Now that I’ve returned from my brief stay in Tobago I’m ready to go back. Time went far too fast. They say you can see the whole of the island in one day, but in the two I was I there I only saw half. It was never my intention to go and conquer all of Tobago, but to soak in what I could and leave a little something for next time. In comparison to Trinidad, Tobago is pretty much the exact opposite. It is much smaller in size, cleaner, quieter and slower paced than big booming Trinidad. For the first time during my entire stay I finally felt as if I were on vacation.
On our first day in off the ferry, my companions and I made our way to Bacolet where we would be crashing over the weekend. A friend’s uncle kindly let us intrude and use his huge home during our stay and I couldn’t have wished for better accommodation while in Tobago. Quickly tossing our bags into our rooms we changed into our beach wear and headed east. Our first stop was at Speyside Beach, a very sleepy beach completely free of tourists. The water at Speyside wasn’t the crystal clear kind we had been looking for and the waves seemed rather choppy for the time of day so we moved onto the next. Charlotteville Beach, another less frequented by tourists was a little livier than the last. Loud Reggae music could be heard from the sound system of a local bar owner until the sunset and the local fishermen began to call it quits for the day. We hung around for a two hours since the water wasn’t all that bad and made our way back before Tobago’s narrow winding roads became pitch black.
The next day we had planned to do the tourist thing by taking a glass bottom boat tour of Buccoo Reef. When we reached a Rasta greeted us and signed us up on a tour with ‘Miss Ayanna,’ the boat we would be taking down the reef. For the price of $50 TT ‘Miss Ayanna’ didn’t have music on the vessel and we didn’t stop for drinks on the way back down, but $50 TT was quite a score considering most folks get charged double to take the same tour. However, if you find yourself vacationing in Tobago the tour is highly recommended for family or solo day trips.
Fort King George was the last stop for the day before retiring for the evening. Located near the Scarborough Hospital, I found the view from the Fort one of the most breath-taking on the entire island and could understand why so many past European powers had once fought over the little island. The museum was closed at the time we made it, but gawking at the world and water below the Fort could take some hours to do.
Unfortunately, we saw little on our very last morning having to spend hours searching for breakfast on the island. Our search began around half past nine and ended around half past noon when we had finally finished breakfast. We stopped at four restaurants before ending up at Vie de France where the service was horrible, the wait entirely too long and the food was only decent. After this escapade we swung by a beach for thirty minutes and then had to head to the Port to return to Trinidad. I’ll definitely need more time in Tobago next time.