Tobago

Getting into Tobago late at night after a turbulent ride was tiring. And we were having troubles with hustling taxi drivers. Danielle and I were getting frustrated at the realization that my white complexion was drawing unneeded attention to us. No, sir, I do not have $$ signs on my forehead. Please leave us alone. But luckily, we finally flagged down an affordable driver who brought us to our villa guesthouse, by the 2 popular beaches in the west.

We get to MJ's (the villa) to realize that we were the sole guests for the 2 days we were there. One large villa, 2 young ladies with no need for all of that space, and keys to only one room. And a small pool in the backyard. I had a feeling that it was my duty to make the most of our fortune while we were there...but not the first night. The first night was for sleeping.

We woke up early to get ready for our beach day. I lathered on the SPF again (knowing that it was only in vain...I'd be red by the end of the day). The really great thing about our villa was the location; we were a 5-10 minute walk from the 2 main beaches. And a lot of shops and restaurants were nearby our community area. We walked towards Store Bay.

We got immediately solicited by a guy named Suggi (short for Sugar Lips...I kid you not) who wanted us to join his company on a glass-bottom boat ride around the coral reefs and coast. Danielle was less than excited about the concept, and I was practically jumping up and down. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Danielle....She finally agreed to go, after I looked at her with my big eyes. It was affordable, so really...what harm was there? I strongly doubted our pure reputations being at risk with these guys. They hit on Danielle, and I tried to mediate the conversation.
You see, Danielle's reaction to flirty men is to avoid them and get quiet. And I disagree with this method. So...I talked to the guys and flirted for her.

But it was all alright, because there were plenty of other people on the boat with us. The boat was an aging red tug boat with a motor and loose glass windows in the bottom of the boat. It was neat to see what was beneath the glass. We swept by clear water, fish, and coral reefs. The tour guides kept us giggling and laughing, and the bottom of the boat kept us engaged with the ride.
We had the opportunity to get out of the boat and snorkel through some of the coral reef, Buccoo Bay. Of course we wouldn't pass up an event like that! But unfortunately, Danielle and my swimming skills are not superb, so the boat guys put these floaties around us. Life jackets, basically, only they strapped them around our waists. None of the other people took the floaties. How humiliating. Thank goodness I have no pride! While we were in the water, I noticed 2 other people get on the boat for the floaties, which made me feel a little better about myself.
At first I was underwhelmed by the coral reef snorkeling. Reefs and fish, ok, now what? But then I began studying the reefs, and watching the fish. It felt as if I was beginning a dialogue with the underwater world. It was all so close too...! I could almost touch it...but then I eventually got back on the boat.
We rode a bit further to the Nylon Pool, which is a very shallow area of the coast that has coarse sand from the reef with which one can exfoliate. I danced and walked around instead. It was beautiful. After we rode a little more, we landed on an area where some man was showing tourists massive starfish. I was given one to hold for a bit. It was heavy! And hard to hold, it was so rough and spiky. I also felt bad for having kept it out of its natural habitat, and finally the man took it back and put it under water again. At this rest stop, we heard a Soca song about someone's "Pipe". I was dancing frantically, but a little shy about the lyrics.

It was a fun boatride, and we both enjoyed ourselves. But it was definitely time afterwards for some crab & dumplings. These crab & dumplings, though, were a whole other ballgame. These entailed of curried crab meat still in the shell (as if the crab crawled into the kitchen and got swept up in the pot of curry) and huuuuge, thick dumpling noodle things. I concurred that meal.

We left the Store Bay after doing some silly shopping (who shops at the beach?!). We wanted to make it to Pigeon Point, the private beach nearby. After a long mile walk, after passing guys trading fish and bars and mini beaches, we ended at the entrance to Pigeon Point - closed?! Why would a beach close at 5pm!? Well, it did. So, we sighed sadly and made our long trek back to MJ's (the villa), very sleepy.
We, of course, ran into a very VERY angry pitbull/rotweiler dog on our way back. This dog may very well have been on cocaine. It was growling energetically, and viciously, while doing back flips. I kid you not.
I insisted on taking a jog when we got back. So I got in my gear and, when it started to be sunset, I set out for a brief jog. Clearly Tobago has no/little running culture, because when I went past people they either stared at me or laughingly mimicked my jog.
When I got back, I took advantage of our sole inhabitants of the villa and took off my clothing. I jumped into the little pool naked. Danielle followed (birthday) suit, and we waded in the incredibly lukewarm water. It felt like swimming in silk.

We finished the night with a great meal at one of the really small restaurants nearby.

The next day we got early to Pigeon Point so I could see what the whole fuss was about. There is a long drive of drying palm trees before reaching the beach, and when we finally got to the beach, we found where all of the white people were.
Someone commented to me about the hot sun. "You'll burn." I looked at him, "I'm aware."

We read on the beach for a little bit, and walked out soon after so we could make it back to Scarborough in time for our ferry back to Trinidad.

Scarborough...what a sad tale of a city. A strip of little dilapidated shops. And taxis.
It was so super hot that we sought refuge under a tree for an hour or so, before getting onto the air-conditioned boat back to POS.