Chaguaramas Bay...........Trinidad

On our last day in Trinidad, a friend of my mother took us on a boat trip to Chaguaramas Bay. It was nice to have some tranquility! I want to buy that pink house.....!

Downtown Port of Spain........

One thing I did notice about Trinidad was all the natural hair wearers, especially locks. No sister locks however, although there is someone listed on the website in Trinidad, her number was unavailable when I called. A sister was in need of a re-tightening!

However, due to the high crime rate and also the reluctance of people wishing to have their photos taken, I was unable to get any pics. I was too scared to take out my camcorder!

Also the "Soca Warriors" had their welcome home whilst we were in Tobago. Everywhere in Trinidad were banners of the soca warriors, on goverment buildings on cars, everywhere. Tee-shirts for sale on every corner down town.

Family, Friends and Fun in Trinidad

Our days were spent in "town" and our evenings were spent drinking rum, eating roti and liming on the porch! Catching up with mum's friends and reminicing over the good times. It was a whirlwind trip to Trinidad, but I can look back fondly on the time we spent there, with friends old and new.


After 6 days of rushing around, the time finally arrived to venture back to the calm of Tobago. This time, however, we decided to fly!

Well "who tell me to do that?......." Was all our travelling doomed for disaster?

I booked the flights on Tobago Express which flies between Piarco Airport in Trinidad to Crown Point Airport in Tobago, every hour.

I made the reservations for 5 as my brother who arrived in Trinidad whilst we were there wished to see Tobago.

Reservations made for 11.30 am flight. Check in time 10.30am - no problem or so I thought. We arrived at the airport at around 10.40am, and due to the long queue, by the time we got to the desk, low and behold our reservations had been given away as "standby" tickets. Well you can imagine. I was fuming. The next available flight that 5 of us could be accommodated on was the 2.30 pm. We had no choice but to wait in the airport until the 1.30pm check-in. This time I made sure I was first in line, only to be told that they were still checking in the 2.00pm flight. I stood my ground and remaining in line. I was then first for 2.30pm check in.

We then proceded to bagage clearance as you do not need to go through customs inter island. 2.30pm came and went. Then came the announcement that the flight was still in Tobago and would be delayed due to bad weather. Yes it is rainy season and yes it was raining!

We finally boarded the plane and arrived in Tobago 15 mins later at around 3.30pm. Hugh our taxi driver was patiently awaiting our return.

Culture Shock Shower...........

These are the pics of the antiquated showering facilities. I am sure back in their day they were very state of art! No disrespect grandmum, but we had to shower very carefully! I can't seem to keep these posts in order. Having lots of problems uploading the pics and when I do through Picasa they seem to go wherever they like! Although I do think I am getting a little better! Bear with me, I am sure you all can manage to follow the story script somehow!

Skerretts Villa Mt Irvine Tobago

The villa is situated at Mt Irvine Bay, in a nice quiet residential turning. Three minutes walk from Mt Irvine Bay beach.

After peeking at the villa, we walked to the beach and had lunch at the Surfers Restaurant and Bar. Again we dined on fish, but king fish with rice, macaroni pie, callaloo and salad. This time the cost was $50 TT per person which equates to £5.00! that's more like it!
We spent some time at the bay and then returned back to the hotel in the early evening.

Tonigt we were going to eat Chinese. Showered, changed and took a walk to the local chinese restaurant. The food was well presented and tasted nice and above all it came in at around $130 TT about £13.00 in total, including drinks! It's funny how when you are on holiday, you always compare what you would pay at home. It is one thing getting used to the new currency and quite another working out the exchange rates!

Mt Irvine Bay with the Sufers Restaurant in the background.

Home from Home!

Day Three. We made ourselves comfortable at Skerretts Villa. We were only due to spend one night as we had to go over to Trinidad on a business trip.
My aunt has a cleaner, Pinky, whose partner Hugh has a taxi service. Hugh was invaluable and was at our beck and call.

Hugh advised us to travel to Trinidad via the Lynx which is a Catamaran type ferry, which sails twice a day between Tobago and Trinidad. As I have only flown before I decided it would be a good experience to try the Lynx. It certainly was an experience. Hugh advised us to purchase our tickets "downtown" the evening before and that we should take the 6.30am sailing to make the best of our time. You have to purchase your ticket at the Port Authority. So we lined up outside as the Port Authority closes between 2pm and 4pm. It was about 4.30 pm before they re-opened to a rush of irate Tobagonians!. Children were getting squashed and they had no regard for the elderly or infirm! Once at the desk, you have to give the names of all passengers travelling etc. My fist attempt was disaster, the teller did not get it right and I had to go back and change the names again. That over, we returned home to pack a suitcase and prepare for our 4 days in Trinidad.

