Four shots of Chacachacare in Trinidad. It was too dark inside to shoot so I became rather obsessed with shooting corridors and landings...This place used to house one of the largest leper colonies in the world and is separated from the mainland by ravaging waters.

In 1984 the lepers were abandoned and either perished, or drowned trying to escape. The locals in Trinidad believe it is haunted and no one goes there apart from the two lighthouse keepers.

There was talk that Donald Trump was going to buy the land and turn it into a casino and there have been several other plans that have never come to fruition.

I used to come here as a kid and get parents to leave us behind in groups. We would camp here in the Nun's quarters and slide down the body chute.

The place is now getting so overgrown that you can't find many of the main buildings- but in the undergrowth, hidden, unless you have a good machete and strong boots are a pharmacy with medical records strewn, a cinema with projector still intact, a graveyard for volunteers, and dormitories for the sufferers...

It's a frightening place, now overgrown with Machineel trees whose poisonous sap causes horrid welts, and razor grass.

This was one of the reasons i wanted to go to the caribbean- to go here before it vanishes in plant matter or gets developed...shame more pictures didn't come out though! I really needed the flashbars that i left in the hotel!

Related tags:

derelict, abandoned, chacachacare, leper colony

Part of Project:

caribbean 2008

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