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Published: June 18th 2016
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Yeah Man, welcome to Tobago!
Can you put Tobago on the map...probably not for most of you. And it has nothing to do with Tobago Cays in Grenadine! Tobago is one of the two island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, the most Southern nation of the Caribbean. Venezuela is actually just next door! Trinidad is home to some 1.2 millions inhabitants....while the smaller Tobago has just 50,000 inhabitants. Trinidad is full of oil and gaz just offshore of the island...Tobago is way more relax and...Caribbean!
My British Airways flight did Gatwick, little stop in St Lucia, and finally Port-of-Spain on Trinidad. We arrived 50 minutes late and I missed my short connection on Caribbean Airlines to Tobago. No problem Sir, next flight is only one hour later, here is your boarding pass. Welcome to an island where people are friendly....and always ready to help.
The airport on Tobago is in Crown Point. Arriving late, I wanted to sleep not too far away from the airport. Google it a little and found "Candle in the Wind" guesthouse. Well....the bed was...bad...mosquitoes were all over...and at 27usd for a bed in a dorm, it's a
rip-off. But I had the full house for myself. I only had to walk 10 minutes from the airport. I was in by 8pm, and out the next morning before 7am. It did the job....well, at least some part of it!
My final destination...for some great diving and four nights is the little village of Speyside on the North-East of the island. A straight ride would just be short of an hour...on small binding roads. Had I booked a taxi, that's a whopping 70usd one way! So I first took a shared taxi to Scarborough, than the local bus. Well....they told me it's island time, there is a bus every two hours...but you never really know. I arrived at 7.30am at the bus stop....to find out one bus should arrive in one hour...the 8.30 never showed...so I just waited three hours for my local ride. Welcome to Tobago...where people say good morning to you in the street....where there is music everybody. People here are truly nice, but I can't understand them. They call it broken English. Trust me, I felt like an idiot not even being able to understand the bus schedule! Ah life! Welcome to Tobago!
I made it to Speyside. I was staying with the owners of the Manta Lodge, who also run a dive center. The Manta Lodge is closed...for a while. But they do have a little flat below their house that they rent to divers! That was perfect...there was even a kitchen....and I did some shopping in London beforehand. It ended up being a great idea...I was gifted with the local veggies from the garden, and with some fish that they catch the day before. But shopping for food here is more than basic. Well....everything is very basic around Speyside.
I didn't see many tourists over the past four days. I had two lunch in the same restaurant, the only one who seems to have any customer. Let say...if you want Caribbean without the tourist, this is the place for you.
And the diving...well....I saw once two divers on a boat...and this is it. I did three days of 2 dives each day. As you guess, it was only me on my boat with the captain and my divemaster. Change of divemaster each day...to make sure everybody is working!
This
is by far one of the best place I have dived in the Caribbean! Each dive is a cool drift. We had many turtles, huge amount of lobsters....one ray and one nurse shark. But beside this, the corals were pure healthy....all this topped with an amazing visibility! They seems to have mantas during this time of the year, but we didn't see one. Come the winter, they also regularly spot lone hammerheads!
The last dive site was by far the most fun one. They call it Flying Manta. No Manta today, but that was a roller-coaster of a dive! Just pure fun....and one dive that the divermaster don't do often. You have to speed up right at the right point...to go through a washing machine...that was a pure rush of adrenaline!
So this was it...few cool days in one more country on my list....and some pretty cool dive! Enjoy the pics! Next stop....back to a more "trendy" spot...
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