Pretend that I wrote this on Tuesday...it's Friday now.
So Amber and I decided that we'd had enough of Crown Point, which is the heart of the touristy part of Tobago. After carefully reading our guidebook for a minute or two, we carefully took another minute or two to pick another place to go for a week or so. We settled on Charlotteville, a supposedly-remote fishing village on the exact opposite side of Tobago.
The lovely woman who owned (or managed...we couldn't quite tell whether she actually owned it) the posada we stayed at in Crown Point gave us a ride to the bus station in Scarborough, the capital of Tobago. She's really nice. If you ever go to Tobago, stay at Kia's Across from the Beach...it's a five-minute walk from the airport, and is across from the internet/laundry cafe.
Yes, this ad space is for sale for the right price. A ride to a bus station? Sold.
Some excellent ad space on my butt is also for sale for the right price. I have two cheeks, both only slightly hairy. I'm willing to get them tattooed with your company's logo. Again, for the right price. I'll even moon people more often.
Anyhoo, we got the the bus station in Scarborough at noon. There was a bus for Charlotteville leaving at 12:30. Sweet. And it only cost TT$8 for the 2-hour trip...that's equivalent to about US $1.30. Nice.
Then they told us that the bus was cancelled. No worries, there was another at 2:30. We went to a nearby bar, had a few Caribs (very tasty beer, incidentally--much better than most national flagship piss-waters) and some rum and coke and really good plate of grilled snapper with veggies and rice (you can get fat and happy real fast with Tobagoan food). Then we went back to the station.
Which had no fan or air conditioning, by the way. Amber was sweating like a pig. Not cute.
They cancelled the 2:30 bus. But there was another at 4:30...so we decided to hang out. Amber drank a cup of coffee, and got plenty of weird looks--who the hell drinks coffee in 90-degree heat and tropical humidity? With no fan in sight?? White people are weird.
Then the 4:30 bus was cancelled. At 5:00 we finally asked for other options at the cafe next door. Turns out that most of the busses had been run into the ground when T&T hosted some big sporting event (cricket world cup, I think) a few months ago. Apparently, it was common knowledge that there weren't enough busses to run the normal routes, but nobody had told us...or the other people waiting for the bus...or the ticket window lady.
We hiked to a "maxi-taxi" stop, on a hill overlooking the rest of the town. We waited for another hour, and watched chickens in a small plaza, trying to eat styrofoam. We decided that we'll stick to eating fish around here.
Finally, a maxi-taxi came. After leaving our motel at 11:30 am, we finally arrived in Charlotteville at about 9:00 pm. And the entire island is only about 45 miles long. Sweet.
And the best part was, we didn't even get upset about it. The relaxed Tobagoan spirit is just infectious enough.
So Amber and I decided that we'd had enough of Crown Point, which is the heart of the touristy part of Tobago. After carefully reading our guidebook for a minute or two, we carefully took another minute or two to pick another place to go for a week or so. We settled on Charlotteville, a supposedly-remote fishing village on the exact opposite side of Tobago.
The lovely woman who owned (or managed...we couldn't quite tell whether she actually owned it) the posada we stayed at in Crown Point gave us a ride to the bus station in Scarborough, the capital of Tobago. She's really nice. If you ever go to Tobago, stay at Kia's Across from the Beach...it's a five-minute walk from the airport, and is across from the internet/laundry cafe.
Yes, this ad space is for sale for the right price. A ride to a bus station? Sold.
Some excellent ad space on my butt is also for sale for the right price. I have two cheeks, both only slightly hairy. I'm willing to get them tattooed with your company's logo. Again, for the right price. I'll even moon people more often.
Anyhoo, we got the the bus station in Scarborough at noon. There was a bus for Charlotteville leaving at 12:30. Sweet. And it only cost TT$8 for the 2-hour trip...that's equivalent to about US $1.30. Nice.
Then they told us that the bus was cancelled. No worries, there was another at 2:30. We went to a nearby bar, had a few Caribs (very tasty beer, incidentally--much better than most national flagship piss-waters) and some rum and coke and really good plate of grilled snapper with veggies and rice (you can get fat and happy real fast with Tobagoan food). Then we went back to the station.
Which had no fan or air conditioning, by the way. Amber was sweating like a pig. Not cute.
They cancelled the 2:30 bus. But there was another at 4:30...so we decided to hang out. Amber drank a cup of coffee, and got plenty of weird looks--who the hell drinks coffee in 90-degree heat and tropical humidity? With no fan in sight?? White people are weird.
Then the 4:30 bus was cancelled. At 5:00 we finally asked for other options at the cafe next door. Turns out that most of the busses had been run into the ground when T&T hosted some big sporting event (cricket world cup, I think) a few months ago. Apparently, it was common knowledge that there weren't enough busses to run the normal routes, but nobody had told us...or the other people waiting for the bus...or the ticket window lady.
We hiked to a "maxi-taxi" stop, on a hill overlooking the rest of the town. We waited for another hour, and watched chickens in a small plaza, trying to eat styrofoam. We decided that we'll stick to eating fish around here.
Finally, a maxi-taxi came. After leaving our motel at 11:30 am, we finally arrived in Charlotteville at about 9:00 pm. And the entire island is only about 45 miles long. Sweet.
And the best part was, we didn't even get upset about it. The relaxed Tobagoan spirit is just infectious enough.
1 comment:
Well said.
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