Recent visit to B.W.I. April 19th/May 3rd.

[Stella Porteous]

This report is purely subjective. my own,my husbands and our 2 friends. Due to hiccup over booking, found out 3 days before we left i can report on both self/catering and bungalows!!
I have to give all praise to Duane Kenny for admitting the mistake [we'd booked 2 weeks in a bungalow] was B.W.I's and NOT blaming it on anyone else. Duane made excellent reparation and we were very satisfied.

5 nights in 2 bedroom self/catering. the only cooking we did was to use the kettle for tea & coffee and the glasses & fridge for wine and cold drinks etc. Rooms 34/35 upper deck. Very roomy, reasonable view from both balconies. Clean, fresh towels and bed linen every day. Only changes would be cosmetic, bathroom and kitchen could be spruced up a bit, lacked a woman's touch!

9 nights in furthest 2 bedroom bungalow at far end of beach. Again very clean ,daily bed linen & towels. Air/con in both bedrooms but none in main diner/lounge. windows wide open for plentiful breeze in evenings. VERY roomy comfortable bungalow, large private patio.loads of chairs. Huge non-working [thank god] antique T.V. only changes would be cosmetic , for kitchen. Large fridge/freezer,ironing board, iron. Phones in both bedrooms. Everything felt damp but considering you could cast a fishing line from the bungalow windows it wasn't surprising and quite liveable with.

STAFF. Delightful. All B.W.I staff were, with only a couple of exceptions, friendly,helpful and polite, right from the start. Even the exceptions gave us some welcoming smiles after a few days.
FOOD Fishpot restaurant. Breakfast, very good ,anything not in buffet could be ordered from the kitchen. Graham had the boiled eggs a few times .cooking times variable !! Evening meals could benifit from a bit more variation for guests staying 2 weeks and a few more sweet choices would have been nice but overall not bad at all. The menus at front door had interesting choices in but on the 2 nights non-buffet the menus were offered with a restricted choice only ,shame.
Shipwreck Bar. Good lunch choice but don't have the B.W.I club sandwich ,the turkey and bacon weren't the real thing, everything else was fine,although in all honesty we only ate in there a few times so we're not that reliable for true reporting on lunches.Oswin at the bar was lovely,he came across at first as being reserved but was a really nice chap. we had a lot of laughs with him.

ODDS & ENDS.
Beach CLEAN !! only debris was washed up from some rough seas and cleared away every day. Lawns swept daily of leaves. Surroundings tidy and well looked after. The bird life was lovely ,even the cocricos[chacalacas] i loved .The fact that i now have one stuffed and mounted in a glass case on my lounge wall is neither here nor there!! DO visit the rain forest with Newton George.Well worth it,have a car for a couple of days and visit Pirate's Bay ,good beach and swimming for nervous nancies like Gill & I. Englishman's Bay steep drop into sea not for the likes of me.If your o.k. in the water then no trouble.

I WONDER IF STEVE WILL ACTUALLY PRINT THIS SAGA. If you send me a note back Steve, saying , halt please ,with the written diatribe. i will of course obey.

LAST BITS !!

Gill had bad insect bite on her ankle[ ants, they hate her in England too] it became infected , so beware , not much of a first aid kit at B.W.I we had to go to Charlotteville medical centre ,very helpful .Speyside medical centre out of dressings and NOT overly helpful
so, take things with you if you feel you may need anything of that nature.

P.S. I have this very unkind mental picture of Gill, dressing gown and sheet up round her ear holes sat up in bed all night with her beady eyes on her extra curicular room mate ,a largish lizard, her husband Andy yelling 'for god's sake woman it won't come near you'Had one in mine but much smaller.
Graham and i had a midnight meeting in our bathroom with well over 100 half inch black flying things ,got in through the window vents. There we were committing mass murder with wet flannels and wet paper. It resembled a scene from Alfred Hitchock's THE BIRDS !!

P.P.S. WEATHER for those weeks . variable. the rain on a couple of nights came down like bullets! Thought we would get washed away, 3 days cloudy with a few showers plenty of sun otherwise and the rain is warm ,if you're in the sea you're wet anyway, Weather didn't spoil our holiday at all , we just read a bit more on a couple of mornings. Played loads of tennis, practically up to Wimbledon standard now, the passing staff concealed their laughter well at our efforts ,we spent more time finding the ball outside the court than hitting it inside the court.

