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

Margarita Day 137

Just back from a lightning trip over to Venezuela - the small island of Margarita in fact. This tiny island boasts a fantastic, all-inclusive resort where we spent three nights in tropical luxury. You may ask yourselves - Did we need a resort holiday at this point in our lives? The answer is probably not but there it is. We made a decision not to go around the Caribbean, as we had originally planned, as the children are quite settled and we have all had our fill of travelling for the time being (yes even me for now!) But a short trip to somewhere Martin and I had never visited seemed the right thing to do so there we were. Hmmm am I justifying this to you at home or me here - am not sure!!!

So how was it? In a nut shell - fabulous. Nine swimming pools to choose from including a Maxi-sized pool with water guns and elephant slides, a pool for Zac with two immense water slides and just for me a bar pool so I didn't have to get out of the water to get my rum. We did do a few other things including canoeing on the lagoon to see the huge flock of pelicans roosting in the middle. Zac and I went cycling every day and saw some very strange owls that seemed to nest on the ground in holes! Martin was a happy chappie as the sea boasted big waves so he was out on the water doing his thing for some of the time.

The main attraction however was the wildlife - and not just the owls. There were great big long iguanas everywhere and Zac was forever bothering us to go lizard hunting - often using the hotel towels as a capturing device to throw over them (this seldom worked and is not recommended I hasten to add!) We all got very good at lizard spotting and it became a daily ritual for the four of us to go into the scrubland to find the biggest ones we could - some of them must have been around 5 foot long. The hotel staff must have thought we were all mad. The climate and geography of the island it quite different from Trinidad - drier, sandier and less jungle-like which I guess must account for the lizard population - and also the locals cannot favour iguana as a delicacy as they do here otherwise they would all have been eaten which is the fate of many here I fear.

And so after a short few days we headed back to Trinidad and school and normality for us for now. That is until we head off again...

Trinidad and Tobago Day 129

We are over half way through our big adventure and I can hardly believe it - time is going so fast we will be home before we know it. We definitely feel at home here now and the boys are well acclimatised to the pleasures of frozen fruit ice blocks for breakfast, roti for lunch, swimming daily after school and weekends at the beach amid sting rays, pelicans and turtles.

Here are some of our advantures over the past few weeks. We walked to Maracas falls - a 300ft waterfall in the rainforest. The walk into the forest takes about half an hour - a little longer for maxis' short leggs and the need to stop often to stalk lizards and hunt for huge spiders.

There were a few locals at the falls, bathing, liming and for one family doing some religious/blessing type thing invloving elderly women sitting right under the falls for long periods with bunches of flowers and herbs. Maxi was allocated his own pool to play in Zac and I went off under the waterfall.

It was great as we could get right behind the water and watch the endless rainbows that bounce around the rocks. Unfortunately I had counted on a steady volume of water coming off the mountain but no such luck - it seems to ebb and flow, oftten gentle then occasional heavy, weighty torrents fall without warning. Zac got stuck in one of these torrents as we left the fall and all he could do was cling to a rock like a little frog until it passed. I was scared he would be swept off but he lived to tell the tale.

Last week, we and two other families from school went on a trip to Caroni Swamp. This is a huge swamp on the west coast that is famous for its wildlife and in particular the scarlet ibis that come to roost there. We travelled on big green flat boats into the swamp, spotting four eyed fish, blue herons, white egrets, ospreys and most exciting a tree boa.

From time to time we would see a flash of scarlet as an ibis flew over head. After about 45 minutes we arrived in the middle of the swamp where we 'parked ' for a while and watched as hundreds of scarlet ibis and white ibis flew into roost in one particular island. The green island was covered in bushes and slowly transformed into a red, white and green shimmering bush as the birds shook the leaves and settled for the night.

We returned as night fell and the icing on the cake for the boys was a caiman lamp sweeping the water for caiman (which are like small alligators) whose eyes shine in the night. The boatman claimed to have seen one but when we backed up it was no longer there - but you never know it just might have been!


On more sedate matters one evening we walked around the savannah in the middle of town. Martin and I used to live next to the savannah so we were reminiscing like mad. It is about 5.5 km on the footpath around the edge and there is lots to see. The magnificent seven are large colonial monstrosity buildings in remarkable architectural styles such as a scottish castles. Many of them are quite run down but others are glorious. As we walked we munched on local delicacies such as fresh coconut water and jelly, snowcones - glorious ice creations made with tons of food colouring, sugar syrup and best of all, condensed milk - yum. We walked past the Prime Minister's house and President's house, the zoo and the botanical gardens. On our return to the car we went off to visit friends for a pizza tea - a perfect Trini lime.


We have had two trips to Macqueripe Bay, a beach not far out of town that has deep water perfect for snorkelling. Maxi spent ages bobbing in and out of the beach in his inflatable swim ring whilst Zac and Martin went off to look for fish. the visibility was not great but Zac returned having seen a huge sting ray, so was very happy indeed. I was content to float around and watch the pelicans swooping overhead and roosting in the trees overhanging the bay. Pelicans look quite comical with their tiny heads and huge beaks. In the air they look like I imagine pterodactyls would look like.

Last weekend we went to Toco to stay at Heather's house again with Heather, Wade and Devi and their family.

We cooked fantastic food, went to shark river and the kids played with Levi and Sarah all weekend.

Yesterday we went to Maracas Beach which is the most well known local beach. It is a beautiful drive along the north coast with rainforest on one side of the road and beautiful sea views the other. We stopped to chat with Matthew, an old friend who sells fruit and vegetables on the side of the road. He peeled and halved endless oranges for all of us to suck the juice. He says he has a pet agouti (a small rodent about the size of a large rabbit with smooth hair and longer legs that live in the wild) we will have to visit him to check it out! At the beach, there I was ensconced on a rented beach chair (Trinidad has become so sophisticated) beer in hand when the heavens opened and the rain came down. The boys all fled to the sea whilst I stowed our belonging in a beach shack then joined then in the water.

Heavy rain, thunder and lightening, and a warm sea is a great combination! After the beach we went to a Halloween expereience in Hugo's school St Andrews (I taught there for a while). They had turned the whole school into Halloween Town and the kids complete with costumes trick or treated, ate junk food, had haunted house terrors and storytimes galore. They are now sharing the loot from their lolly bags and are hassling me for a dip in the pool so I shall have to hurry.

Love to all. xxxx