Picture-Perfect Tobago
Tobago is … lush beauty. Tobago is … crystal blues. Tobago is … palm-tree landscapes. Tobago is … hammock-lazing serenity. Tobago is … flocks of goats blissfully lost. Tobago is … paradise. A two-day escape to our sister isle was the whip-cream topping on my one-week vacation.
Yes, I’m on vacation right now - a nice, little respite spanning the 21st to the 28th of September. Mums and I decided to visit Crusoe’s Isle together, each with a different ‘mission.’ Mum was going to visit a long-time family friend, and I was hoping to grab some eye-catching photos for my blog and to add to my personal collection of images. We took off from Piarco bright and early on Wednesday morning and returned well into night on Thursday. For both of us, by the end of the trip, we were able to say with a sigh of satisfaction: mission accomplished.
For me, two days in Tobago meant special moments; like treating mum and her friend, Angela, to a lovely breakfast of waffles and fruit at the Original House of Pancakes; like seeing mum’s child-like delight while savouring a Ciao Café waffle cone basket filled with two creamy scoops of heavenly ice-cream; like enjoying hearty conversation with mum and Angela over a good home-cooked meal – plantain fried to golden perfection, peppery stewed chicken, callaloo-smothered white rice and fresh, sliced tomatoes; Tobago was full of special moments like driving around the southern tip of the island with my cousin, Myrna, who, despite her hectic life, was good enough to take me about to get my shots; special moments like bumping into Aunt Gwyn and my cousin, Hyacinth, when checking in at Crown Point Airport in Tobago, catching up on a year’s worth of lost time; moments like bumping into my Trini friends, Akin and Jeanelle, who ended up on our flight back and were kind enough to take us home; special moments.
Tobago also meant times when I would have loved to have escaped my island escape; to have eluded some my-God-what-am-I-doing-here moments; like the blistering heat of an unforgiving tropic sun set further on fire by global warming. Like running like a mad woman around flower patches with my camera trying to snap frisky butterflies and flighty birds that went their merry way at all the wrong moments … all in blazing heat and buckets of sweat. Like the odd occasions when mum and I had wee, little spats that seemed to cause us both giant-size irritation. My-God moments like a car-load of little Tobago-pickney boys who loved nothing better than to tease, tug and talk about all kinds of ‘wonderful’ conversation pieces as my cousin drove us around; like the same troupe of youngsters who soon grew tired of posing for pictures that I had flown specially to Tobago to get, complaining that they wanted to play in the park, go to the beach, do something else (I’m tiiiiired!) … anything but smile wide or stand just so! (Geesh. Who wants to go to some beach when they could be posing for my pictures?? I could make them stars!).
But all those hellish moments in my heavenly getaway were worth enduring because there were so many magical Caribbean moments to make up for them. Like driving through the cool morning to Pigeon Point where fishing boats floated serenely in perfectly still, crystal waters near the shore. Like enjoying the refreshing morning breeze and an idyllic sense of peace that just wrapped around your senses like a sweet blanket; like Auntie Angela, in some vexation (but to my humour), shooing away wandering goats that had taken to munching on the bananas and grapefruits on her Calder-Hall property; like an odd blackout that left liberal sprinklings of stars to admire; like nothing but lanky coconut trees, turquoise and deep-blue waters, and shores lined with the foamy white of breaking waves as you travel up quiet roads and along rugged coastlines; like warm hospitality and the sound of sweet familiarity as folks and long-time friends greet each other in the streets, on the beach or any place where kindness and courtesy mingle. Yes, sweet Caribbean enchantment.
Two days in Tobago left a basket-full of wonderful memories. Two days in paradise left me with the beauty of the island captured in lovely images … including a couple cooperative butterflies and one obliging winged songster. I must say … Tobago was mostly heaven. Tobago was sometimes hell … but Tobago did me very well!
