TOBAGO

The last day of our trip was on the island of Tobago. It is located about twenty miles off the coast of Venezuela. It was just as beautiful as the other islands. We were all tired after four days of island hopping and here we are waiting for everyone to get ready to leave the ship for the day. Tom was a great cruise director and I would never want to go on a cruise without him. He makes it easy for us. We are just like sheep. He tells us where to go and we just follow him. I think there were a few times when some of the group wanted to tell him where to go..just kidding....but not really. He is great and we really don't know what we would do without his organizational skills.

Here are Pam and Susan and Kathy Andoe. Still waiting.
I love this picture of the island girls....and Terry perched in the window.
And we finally made if off the ship to a town called Scarborough. Tobago was a beautiful island and it would be hard for me to choose my favorite island. At every island we asked what the minimum wage was and how much a gallon of gas cost. Most minimum wages were around two dollars an hour and most gas cost about six dollars a gallon. That seems really high but I figure they don't have to drive that far since they live on very small islands, so it probably lasts them a while. However on this island, the gas was under a dollar a gallon. Remember...it is about twenty miles off the coast of Venezuela. They also drill their own oil right off the island.
I tried to get a picture of these beautiful orange trees all over the island but it was hard to get a good picture from the inside of the bus. I loved this tour of the island though.
We ended up driving to the other side of the island to a place called Englishmen's Bay. It is a beautiful secluded beach with this little store on it....well secluded until forty of us showed up!! This little store/restaurant was the only thing around so I am sure they were glad that we showed up. I bought several pieces of jewelry made out of coconut shells from this store. I love them. The are multi colored and they make a really neat sound when I walk or move. Because I am a new woman now, I have started wearing jewelry again so I bought a few things on the islands...not expensive things like some of the cruisers...just cheap "island" things. But I am glad that i bought them now because I will never go back and it reminds me of the cruise every time I wear them. I also love my new pillows that I bought on the island of St. Kitts. Every time I walk in my house, I love seeing them on my couch. They are bright colors and painted batik style. They make me happy just to look at them.
I took a picture of this random dog because I swear this same dog was everywhere on every island. They all looked the same. They are almost all this size and shape, just a different color. Where are the purebreds???
I loved this bay. It was picture postcard perfect.
I wish that I lived closer to an island like this. I would be at the beach every day.
What a handsome guy getting ready to snorkel. Like I mentioned in the previous blogs, the weather was a little rainy...not bad, but enough to make it hard to see anything when you snorkeled. But he still tried on every island and still had fun. I never snorkeled but had a great time playing in the water. Well, until this island. I was the first one out in the water and I was just enjoying playing in the waves when suddenly this huge wave hit me from behind and sent me flying up on the beach. When I tried to stand up there was quite an undertow and it took the sand right out from under my feet and me with it. I was sucked back out and then I was almost upright when another wave sent me flying right back on the beach. I was laughing really hard because it was so funny but at the same time, I kept thinking....what if this takes me right back out and I can't get back in? Every time I tried to stand up, another wave would hit me from behind and send me flying. It didn't help that I was laughing. FINALLY, Walt came out to help me up...but not really. He came out and said, "Ummmm, I thought that I had better tell you that your boobs are hanging out of your bathing suit. You might want to take care of that." So the twins had escaped and I have to say, it was the first day that I had gone without a t-shirt over my suit...nice day to start doing that!! Well then I really started laughing and was just hoping that nobody had their video cameras going....thank goodness, they didn't. But most of them saw the whole thing and the first thing Chris said when I got back on the beach was, "I saw your boobs." And I said, "Well it was payback time for the time you mooned me." The whole thing was funny, and a little scary. I am not sure if I would have been able to get out of there had Walt not come out....finally. He said he got a little worried because the waves were so high and they were just slamming me. So needless to say, I didn't get back in for the day. The snorkeling was bad, but everyone enjoyed body surfing because there were some huge old waves.
Dee....the poser.
The Stutzneggers and Delpha.
Isn't this just the cutest picture of Annette???? I love it.
Carolyn doing the "Kathy" pose.
This was at the end of the bay.
Englishmen's Bay from above.
Another random beach.
I took this picture to illustrate how colorful all the houses are. It was so funny to see the bright colors on most of the houses, but it seemed just perfect for the islands. It made me wish that we could be a little more colorful here, instead of everything being done in neutrals and earth tones.
Back in town at the market place. Notice the bright colored building again.
Nice to see a little bit of America so far away.
Another market.
When we got back to do some shopping I expected something different than this...different meaning better...I guess. Because it was where the ships docked, you usually see more touristy things like t-shirts, wind chimes, souvenir type things. But not so on Tobago. This market place was where the locals shopped and it had the stuff that they would buy daily. So it was interesting to shop there and realize that I am a lucky girl to have Walmarts and Targets and malls to shop in .... places that have air conditioning and are clean and have real floors and walls. These shops were just board walls with pallets for floors or just dirt depending on the shop. They were dark, dingy, and smelly....especially in the heat. Truthfully I was glad that I had Walt to walk around with me because it was a little scary looking.
Another shop.
This must have been the underwear store because that is what it mainly sold.
Walt standing next to one of the mannequins with this fishnet body suit on that he was trying to get me to buy. I reminded him of what the comedian had said a few nights before on the ship..."Just because they make it in your size, doesn't mean you should buy it."
Chickens. There were chickens everywhere on this island and lots of them at the market place. I wondered why there were so many chickens with so many nasty dogs running around.
This darling little island girl sitting in the doorway of her mother's shop.
A group of the girls on formal night. Aren't we a good looking bunch? This was that night after seeing Tobago. It was a fun day. For some reason I was sadder that this cruise was ending than any of the others. I am not sure why. I just wanted to go back to these islands. I am so grateful that we got to go, in spite of the expense and all of the complaining that I do. It was so much fun and it just made me really appreciate all that we have in this land and all that Walt and I have as a couple. We are wealthy compared to most on these islands and I do not appreciate it enough. They are happy, even with their limited incomes and standard of living. So that was the end of our cruise. We spent the entire next day sailing back to Puerto Rico. We pretty much just sat by the hamburger stand and snacked and played Nertz all day long. It was a great trip with even greater memories. I am so thankful that we were able to go and share it with such good friends.