"I wanted to give you a follow-up on my trip to Trinidad with the hopes of starting a commercial hunting operation there. Frankly, I had higher hopes. It really would not work out for a commercial operation. The animals are poached heavily by local hunters in areas accessed by road. The areas with decent populations are hard to access, meaning a lot of climbing. The hunting might be hard for older collector hunters. Plus, the trophy quality really isn't there for all the trouble.
"I saw one decent brocket deer and a couple of young deer. Other legal game on license include armadillo and ant-eaters, which I didn't care to shoot. I didn't find any area I think would hold white-lipped peccary. Possibly there is something in the south, but I did not investigate further. I saw and shot wild pig, but that would be a long way to go for a wild pig. The only hunting I could see that's fun, would be for a small, but healthy population of `buffalypso,'" a cross between water buffalo and feral cattle. They would be interesting to shoot and hard to hunt in the mountains, similar to feral cattle hunting in Hawaii. But there is no SCI category for this.
"Another negative is that it's expensive to operate there. Costs are not Latin based. They are based on Caribbean prices. A soda is $1.50, and a sandwich is $4.50, just like in the States. So, gas prices, lodging, all operating costs etc., would be passed to clients, and it isn't cheap. I would have to organize a hunt for no record book animals with a low percent success........(continued)
