Chaguaramas (Alternity)

Chaguaramas is the capital of the West Indies Federation, located on the island/province of Trinidad, and with a population of 87,000 is the federation's third largest city, behind only Kingston and Bridgetown. The peninsula on which the city is built was originally leased from Britain by the United States as a naval base during World War II, though by the late 1950s, the base was significantly scaled back. Following the establishment of the West Indies Federation in 1958, the United States entered into negotiations that eventually ceded the base in its's entirety to the WIF in 1962. By the time British Guiana joined in 1970, Chaguaramas had grown from a small port town on the northwest coast of Trinidad to a thriving metropolis of 36,000. Today, Chaguaramas is home to one of the West Indies' largest ports – exporting primarily bauxite ore – and a major center for tourism, with over a thousand civilian yachts berthing at the Chaguaramas Marina annually.