Tobago Day 150

Well, of course we headed out of Trinidad again pretty quickly. This time off to the twin island of Tobago. It began with a long weekend for Divali and Eid. Divali is the Hindu festival of lights and all over the country people dress up, light deyas and feast (all around town people were dressed in their finest saris and suits). At school on Wednesday there was a mini Divali celebration, the boys had to dress in kurtah(?) - long hindu shirts and watched dancing, prayers and the lighting of deyas - small clay cups filled with coconut oil and lit with a rolled cotton-wool wick. School provided them with a special lunch (which wasn't roti much to Zac's annoyance as it is his preferred school lunch now) and they all had lots of fun.

The following day was Divali itself and much as I would have loved to see Divali properly in Trinidad we went off to Tobago with our friend Heather to her truely wonderful house, Mango Tango.(There are less Indians in Tobago so Divali is not such a big deal). Mango Tango was built a few years ago by Heather's brother, and is just wonderful - huge, luxurious and beautiful. The photos can never do it true justice but they are better than my waffling on so I shall suffice to say that this is probably the pinnacle of our travels and all else must be downhill from here! Add into the house good friends to lime with (including 8 year old Chad for Zac to play with), sunshine and white beaches and it makes for a great holiday.

It was not all sunshine however. The day after Divali the rain came. Beginning with thunder and lightening that woke me at 3am, the torrential rain began a short while afterwards and continued for most of the day. This had little affect on us other than the swimming pool overflowing, however in the rest of the island particularly in the north east, houses were washed away, people were killed when trees fell on them, cars were buried in mud and boats filled with water and sank. The effect was devastating and repair work was still being done when we left. On the last day we managed to drive up to Charlotteville in the topmost corner of Tobago. Here is Martin and my favourite beach (inaccessible unfortunately because of a land slip) and where we used to go diving with manta rays.

We did manage to go out on a boat to snorkel but the water was murky from the rain and we saw little. We met up with an old friend called Anto who used to take us diving so we limed with him for a while before driving back to Mango Tango. I must say that the contrast between our palatial, if temporary, home and the hardship local people live with is sobering and makes me aware, yet again, of how priviledged we are.

On more mundane matters, Heather returned home to go to her beloved Toco Loco house in Toco on Saturday and Martin's Mum, Nolly, arrived on the Sunday. She too is on a round the world trip having visited Michael and Kat in Hong Kong and now us.

It is lovely having her with us to show off our life in T&T as she did not manage to visit when we were here before. She is coping well with the heat, our noisy kids and general chaotic-ness with her usual good humor, so all credit to her. Nolly has provided us with a great excuse to do touristy things like go out on Buccoo Reef in a glass bottom boat, snorkel on the coral and swim in the nylon pool which is a lagoon far out to sea that is bright blue, shallow and oh so warm. Swimming in the nylon pool is supposed to take 10 years of a women's life (so I am yet again 18 years old) and to make men more wise.

Tobago is lovely and quite different to Trinidad - more typical tropcial paradise - white sandy beaches, coconut palms and tourist facilities, but for me it lacks the grittiness, turbulence and attitude of Trinidad which I find so attractive.

I hope we will visit Tobago again before we leave Trinidad, perhaps in January when my Mum visits. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Mango Tango becomes available once again because I for one do not want to stay anywhere else (neither does Maxi who complained when we returned to our little house here and said he wanted to go back to Mango Tango as it was a better house - discerning little lad indeed).


Love to you all at home. xxxx