates and pro­duc­ing lo­cal­ly made bean-to-bar choco­late through ini­tia­tives sup­port­ed by the Al­liance of Rur­al Com­mu­ni­ties.

Agri­cul­ture and do­mes­tic tourism re­main the back­bone of the lo­cal econ­o­my. This year's bazaar will fea­ture lo­cal food, co­coa prod­ucts, fresh pro­duce, flow­ers, hand­i­crafts, home­made wines and tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas del­i­ca­cies, recre­at­ing the fes­tive spir­it of the hol­i­day sea­son in the mid­dle of the year.

Residents of Brasso Seco clear access roads into their community in 2025. Photo courtesy the Brasso Seco Village Council.

BRASSO SECO VILLAGE COUNCIL

The event has be­come a ma­jor source of in­come for res­i­dents, ven­dors and farm­ers. How­ev­er, Janette-Her­nan­dez said poor road con­di­tions con­tin­ue to ham­per the com­mu­ni­ty's de­vel­op­ment.

She said the ap­prox­i­mate­ly four-mile stretch of road lead­ing in­to the vil­lage is in ur­gent need of re­pairs, cit­ing pot­holes, drainage is­sues and over­grown veg­e­ta­tion.

"Last year vil­lagers came to­geth­er to clean the road­way and fill pot­holes them­selves be­cause we want­ed vis­i­tors to have safe ac­cess to the com­mu­ni­ty," she said.

Res­i­dents have re­peat­ed­ly raised con­cerns about the de­te­ri­o­rat­ing route, which is crit­i­cal for farm­ers, school trans­porta­tion, tourism op­er­a­tors and emer­gency ser­vices.

"More can be done to de­vel­op the com­mu­ni­ty," Janette-Her­nan­dez said. "Im­prov­ing the road would make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence for res­i­dents and vis­i­tors alike."