Tobago Christmas, Part the First

Another fab Christmas trip with the boys. How incredibly fortunate we are to be able to make the trips--to afford them (some years, only with very careful planning) and to be together. Yes.

We had three quick days in DC before heading to the Caribbean. Our first trip back there in years and years, it gave us the chance to reconnect with some great old friends. We touched down in Baltimore at 5 pm (sitting in the airport waiting for Ben: people are smiling, and fat, sloppily dressed, comfortable--welcome to America!). By 8 we were in reunion with people we had not seen in 20 years--a dream!

And Elisabeth, K's dear friend from Beirut days

An especially amazing aspect of seeing old friends again after so long was having them meet and connect with Ben as well.

We left DC at 6 am and reached Tobago at 7 pm, having met up with Cam in the Port of Spain airport. Ben was due to join several days later.

We jumped into a rented car and Tom masterfully drove the winding (SUPER winding--hairpin city) coast road, on the left (Brit. style), the entire length of the island, to Charlotteville on the northern coast--about 1 1/2 hours. Cam and Tom were scheduled to begin their PADI (diving certification) course the next morning.

Trinidad and Tobago are the southernmost islands of the Caribbean, and lie not far off the coast of Venezuela. (When we realized how close we were, only 38 miles, we looked into taking a ferry over but found it goes only once a week).  The two islands are populated by descendants of the many groups who were brought to the islands as labor on the plantations,  notably India and Africa but also Syria, Portugal, China. There is a different vibe than in some other Caribbean countries, and only little catering to tourists--no big resorts. Why, you might ask? Oil.

Tobago is much smaller (41 X 14 km; with 54,000 of the country's 1.2 million people) and more laid back than Trinidad. Fishing is big. And mostly people are black on Tobago, whereas black and Indian are about equal on Trinidad with many mixed race.

Diving prep---

Cam and Tom had completed the online portion of the PADI course, and Tom was game to try the practical but his ears were bothering him.  He had to bail at the end of the first of three days, having completed all the elements save the open water dives.

Ben and Cam coming in from a dive

Tom and parrot have a conversation

How big was the shark you were RIGHT NEXT TO, Cam?

downtown Charlotteville

Caribs, after a hard day of diving

TO   PART   2