WOW. What a trip. So many crazy things -good and bad- in the last 48 hours. I will try to summarize below.
We arrived at the port at 5 am to catch the ferry at six. But our "team leader" that held the tickets didn't realize that on Sunday the boat departs at 8:30. Lame. We sat in the parking lot for about 2 hours then moved into the lobby for the third hour. For some absurd reason unbeknownst to me they were showing the movie Titanic. I mentioned to everyone that it was particularly odd and an uncomfortable choice. Then my travel partner Eric assured me that the chances of us hitting an ice berg where pretty small. Good point I thought. The boat ride over was incredibly rough! I have always enjoyed being on boats and never really had any problems. I had problems. But we made it over by 11 am.
(day 1)
We had a great taxi driver pick us up and take us all over the island. We did a lot of "touristy" things, but it was time well spent. We drove up the north coast (which is the Caribbean side) and then crossed through the middle to the south (the Atlantic side). When you go through the island it is a really high altitude rainforest and so the temperature became noticeably colder. Really neat. We stopped and climbed a waterfall (and jumped in), and then had an early dinner at Jemma's treehouse restaurant - without a doubt one of the best dinning experiences of my life. Here we are sitting in a completely open air dinning room, on the Atlantic Ocean, IN A TREE, staring at the islands, listening to the waves, and eating delicious native food. To quote my friend Charissa, "What part of Heaven is this?" Afterwards we drove up to the highest point of the island called Flagstaff Hill and caught some of the sunset. Then on our way down our driver dropped us off at the Buccooneers panyard. They are a medium sized band from Tobago that my friend Seion arranges for. THEY. ARE. AMAZING. We listened to them rehearse for an hour (from about 8-9pm). Then we walked down to sunday school - but this isn't your grandma's Sunday School. It's an open street party where food vendors, artist, and musicians all come out to entertain and sell their work. Not to mention blast music and dance. It happens every Sunday. We made it back to our hotel and crashed at about 11pm. It was a long day that began at 4 am.
(day 2)
On Monday we woke up and walked down to the beach at 9. After getting some more local cuisine for breakfast, I was in the Carribbean Sea by 10 am. After a quick dip Eric and I jumped on a glass bottom boat tour to go snorkeling over Bucco Reef. (I told you, many crazy things in such a short time.) That was about 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon and was well worth it! Unfortunately when we got out there they ran out of snorkels so I just had a pair of goggles which was kinda lame. I didn't sign up for glass boat and "goggling". I signed up for "snorkeling." The boat captain says, "so you breathe in through your mouth and then look down" - yeah really?
It's at this point that I have say that I am really truly grateful for all of the swim lessons my mom dragged me to kicking and screaming (literately I remember this from childhood) and all the summers at the lake trying to swim to my dad for help while he kept backing up - tough love. I've never really thought of it until now, but they both made sure my brother and I had very thorough swim education. Thanks for that. Without it, I would never be able to jump of a boat into the Caribbean Sea with nothing but googles and tread water for 20 minutes - not to mention climb and stand in a water fall. I would have missed all that beauty and sensation.
When we arrived back to shore we all gathered for some lunch. Crab and dumpling was on the menu. Incredibly delicious - Incredibly labor intensive. Won't be ordering that again. Our driver Wayne came and picked us up at 3 and we headed to the boat to go back to Trinidad. We arrived back in Port of Spain at 8 and where promptly picked up and driven right to rehearsal. Sunburned salt soaked skin and all.
While I don't really consider this trip to Trinidad a vacation, I do have to say my trip to Tobago felt a little like a vacation from a vacation. I didn't play the pans for two days and my brain needed the break from all the music cramming. All of the foreigners agreed it was much needed and thoroughly rewarding all around. Now, back to rehearsal!!!
P.S. I wish I could post pictures but my slow internet just won't allow that right now. I will do my best latter on and show them when I get home.
