Tobago

Tobago is the smaller of the two islands here in T&T, with a population of approximately 54,000 people and a total area of 300 square kilometres. It is north and east of Trinidad and is only a 20 minute flight or a two and a half hour "fast" ferry ride away. Tobago is the island with the much nicer beaches and therefore a much more extensive tourism industry. There are many beaches with hotel resorts alongside them, however the resorts are much smaller and older than those that might be found in Mexico or Cuba.

We decided to take the ferry over so that we could take our car with us and explore more of the island than we might otherwise have been able to. Plus Stu had conveniently organized some meetings with the Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) on Monday so had to get to their offices.

We arrived around noon on Saturday and just as we were driving off the ferry the rain started to come down. It rained off and on all day on Saturday, however that gave us a chance to drive around a good portion of the island without missing out on any valuable beach time.

We had been generously offerred a friend's place to stay at for the weekend and we accepted his offer. Although he had mentioned that the place was pretty small and really close to the airport, we were a little surprised at just how small, rustic and REALLY close to the runway of the airport it was. Luckily it is a pretty small airport with only small planes coming in regularly from Trinidad. After our initial shock was over and the weather got better on Sunday we were feeling a bit better about the cabin - unfortunately the mosquitos were pretty bad and drove us into a hotel for our last night there.

I know this is painting a pretty bleak picture of what is supposed to be a beautiful island, but the weather did clear on Sunday afternoon and all seemed a lot better once we were able to get to the beach. We went on a glass bottom boat tour which included looking through the glass at the second largest coral reef in the world (according to our Tobagonian guide!) , a stop to do some snorkling, and a stop in "The Nylon Pool" (an area of waste deep water which has coral sand on the bottom).

Monday turned out to be the best day of the weekend and this suited Kate just fine. She dropped me off at my meetings and then went to the beach for the day! That night we checked into one of the hotels so we could get away from the bugs and have a nice relaxing evening watching the sunset over the Carribbean Sea.

We will definitely be back to Tobago, hopefully many times. We will certainly take our guests their when they come to stay!

Talk to you again soon.

Stu and Kate