What I did on my Winter Vacation

(Note: Clicking on any image in this travelogue will bring up a full screen version of the image.)

Thursday, March 14

We keep finding things that don't work about the cottage: The whistle on the tea kettle. The toilet flush. Major leak in outside hose faucet. Light socket in kitchen intermittent. Both frying pans look like they've been used to pound tent stakes, and have bottoms so rounded that they won't sit on the stove if they're empty. Nothing major; except for the coffeemaker carafe, everything works after a fashion, and the idiosyncrasies actually lend an air of character to the place. But it shows the results of lack of infrastructure. When Home Depot isn't just down the road, you make do.

Made our first use of car in a short trip to Flagstaff Hill. This is the highest point on the north end of the island commanding a great view of the surrounding area. In the colonial past of Tobago, it was used as a lookout point to spot pirates and enemy vessels, and to signal a small cannon battery across Man Of War Bay by mirrors. The road up to Flagstaff Hill gave us our first opportunity for trying out 4-wheel drive. We climbed the radio tower for best photos.

It was here we first heard the Waaugheda-Waaugheda Birds (a.k.a. cocoricos). Never saw them. They seemed to inhabit foliage in high places and come in pairs. In what sounded like the voice of a crow, one would call "Waaugheda-Waaugheda", and before it was done, another would echo the precise call in a different pitch. Sounded for all the world like an old man and an old woman arguing. It was the national bird of Tobago before it merged with Trinidad. The merged nation now has co-birds: the cocorico and the ibis.

Thence we went to Speyside, next town over. Very similar to Charlotteville. We returned home to the right front tire flat. My fault? Dunno. I'll put the spare on.

Spare? Check.

Jack? Check.

Jack handle? Check.

Lug wrench?... Lug wrench??

I headed back to the office to call the rental company in Crown Point. On the way, we stopped of at another cottage where another tourist had another Suzuki parked in front to see if we could borrow his lug wrench. His had neither a lug wrench nor a jack handle. A quick phone call and a quick search of the vehicle revealed the lug wrench encased in a black vinyl bag in the depths of the black glove compartment. The tire was quickly changed, and the lovely phillips head screw embedded in the old one revealed the cause of the flat.

Back at Pax, Sheldon had quoted Paul Keens-Douglas, a Trinidadian poet whose storytelling quite captured me. We went to the library and got out a couple of his books. He was sort of a West Indian Jean Shepherd or Garrison Keillor. His telling of slightly exaggerated adventures of slightly exaggerated characters in Caribbean dialect English was charming. Jenny rendered a surprisingly convincing reading of some of his works. Later, on our flight home, we picked up some recordings of him, which were very disappointing. The material of his live performances was more like stand-up comedy, and much of the charm of his stories was lost.

There are mosquitos here.

Friday, March 15

Today, we went to look at a state-run tree nursery in Louis D'Or. (The location names here show the multinational heritage of Tobago.) On the way, we picked up a couple of schoolgirl hitchhikers in Speyside, and dropped them off in Roxborough. (One of the plaques at the First Historical Cafe mentioned that this was not only OK, but encouraged. While primary education in Trinidad and Tobago is free, school transportation is not and there is not a school in every town. The walk is long and very steep; the old saw about walking 5 miles to school uphill both ways holds true here. Although here there is no snow.) We stopped off to get the tire repaired and headed on to Louis D'Or.

While it is open to the public, it is not a tourist attraction per se. So there is no real direction as to where to park and where to go. But we wandered around for a bit, and then latched on to someone else's tour. This was a group of people from one of the resorts at the south end of the island being shown around the place by Steven, a man who had been with the nursery for 26 years. It was a lovely place. Trees and ornamental shrubs are planted here and then sold to landscapers all over the island. We all got samples of shaddock, a grapefruit-like citrus with thicker rind and sweeter meat right off the tree. Between the rind and a tough inter-segment skin, it makes you work for your fruit. But it's worth it.

Tobago's is largely a cash economy. Only the largest purchases can be made with a credit card (car rental; airfare). Even the gas stations and restaurants take only cash. And the nearest ATM is an hour's drive away in Scarborough.

King's Bay Beach

We went swimming at King's Bay beach in Speyside. Absolutely deserted. Silky smooth sand felt delicious under the feet, and shallow shallow water for a long way out.

Back home to Man Of War Bay, we decided to take a trek up the unimproved road towards L'Anse Fourmi (The Beach of Ants. If you take a look at the map, and follow the road counterclockwise from Charlotteville to Parlatuvier, the town in between them is L'Anse Fourmi.) A steep climb up the road led quickly to pavement's end, and a dirt road wound up the coastal cliffs. Again altitude brought relief from the heat, and we found ourselves in one of the most beautiful spots of the island. Parrots and frigate birds flew overhead, and the air took on a sort of a misty glow. Bird calls (including "Waughteda!-Waugheda!") echoed from all sides. I thought I had been tired when I started the trek, but I was invigorated. The road looked like it wouldn't have been be much trouble with the 4-wheel drive Suzuki, but were were already there on foot. There were some rutted and rocky bits, but it all seemed navigable. We got about 2/3 the way to L'Anse Fourmi, and turned back. On the way back, we stopped off at the old cannon battery on the bluff overlooking the darkening town of Charlotteville. Too bad there was not enough light for a good photo.

Home and to bed.