Trinidad and Tobago

Yesterday was pretty much a success but today was not. We were to have a tour in a small bus of the island. I did not realize that the tour was to be 7 or 8 hours. We really only have energy enough for about 5 hours. I booked the tour through another member of Cruise Critics. She said we should meet in the Club Bar at 8:15 and she would collect the money.

Club Bar where we met

It was $80 each which is not a lot in the scheme of things since it included lunch. And it was less than I paid at St Barts, Antigua and Martinique. But Bob says he is running out of cash money. I tried to get some cash from the ship ATM this morning but they were both broken and the casino cash desk is of course closed when we are in port.

Anyway I decided to get a shower this morning and Bob was anxious to get to breakfast so I told him to go without me, and I just had some trail mix. After we were all together, we all went down (after one false start when we went down to deck 3 on the aft elevator and could not get to the forward gangway) and we found our driver. There were 14 of us. 3 younger couples, 2 other older couples (one of the men was using double crutches as canes) me with my scooter and Bob, and a lady with a folding wheelchair and her husband.

Our group

Pacific Princess

First obstacle. The bus steps were at least a foot tall. I got on and the younger man in the front offered me a single front seat which I took. The wheelchair lady had gotten on before us and was sitting the second double seat on the other side.

The driver was very nice - it was his bus. We drove out of Scarborough

Scarborough

Neon Green Store in Scarborough

Tobago House of Assembly

Fish Market

up the Caribbean coast.

Fishing boat

Caribbean shore and boats

Caribbean coast

Penny Saver - Western Union

and then he told us about the goat races.

Starting gates for the goat races

Grandstand for goat races

Goat racing track

Racing goat mural

And he also showed us the

Sunday School Club

Sunday School Dance Hall sign

Caribbean shore

Water Safety

Black Rock Moravian Church sign and mailbox

Black Rock Moravian Church

We stopped at Fort James. Bob and I did not get off here - I didn't get out because I didn't want to do the bus steps any more than I had to.

Fort James

Fort St James sign

One of the ladies showed me a vase or candle holder she bought made from bamboo and it was very nice.

Carved bamboo stand at Fort James

But very soon we were on very narrow and winding roads with double hairpin turns. I found I needed to hold on with both hands and brace myself with at least one foot in the aisle to avoid sliding out of my seat on some of the turns. Bob was in the back with the scooter and he said the back of the bus was cracking the whip and he was almost car sick. Motion sickness is something neither of us has a problem with as a rule.

Then we went up to Plymouth and stopped there. Some of the people got out at the Mystery Grave and other places in Plymouth.

Kevin and our driver

Mystery Tombstone sign

Mystery gravestone

Tobago sheep in a cemetery in Plymouth

The sheep in Tobago do not have the woolly coats of the sheep in Scotland. The only way to tell them apart from the goats is by their tails. Goats have tails that stick up. Sheep tails are down.

Then it took us from 10:00 to 12:45 to get from there up to Charlottesville at the other end of the island where we were to have lunch. The driver was very informative, telling us about the birds and trees that we passed

Jungle covered mountains

Mailbox with paper box on top

Rufous-vented Chachalaca (Local name : Cocorico) one of the country's two national birds.

Roots of the Silk-Cotton tree where spirits and duppies live

Looking up at the silk cotton tree

Roots of the silk cotton tree

House on the Edge

Caribbean side beach

Caribbean shore (west)

and pausing at some overlooks for photo ops

Stop for photo op

Beware

Caribbean beach

Coast

Pizza oven

Tobago blackbirds

When we got to the lunch stop

Restaurant where we had lunch

it turned out that there was a long series of steps to get up to it.

Stairs at the restaurant

So Bob and I and the wheelchair lady and her husband stopped at a small terrace that was halfway up. We had lunch - it was a nice lunch - either fish or chicken and we both asked for tea.

Tea cup

The other lady drank a Smirnoff ice and he drank beer. The lunch was apparently family style. Bob went up and got just the chicken fish and potato salad for us.

Part of lunch - Chicken and fish

At 1:45 we got back on the van. I refused to leave my chair until the van got there because while I can walk some, I can't stand for long without pain. The other lady said she wanted to use the bathroom but would not get up until there was no line. We drove down the south side of the island and it was a slightly straighter wider road. The driver played a video about Tobago (including the information on diving and snorkeling) which lasted about 10 minutes.

Video with driver reflected in the mirror

Video on Tobago - diving

Atlantic shore

Surf on the Atlantic side (east)

Bridge

We got to Fort King George at about 3:15. Some people got out and went to the bathroom. There was a wedding there and people were dressed up in fancy clothes but I didn't get any photos of them.

Bell Tank on right

Cannon at Fort King George

Then we went to a home-made ice cream place and people got ice cream. We were too tired to get out and Bob was really anxious to get back to the ship.

Homemade ice cream stop

Electric service in Scarborough

We got back to the boat about 4:00. They had the scanning to get on the boat out in the terminal this time which was easier than right at the end of the gangway, but Bob, who was already cranky because of the length and stress of the trip, thought we would have to do it again at the ship (we didn't) and complained.

After we got back and downloaded the photos (which were not very good as they were taken from a speeding bus through reflective windows-I have included less than 1/3rd of them here as that's all that were in any way reasonable), I went to the Excursion desk to see if they thought I could take the Land and Sea excursion in Virgin Gorda and the bus tour of Bequia. If we can do that, it would take some of the on-board credit we have, which we will otherwise lose as I have not bought anything except internet. One of the ladies this morning while we were waiting for the tour said what we should do was go to the casino, put money on our card, play a little bit and then cash it out.

For dinner I had

Boston Bibb lettuce salad

(as I find I am craving lettuce),

Strawberry sorbet Intermezzo (partly eaten)

Seafood stuffed trout

Chocolate lover's delight

Tomorrow is Barbados and St. Nicholas Abbey is open, so we will see what we can do about that.