Sunriser

It’s 6:00 in the morning and we are lifting the anchor leaving Charlotteville, when fisherman Joe approaches us on his fishing boat. “I saw you from my house” he says, and he had jumped in his boat in the dark to come and say goodbye to us. We have been in Tobago almost 3 weeks and we’ve been enchanted by the kind and friendly people. Joe had provided us with fresh caught lobster, travelly and red snapper in the past weeks and took us fishing with him.

The land of Trinidad and Tobago consists of these two islands. We sailed from Surinam to Tobago in just 2 days; with the east equatorian current we reached good speed though the movement felt somehow uncomfortable. After 3 weeks in a river we had forgotten how waves feel like! Some Australian spotted mackerel caught on the way made for some good sushi.

Sadly, an oil spill has recently taken place in the south of Tobago, by Scarborough, so we decided to anchor on the other side in the north at Man of war bay, by the village of Charlotteville. Charlotteville is a small fishing community where everyone knows everyone and feels responsible for each other.

Visiting sailors are immediately welcomed to paradise as soon as they set foot on land, followed by a gentle invitation to share a beer, regardless of the time of the day and on the cost of the most wealthy looking person (inevitably the tourist). A little investment from the visitors in the local bars, shops and businesses is paid back with the broadest smiles, fresh fish and fruits, machete chopped sugar cane, digged out roots, bunches of spices, a wealth of knowledge of the island flora and fascinating stories.

In the most amiable company of the crews of Britt, Tiki Mas, Happinez and Cloud 9 we regularly enjoyed sundowners and BBQs after intense island exploration days.

Driving in Tobago is an adventure in itself. The roads are narrow and winding in the mountains; there is constant waving and greeting out of the windows, often with a bottle beer in the hand. After an unnerving trip with Sonson in his rickety van we decided to rent a car and let our British friend Lindsey drive properly on the left side of the road.

The nature is spectacular in Tobago. We could see close by the most beautiful birds and even feed hummingbirds by hand. We swum in the Argyle and the Highland waterfalls and walked through the jungle and practiced our spearfishing skills.

They say the Caribbean does not get better than this; we indeed feel we could stay here much longer, but we also want to see other islands so we finally pull anchor and set sail to Grenada, promising ourselves to come back to paradise Tobago some time.