Going A Bit Wild in Tobago

Today, we arrived at our first Caribbean port-of call, Scarborough in Tobago, and the first proper quayside port since Manaus (every port in between has required a tender operation).

Tracey and I were down for escorting on ‘Panoramic South’; an on-the-bus-off-the-bus-on-the-bus tour. Since I’m still not feeling a hundred percent, though, a simple coach trip seemed quite an attractive proposition.

As OTB-OTB-OTB trips go, this one turned out to be even more on the humdrum side than usual. Don’t get me wrong; Tobago seemed like a lovely place, very relaxed and typically Caribbean, but the locations we visited didn’t excite me much at all…

As we drove along, our coach driver pointed out the village where the Manchester United footballer (or that could be ‘former-Manchester United footballer’ – I’m not sure) Dwight York lived. Something that they are clearly very proud of. From here, we drove by their International Airport, which is possibly the smallest international airport I’ve ever seen. Our next stop was at a small beach resort, were passengers were encouraged to dip their toes in the sea before trying to sell them something from the numerous craft stalls there. I must admit that, I was more interested in the fact that the place had free wi-fi, and was able to download a couple of days worth of emails.

Our trip continued to a lone tombstone with a mysterious inscription and the nearby Fort James, of which there wasn’t a great deal to see (a hut and a coupled of cannons, in case you’re wondering).

A brief washroom stop came next, at a golf club, where refreshments could also be bought if people wanted to. I’m not interested in golf, and the place didn’t have free wi-fi, so it didn’t grab me much at all, other than there being a reasonably nice view down, across the coastline.

Our final stop was at another fort. This one had a little more substance to it, with some great views, but all-in-all, maybe partially because I wasn’t totally feeling up to it, the tour didn’t make much of an impact on me. The roads are quite horrendous, and the journey in the minibus was a bit on the bouncy side, all of which, being sat on the back seat, didn’t help to make me feel great.

At the end of the tour, we had lunch on board ship, and then headed back out to the terminal, where folks had discovered some free wi-fi. Unfortunately, while some people seemed able to engage in video conversations via their phone (Skype, presumably), and most were able to retrieve and send emails, I found the signal to be too weak to undertake the uploading and downloading of online students work that I desperately needed to do. Finally, after failing to achieve anything even remotely satisfactory (it was worse than the on-board wi-fi on the Magellan, which is saying something), I headed back on to the ship to grab some dollars and went in search of a proper bar that would give me proper internet access…

Fortunately, I found it in the shape of the Docksite Bar, just along from the terminal, after consulting with a lady in the Tourist Information booth. Finally, I was able to do some online stuff with some sense of normality for once, for the first time in about two weeks. My laptop connected and data moved effortlessly… exactly as one would expect in this supposedly high-tech world we are apparently living in. Heaven forbid I should choose to store everything in the cloud; I’d be right royally stuffed then…

While I was tapping away in the bar, enjoying a beer (which was only only $2, but a necessity to obtain the wi-fi code), Tracey wondered around, taking photos of the local wildlife. A short while later, after I’d completed everything I wanted to, and we were on our way back towards the ship, we passed a busy bar pulsating to loud reggae music, and frequented by most of the shorex team and many of our passengers. It seemed impossible to walk past without dancing to the music, and before we knew it, Tracey and I were going wild along with everyone else, dancing to the rythm, and really soaking up the local spirit. Scarborough had finally lured us in…

Tobago is a laid-back place, but with a very big heart, and everywhere we went, there was music and dancing. As the afternoon wore on, the music seemed to get louder and the dancing wilder… I think I was starting to feel a bit better…

In the evening, after lunch, we sat in the ‘garden’ at the back of the ship, watching the lights of Tobago disappear into the distance. At the same time, the moon made an unexpected appearance, rising like some mysterious alien mothership from the horizon. The magical moment was topped off – I kid you not – by a shooting star… how perfect is that?

A little later, we went in to watch Tony, the Cruise Director’s, show, in which he told jokes, did impressions and crooned his way through a handful of old standards… one of which was ‘Magic Moments’… how poetic…