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We are having a very lazy rest of the week. Reading, sleeping, cooling off in our plunge pool. Gabi and I go swimming at Stone Haven Bay. We enjoy the sunset, being mirrored by the infinity pool at Stone Haven Villas. On our last day, we drive to Arnos Vale Bay and go snorkeling off the hotel beach. No other guests are in the water and Gabi and I enjoy the company of 2 sea turtles.  They are not shy at all and swim right next to us. Gabi is shooting numerous pictures, until I get cold and warm up on the beach.
On Saturday, we treat Carsten (and us) to a very nice dinner at the open air restaurant of Stone Haven Villas. The drinks are powerful, the sunset is very colorful, the dinner is very tasty. We are the only dinner guests in the whole restaurant or bar. The service is very slow, but we don’t care. We have adjusted to the concept of “expanding time” down here. Tomorrow we are flying back to our real life and work, but tonight we enjoy the warm breeze and calm surroundings, with the black tropical night and the stars of the Southern Cross above us.

After diving Little Tobago, I decide to explore Charlotteville at the northern tip of Tobago. It is a very original, small Caribbean town, not mentioned in the common travel guides. The locals apparently have no work and are “hanging out” along the beachfront road, just living their subsistence life style. I always wonder if people are happy or unhappy with this kind of living?
I make the mistake of driving south, along the western shore. We are being punished by having to endure 2.5 hours of driving around curve after curve. We have a never ending series of right curve, left curve, s-curve, hairpin curve, uphill curve, downhill curve, 2 lane or 1 and 1/2 lane road. It is very scenic with the beautiful Bloody Bay and Parlatuvier Bay along the way. We get lost a couple of times. The local people don’t need road signs; they know their island. We finally arrive at Mount Irvine Bay after dark, and have a pizza dinner on our deck at “Villa Tosca”. Tomorrow is going to be a day of rest!

On Monday, April 13, we sign up with Manta Dive, and begin the week with a check-out dive at Store Bay. It is a shore dive, and I feel sorry for our dive master, who has to carry 3 scuba tanks, BC vests and 30 lbs weights (his own plus Gabi’s and mine). We told the dive shop in advance that Gabi and I are having a bad back and would prefer a boat dive. I am sure they did not tell our poor dive master what to expect. Our African dive guide carries our equipment (roughly 150 lbs) through a crowded beach into the sea, while Gabi and I follow him. We are only “loaded down” by our fins and masks. Presenting this image of the rich, spoiled white people is not how we want to travel and makes us rather uncomfortable.
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Gabi had found our vacation villa on the internet and we had rented it from Malcolm Taylor, the British (playwright) owner.
We are in “Sanctuary Villas” and have a beautiful place all to ourselves. Carsten is moving into a downstairs bedroom, while Gabi and I decide on one of the upstairs bedrooms. We have a view of the ocean and Buccoo Reef, a nice large deck with plunge-pool, covered eating area and grill.
The refrigerator is stocked with food and drinks to get us started. In the end, we only have dinner in a restaurant three times this week. All the rest is “home-cooking” and eating on our deck. We are next to a bird sanctuary and have plenty of company. The sun and birdsong wake us every morning at 6:30, making sure we do not miss a minute of our vacation!
After the early morning bird concert, we spent very quiet days here. The island is very laid back and at times we seem to be the only visitors.
On our first night on Tobago, we have dinner at “El Pescador”. The service is slow, even though we are the only diners except for one couple with daughter. We pass the time with watching the sunset and later on, the Tobagian locals coming up to the small pier from their Sunday boating excursions.

We are spending Easter Sunday cruising on Caribbean Airlines from JFK to Trinidad. Carsten joined us last night at the Best Western JFK and is going to be our diving buddy on this vacation. The weather in New York is cool, but no rain or snow are keeping us on the ground. We still have 20 airplanes waiting for take-off ahead of us. One is racing down the runway every 60 to 90 seconds, until we are finally on our way to Port of Spain, Trinidad.
We are cruising with our 737-800 at 35,000 ft and actually get a second omelette breakfast served on board, a rare treat nowadays! We fly right over San Juan, Puerto Rico Airport, where we landed 2 years ago for my birthday trip. After only 4 hours and 20 minutes, we land in Trinidad and the vacation can begin. Unfortunately, passport control and customs takes a whole hour and lunch is “takeaway” from Pizza Boys at Piarco International Airport.
Gabi, Carsten and myself take the Dash-8 15 minute flight to Tobago. Flying north-east, we clear the green mountain chain of Trinidad and cover the 20 miles across the Caribbean Sea, landing at Crown Point Airport, Tobago. We have reached our destination for this week:
11˚ 9′ N 60˚ 40′ W.