Trinidad

Our luggage was delayed on the trip down do to a delay in Dallas leading to a very close connection in Miami. We also could not find the person who was supposed to meet us at the airport with our rental car, so we took a cab with whatever we had in our carry-on bags and went to our first lodging, The Gingerbread House. Fortunately, we were so tired from our travel, that we fell asleep immediately and just spent most of the morning in bed, so that by the time we were ready to get going, our bags and our rental car were being delivered.

Laura at the front gate of the Gingerbread House

The Gingerbread House was great. They gave Laura and I a room in the Annex, which is a new construction that is separate from the main house and gave us a bit of privacy. Rosie served us great breakfasts every morning that we were there, and they were very helpful with us getting our luggage and rental car stuff straightened out.

On our second full day in town, we made a trek to Maracas Beach on the north End of the Island.

Driving on the left side of the road while sitting in the right side of the car takes some getting used to.

The scenery on the North Coast drive, like the scenery everywhere else on the island, is breathtaking.

Maracas Beach was beautiful, and not at all crowded on a weekday. We had this stretch of beach pretty much to ourselves.

After lounging on the each and enjoying an amazing meal of Shark and Bake, we headed south toward the Asa Wright Nature Centre.

The road is very narrow, only room for one car in most places which was scary because there are hundreds of blind hairpin turns.

I just like this picture. It’s a little girl and a goat outside of a house we drove past.

There are 469 recorded bird species in Trinidad and Tobago. We must have seen about 50 of them from the terrace of the Nature Center (I think this one is a Green Honeycreeper)

The Crested Oropendolas makes a nest that hangs from the highest tree around. Pretty cool.

A closer-up shot of the Crested Oropendolas

It’s not just birds. We also saw several Agoutis and Golden Tegu Lizards.

The flora was not about to be outdone by the fauna

The next day, we headed for the little island of Tobago.

The Air Bridge is the easiest way to get from island to island.

Tobago

Tobago is the Smaller of the two islands, and the feel is much different. A bit slower of a pace than Trinidad. We stayed at Castara Retreats, which I cannot recommend enough. Truly a great place.

On the way from the Airport to Castara, our driver stopped to show us this amazing view of the village we would call home.

While we waited for our lodging to be ready, we ate lunch. The tortilla looking thing is called Roti. It’s amazing. This one came with fish, salad, chickpeas and two kinds of potatoes. So yummy.

Laura got the same, but with Chicken.

The view from the table was as good as the food.

We learned quickly to always expect company in our cabin.

I could wait no longer. I proposed. She said yes!

We spent the afternoon just relaxing, enjoying the scenery and watching the sunset.

The next day was our last full day in Tobago. We rented a car and toured the whole island. First we drove down to Scarborough to hit up the ATM. (PRO TIP: If you are traveling Tobago, bring plenty of cash. Banks are few and far between, and credit cards won’t get you far.) Then we headed to Boocoo Bay for a glass-bottomed boat tour and snorkeling. After snorkeling we had lunch and headed to Argyle Falls for a nature hike.

The Bretania, a fine vessel.

The shallow depths and bright sun combined with different surfaces underneath (sand, grass, coral) makes the water absolutely stunning.

Nylon Pool, a shallow, sandy patch about a mile or so off shore is so named because the refraction of the light through the waves makes a fishnet pattern like nylon stockings.

At Lunch we met a cat, one of only two cats we saw on the entire trip. We probably saw a hundred dogs. None of them looked very hungry. This might explain the lack of cats.

Argyle falls goes up about 60 steps, each maybe 20 feet high. You can see four or five of them in this picture.

With the help of our Rastafarian guide, Denny, we climbed to the fourth fall. Standing under the water made for a rough but fun massage.

As we walked back down, Denny provided Laura with a special sunburn remedy: Mashed up leaves of the Wormwood tree (I’m not sure if it’s the same Wormwood that’s in Absinthe).

On the drive home, we passed some cattle. Somehow seeing cows in the Caribbean is way more fun than seeing cows in Minnesota.

Another gorgeous sunset.

That night after dinner we went to D-Lime bar for Carib beer and rum punch. There we met a couple from England who we played cards and drank rum punch with until 3 in the morning. The next day our trip was already coming to a close. We packed our bags and flew back to Trinidad. We planned to go out turtle-watching that night, but were absolutely wiped out so instead we ordered room service and fell asleep around 8. We caught our flight home very early the next morning.

It was a really great trip with tons of amazing memories. The best of which is of course the engagement. I’ll close with this panorama I put together of the view from our deck in Castara.