Hugh arrived at 4.45am as promised and we were whisked off to the Port for our 6.30 am sailing.
A pic of the Lynx. I did feel like I was boarding the "Windrush" like my foremothers. Passengers have to walk up the gangplank and the Port is very commercial. One inside it was quite pleasant. However, the 2 and a half hours sailing was delayed by about 30 minutes due to the boat not having any water on board!

Trinidad..................

Trinidad was certainly an experience, especially "downtown" Port of Spain! Imagine your worst shopping experience and multiply it by 5! Also add the "sun" and "humidity" factors!

The boys enjoyed travelling in the "maxi taxis" , with their loud music playing and decorative interiors.

You can certainly learn alot from other cultures and countries and travelling is definately an education. Not having to deal with attourney's before in this capacity was an education in itself! You make an appointment and you still have to wait at least 3 hours to be seen! Bwoy this business trip was going to take it out of us.

Although it was different, we managed to get through.

Some aspects of "town" were enjoyable, especially the home cooked foods. I really enjoyed "doubles" although the boys had some reservations, especially my 6 year old. And a few glasses of mauby went down a treat!

Trinidad here we come

Trinidad here we come! Arrived in Port of Spain Port. Again another commercial port, downtown. After a long wait for family friends to meet us, we finally arrived at my grandmother's house in the Petit Valley, Crystal Stream, Diego Martin.

It has been 14 years since I last visited this house, when my grandmother passed and the reason I revisited it this time was to clear up business after my mother tragically passed, which was last October. The house was built in the 1950's and my brother and I spent two years as children living in this very house with my grandmother. It was quite and emotional trip, but business has to be sorted. The house is old and in need of modernisation.

My boys had a bit of a culture shock, it was not like home nor Tobago. There was no air conditioning here and Trinidad is more humid than Tobago! The crickets sing very loudly every night and the windows are louvre type so did not offer much sound proofing! There was only cold running water and I think my 16 year old thought I was putting him through a torture chamber. The showering facilities are very antiquated! I guess the electrical connections were to heat the water via the element as it passes through. However, every time you took a shower, you had to be careful not to touch anything metal, otherwise you would get a small electric shock!

I don't think my 16 year old will return here too quickly!

The house is situated near a busy highway, which clearly will expand as the years go by. However, it is in a prime location.

Enchanted Waters Tobago

Following breakfast and a quick dip in the pool. We all headed out for a walk. This is my 6 year old having a dip.

My Aunt, who lives in Minnesota and her family have a villa in Mount Irvine Bay, which was occupied on our arrival, however we were due to get the keys on day three and move in. As we were staying down the road from the villa we took a walk to have a peek! It was about a half hour walk in soaring temperatures, but not complaining as I was comforted by the weather we left behind in London!

The walk took us past the famous Mt Irvine Bay Golf Club and Hotel. Harrison Ford has his Tobago home not far from here.

I don't think the current tenants spotted us. Infact it did not look like anyone was home.

I'm Back!

Hi locked sisters, I'm back. Apologies for the absence, but have been very busy recently. I still managed to read all of the hair blogs, or at least lots of them. I am going to now update my blog in reverse order, as I have a lot of news.

On the 24th June 2006 my family and I travelled to Tobago with my 16 year old son and my 6 year old son. We left home at 4.30 am to catch the Gatwick Flyer, which is a door to door coach service, which unfortunatley does not pick up in my area in London. We had to travel to my aunt's house, just on the outskirts of London to enable us to be picked up. We arrived at Gatwick around 6.30 am, our flight was scheduled for 10.30 am.

Once the British Airways desk was open for check in we checked in our luggage and proceeded to search for something to eat. We opted for a McDonald's breakfast and wish we hadn't! Not recommended at Gatwick airport!

We boarded our flight, but were slightly delayed as they had technical problems. Once sorted and following the safety procedures we were on our way.

It was my first time flying with BA and the service was pretty ok. The food was not too bad either! Good films and lots of drinks. No rum punch though!

We had a one hour stop in Antigua.
However, we were unable to leave the plane whilst passengers disembarked and boarded.

Our one hour stop turned into a two hour stop. This was due to a fellow passenger, a locked brother, getting very agitated with the long wait and becoming a security threat! He was taken off the plane in Antigua to be transfered to another flight going to Tobago. We arrived at Crown Point Airport, Tobago a little behind schedule. The flight from Antigua was about 1 hour.

We travelled by taxi to our hotel, Enchanted Waters in Buccoo. A nice family run hotel. The rooms were comfortable and due to it being low season, the hotel fairly empty. They also had a pool.

That evening at the hotel, we dined on shrimp bisque, which was over salty. I had mahi mahi with garlic sauce and a side dish of rice and broccli with cheese sauce, which comes highly recommended. The boys had chicken and chips.

We had rum punch, mineral water, coke and juice and it all came in at $650 TT! a little expensive we thought.

A comfortable first night was spent in the rooms which were air conditioned.