Tobago is the little sister island to Trinidad, the two most southernly Caribbean Islands. While Trinidad is considered the more industrial, Tobago is the smaller, sleepier, tourist friendly place. Only 4% of the islands population lives in Tobago, and the island is only 6% of the entire mass. It is made up of a lot of small fishing villages with a southwest developed tourist area.

Buccoo Bay is a little touristy fishing village that houses the weekly Sunday School Fiesta. The bay is sheltered by the reef that extend across the whole bay.

I woke up that morning feeling refreshed after a good solid sleep. I did like usual and went on a long walk checking out the place. It was actually rather short being that the village is very small. It was about 11:00 am so I decided I would take a ride out to Scarborough, the islands capital and a place I wanted to hang out for a couple of days. I got to the main intersection on the outskirts of the village when a shared taxi pulled over to ask if I was going to Scarborough. We took an extended tour so he could drop off a friend and ended up picking up a mother and son as well. About a twenty minute ride later we hit Scarsborough.

Scarsborough, the island’s administrative center, is a bustling port with one-way streets and congested traffic. Largely commercial in character, it’s Tobago’s only real town to speak of. The town is basically a sort of dirty commercialized center where the streets are lined with little booths selling everything that you need plus a lot of touristy stuff. I had gone into town to meet Christine the land lady, who I had missed the night before. She worked at one of the banks there. I stopped in to introduce myself. It was pretty busy in there so I only had time to give her my name and the two day request for staying. I then went to look for a place to stay. In the guide book they list a little guest house with rooms for $10 a night. I quickly tracked it down and spoke to the owner. He pencilled me in for the night after for two nights. I really only wanted to stay in a larger town because I could find internet access to update the blog, but also to try and get the banking issue shored up. Once that was done I took a walk and stopped by at a bank to exchange some money. I ended up getting $6 TT to $1 US. This was only slightly lower than the guide book which was four years old, so I was a bit happier with the exchange rate than the euro. I also knew that this was going to be a cheaper destination because my true 16oz size sodas only cost $.50 US. It was cheaper than the US, by a lot. I stopped into a major franchise fast food plate and got a combo burger meal for $3 US. This was going to suit me just fine. It was reaching about 5:00 so I asked directions to where to pick up a shared taxi back to Buccoo. This was a bit tougher since there was not a lot of demand to go there. After about twnety attempts I found someone who was going there. Oh yea, I forgot to mention these twenty minute taxi rides were costing me around $.80 US. Now thats what I call reasonable. I got back and took another walk around. There was a kid fishing on the pier so I stopped and watched for a while. I ended up going back to my room and taking a nice refreshing shower. Watching the kid fish gave me the urge, so I grabbed my fishing kit and went back to the dock. On the way I picked up a couple of sodas, (to bribe him for some bait,) and did a little bit of fishing with him. After catching a few small ones, he took off. I hung around a little longer just relaxing. I saw some thug looking guys coming up and new that it was going to be trouble. They looked just like the type. The main guy asked me something which would usually involve, drugs, women, or giving of money. I asked what he had asked, and he said that he was wanting to know if I had any bait. Now, I was like, sure a couple of want to be hoods are concerned about fishing. Just then, a fishing boat pulled up and all three kind of said at the same time “bait.” They took off and asked one of the guys if they had any extra bait. The guy reached into his bag and pulled out another bag with some old fish. The guys came back and showed me, “bait.” Now were going fishing. “Meet us over at the rocks if you want,” they told me. I told them in a bit. I walked away kind of in a little bit of awe, finally remembering that I was on a little tiny island and people here are not like people on the mainland. Sometimes all they are looking from you is “bait.”

I did end up tracking them down on some rocky outcroppings and hung out with them until sun down. I just watched, but for me its almost the same satisfaction. After fishing, I wandered around and found a shack with a lady frying up some fish. I ordered a fried fish and chips. Took the food back to my room and munched out. Took one last walk around and called it a night.