Fisherman's Lodge, Castara Retreats

[Jean Whieldon]

I keep meaning to share our experience at Castara Retreats on myTobago but I've been hampered by seemingly endless problems with our BT landline since we got back at the end of January. However, one of the main things about our month-long holiday is that it's still so vividly present in my mind.

We had never been to the Caribbean before although we had plenty of experience of the tropics in Florida and Mexico. However, not even knowing Steve and Sue (the owners of Castara Retreats) or perusing the website in detail, could possibly have prepared us for the reality of the place. We arrived last December 27th - the day after the Tsunami - so were feeling a bit stunned anyway. I remember walking off the plane into a wall of heat and bright light and feeling dazzled by the colours and movement all round us. Porridge (our kindly local back-up man) scooped us up, whisked us through the landscape to Castara and deposited us on the deck at Fisherman's just in time to see the sun set out to the west over the Caribbean. Dawn brought a mind-bending combination of sights, smells and sounds as the village below came to life around 6am preceded by a flock of shrieking parrots, dogs barking, waves crashing and little blasts of reggae as the occasional car roared up the hill. We leaned on the balustrade and just drank it all in wondering how on earth we were going to manage. We live in complete solitude in a remote river valley on the Welsh border. Still - I had wanted a radical change - something adventurous that would jolt us out of our rather staid regular life. We got it! On day four we decided we wouldn't be getting on the next plane back and proceeded to let go of life as we knew it and just go with the flow. That meant drifting gently through the day wandering into the village to buy whatever supplies were there - forget shopping lists - learning how to cook veggies I'd never seen before and queuing up for similarly unknown fish at the co-op. Now that was an experience! We watched life unfold from our eerie, marvelled at the hummingbirds, iguanas, agoutis and insects. At night, we were entranced by fireflies, cicadas, geckos and bats. The garden was a constant inspiration and seething with wildlife if you just stood still for a minute.

We strolled along the tide line and watched the fishermen come and go and play football in between or argue vehemently about politics - there was a national election while we were there. I wish we cared so passionately about ours. We only left three times during the month and felt no need to be anywhere else which seems pretty extraordinary. Our little turquoise cabin on the side of the hill was such a delight - reminding me so much of the Canadian cottage built by my Dad on a lake in Quebec. It felt private yet absolutely in the middle of life and we particularly appreciated the dual aspect and quite astonishing views. Friends joined us for a week in Pelican and we palled up with people in the other apartments and had a great time despite two weeks of very unusual weather in the middle of our stay called a tropical convergence. It was very unsettled and windy with tremendous downpours thundering on our tin roof but also sun every day. One of our strongest memories was watching the fishermen rescue their boats after a particularly stormy night and working together to pull the largest one (whose bow was only just above the waves) onto the beach. It took about 25 of them and was an amazing demonstration of teamwork and strength.

Would we go back? You bet!