Tobago Holiday

January 30, 2007

Tobago

Our holiday nearly ended before it began because of an information mix up, we received a copy of the flight times from our friend’s saying the departure time was 09:30, this was in fact changed on the tickets (which we never had) to 07:30. It was a bit of a shock to find the desk closing down as we arrived!!. Fortunately the kind staff of Excel airlines reopened and we had one of the quickest boarding processes the world has ever seen, from check in to sitting on the plane in about ten minutes flat, not bad for four people and their entire luggage. I settled down to the 8 ½ hour flight but found we were right next to someone who thought it would be great to take a six month old baby along and as we all know babies cant equalise pressure in the ears so screaming is the best release!!! Not to worry though as I had 2000 tracks on my i-pod, more than enough to see me through the long hours of none stop crying……….WRONG!.......Just before leaving I had updated the i-pod but unfortunately removed it from the dock too soon, result, one completely blank piece of electronic hardware!

Arriving in Tobago on a warm overcast afternoon wasn’t the best of starts either, nor was the painfully slow entry process made even more frustrating due to the arrival of a Virgin airlines jumbo jet at the same time.

We had booked in at TREE TOP apartments owned by a fantastic lady called Monica, who had kindly arranged to meet us at the airport and pick up four tired sweaty individuals as well as all their luggage. A short drive later we arrived at the apartments which are actually the lower floor of her house; these were spacious, spotlessly clean and had a wonderful piece of equipment called, ‘Air conditioning’.

The next day we all went to collect our hire car, a Nissan Sunny automatic with aircon (definitely needed in 32 degree heat) fourteen days hire cost $2600 , not as much as you think because the exchange rate is about $11TT (Trinidad & Tobagan dollars) to the pound. Nissans seemed to be the most popular cars on the island but we did see plenty of Toyotas although these were mainly older models. Driving on the island is an experience everybody should try, the roads vary from very good to downright abysmal (felt like I was back in England) you also drive on the left as over here (well, most of the time anyway), the only additional driving technique is the copious use of the horn when approaching bends, junctions, parked cars, people, dogs……everything!

After spending one week on the west side of the island we travelled to our second apartment HERE, again this was spacious clean and this time located near to the beach, unfortunately it had no air conditioning (scorchio!!), it was also a two bedroom apartment instead of separate as previous.

On the whole the holiday was really enjoyable having some good and some not so good points.Driving across the island is an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world with the stunning views of sandy beaches as well as the rain forests. Food on the island can be what ever you want although a tad expensive if you stray from local dishes - which usually consist of chicken, shrimp (we would call them prawns), fish or goat. There is no problem with the water either, you can drink from the tap with out any fear of tummy bugs etc.

Would we go again?....No, but I would thoroughly recommend it as an experience that should be tried by anyone thinking of travelling there.

MAP OF TOBAGO

OUR FRIEND TIGGY'S DIVE SITE

Here are a couple of the *cough few*cough* photographs that I took.

The link at the bottom is to my photobucket containing the entire collection with the subsections detailing various places etc………..

ENJOY

Overlooking Castara

One of the cheaper apartments

Obligatory sunset

Mmmmmmm Lobster!

The only familiar Toyota (the only one on the island that I saw)

Home time