Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. We were told that Pigeon Point Beach was must see since it’s beauty hasn’t been destroyed by corporate greed. We negotiated with a cab driver to take to this beach to see what all the fuss was about.
 |
| Mr Bicep and Limbo |
The moment we stepped out of the cab we were fresh meat for all the snorkeling and ocean excursion companies in the area. Each company has a smooth talker who strikes up a conversation with you about what they have to offer and how you need to quickly make a decision since ‘their boat was about to leave’. We decided to stay on the beach for a while and the smooth talkers approached us one after another. One of the smooth talkers used to be a body builder and we convinced him (with very little effort) to show us his biceps and then to do the limbo dance for us under Chalu’s beach wrap. After hooting and hollering his efforts we sent him on his way empty handed.
 |
| Drian, the cricket player |
One of the smooth talkers from earlier in the day, Barlin, found us at a local beach restaurant and wanted us to meet one of his fellow excursion business associates, Drian. They told us they each had several boats and that we could have a private tour of the lagoon or a snorkeling excursion. We thought this meant the trip was ‘free’, but soon found out they would need us to pay $40 to cover the cost of gas. When we told them that was crazy expensive they asked us to walk down the beach with them towards their boats. I whispered to Chalu that we may be inviting trouble if we obliged their offer. She told me that she would make it clear that they better not try anything funny. And she sure did. “So, I want you know that I know taekwondo so you better not try anything funny.” Drian quickly replied, “Well I know nigger-rate!”. We all erupted with laughter and felt more at ease with their offer to show us around the beach area.
 |
| Barlin's crew |
It turns out that Drian had a very interesting story. He lived in England for years and played cricket professionally until he had an injury which caused him to move back to Tobago. He seemed to be effortlessly running his excursion company as a distraction while he was trying to get strong enough to play cricket once again. Barlin had lived on the island his whole life and seemed more content to simply run his excursion company while simultaneously flirting with the tourists. His crew seemed to really respect him and were joyfully repainting one of his boats as we approached the end of our tour.
Overall, the island was full of happy people who just want to make a simple living off the tourists who are looking for untouched natural beauty.
No comments:
Post a Comment