Blogs from Tobago, Trinidad & Tobago, Central America Caribbean - page 2

Bella Vista Cottage is set on a hillside overlooking Charlottesville, a Tobago fishing village. The fishermen return to this beach throughout the day - the fish market is open from dawn to dusk with freshly caught red snapper, barracuda, tuna, sailfish and kingfish. Our wooden cottage is really one big room and an equally big verandah. The doors and windows are always open to encourage the breeze - it is like living outdoors but with home comforts. Interesting birds visit the garden and our bird table. Just after we arrived, two peacocks perched on the kitchen ballistrade. They were so tame that they fed from our hands. We have arrived in time for the carnival. This started on Monday at 6 am with loud music in the village, "J'ouvert" - the dawn wake-up celebration. We drove ... read more

19th February - 4thMarch – Fernando to Tobago This passage started ok, wing and wing, sunny, good sailing, even made a banana cake that turned out perfectly. Then however it all went downhill. Very squally, lightning, so much rain, waves over the side into the cockpit and no sun for nearly a week. Flying fish in cockpit and on deck nearly did my head in! No wonder it's called the doldrums. We all nearly got the doldrums. Rather than having no wind (which we all admit would've been worse) we've had very unsettled weather. One day after a particularly rough and very unpleasant night, John from Boomerang got on the radio sked and gave a very strong report on how unimpressed he was with the conditions overnight. We were all laughing as we were all thinking ... read more

Sun... Sand... Sea... Saltwater... Surf... Swimming... Sandals... Snorkeling... Sandcastles ... Shells... Stars... SteelpanBand... Superb...... read more

By the time the plane cleared Trinidad and was over the ocean, we were already starting our descent to Tobago. While Port of Spain was a convenient launching site for our mountain rainforest and mangrove swamp adventures, I can’t imagine it as a tourist destination. For good reason. As opposed to the rest of the Caribbean which is largely tourism based, Trinidad is oil-economy based. No big surprise with Venezuela as its neighbour. Only steel mill in the Caribbean for example. From solely a tourismo point of view con is that the city caters to the business and worker crowd and not the tourist crowd. Good in that there is not the same sense of hostility I have felt elsewhere as a middle-class white tourist in other people’s country where they depend on “my” tourist dollars. ... read more

the flutter of beauty When the first rays of the sun hardly start to struggle through the dark clouds hanging over the sea, the nature seems magically quiet. Everything around comes to a standstill - only light noise of waves, accompanied by rustle of palm leaves, can slightly disturb this silence. All around plays in magic colours and one can't help but take notice of these magnificent views. I enjoy enormously finding myself on this isolated sandy sea shore, surrounded by disorderly coco trees, lines of beach beds and few empty bars. It's really marvellous to stay alone here, feeling the charm and luxury of the solitude that nature offers. Overcrowded in the day and like deserted now, the beach is truly captivating. Time flies here. I have been walking for two hours already and now ... read more