GREAT HOLIDAY

Stella.et al.

[Steve Wooler]

Well, look at that - you return and post your 50th post, moving from "Tobago Guru" to "myTobago Nut".

Welcome back! I'm delighted it seems to have worked out so well, and thanks so much for that comprehensive report - that's exactly what we need here.

Well done - you've found exactly the right solution for cocricos - stuff and mount them!

There was one big omission from your report. How was Teddy? Did you manage to smuggle him into your cases and bring him back for me?

[Stella Porteous]

Hallo Steve,
I found one of the local dogs ,painted him black and gave him a curly tale and i'm almost sure Duane won't notice. Teddy came home in MY suitcase and i'm not giving him to anyone!! There was a 6 year old German girl at B.W.I. called Isobel, Teddy loved her ,they had great fun together. Also young Teddy spent some time sharing some 'cheese curl' crisps with me on the patio.It went something like---one for him and one for me--- i felt almost guilty when we got to the end of the packet !! Don't tell Duane.

Stella

p.s my family have think i'm 'nuttty' already.

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Stella,
I'm really glad you had a great time at BWI, I know you were starting to have a few concerns after some of the posts, but I was sure you would be OK, but then I'm a bit bias as far as BWI goes, and I've also stayed at Coco Reef, but I know which one I like.

How did you get on with the snorkeling and the mask? Did you get what you were looking for?

When we were Tobago last November we didn’t get to Pirates Bay as a landslide had closed the road. I thought you’d find Englishmans Bay a bit of a challenge for swimming. I did say the drop off was a bit steep. Out of interest was Curtis the Ice cream King still there?

Sorry to hear about Gills bite, my wife has the same problems and reacts badly to things like mozzies and ants. We carry a small kit with antiseptic wipes, antihistamine tablets and, a special treat from her doctor who understands, a course of antibiotics. It has got us through most problem.

Regards
Kevin

[Stella Porteous]

Hallo, Kevin,

Ice-cream chap still calling out his wares. I was wandering around, both men were in the sea and Gill was his captive audience on the beach. She had a bit of a job explaining that 'yes, it all sounded lovely, but no thanks, she didn't want any,no, not even the Guiness flavoured one !!! Thanks for the tip re. insect first aid preparation,i'll pass it on to Gill for next time.

Saga no.2. Birthday gifts. MEN !! are you all born awkward or what? The day before we left i dashed down to the shops with 'brilliant idea' to buy a special watch to wear with mask whilst snorkeling. The same evening our son comes round with a present for his dad, and,as i'm saying goodbye to him later on i whisper to Philip that i have got his dad a watch-----silence--- yes you've guessed ! so, being a nice kind mum i left the one i'd bought behind and let Graham have the one Philip had got him [still have to try and return mine] THEN, at airport duty free i told G. he needed new 'with it' sun glasses. I thought it could be instead of MY watch. Why? says G. there's nothing wrong with my old ones he says. But being determined ,i bought him an up to date pair.[he actually admitted that he liked them]. B.Day. arrives next day and i cheerfully say 'hallo dear we're off to buy you a nice new snorkel. 'O'h don't bother beloved he says i'll use Philips [who always lends him one] so THAT idea went down the drain after all my planning. Andy bought himself one instead !! I've had this husband of mine for so long now i think i'll hang on to him but,really ,sometimes, MEN.

Stella

[Kevin Hampson]

Hi Stella,

Thanks for that, I'm not too sure about Guinness ice-cream, when we were there it was mango and pineapple and very nice it was to after a rotie from the shack.

The birthday present was a bit of a saga, I am told, that I am very difficult when it comes to birthdays so I can sympathies.

Regards
Kevin

PS we are off to BWI in October and counting the the days, hours and minutes.

[Stella Porteous]

I meant also to mention to anyone thinking of visiting Pirate's Bay that there are over 100 steps leading to the beach, going down is not too bad but climbing back up on a hot day if you have 'aging legs' needs a few pauses for gasps of breath. Luckily there's some seats half way up !! We parked in town[big word for small place] and walked to the bay. Took us oldies about 15/20mins. Young ones could sprint there a bit quicker. Awkward place to park on path towards the bay ,room only for a couple of cars really. No facilities on beach regarding drinks etc. Take what you need with you. Englishman's Bay on the other hand you could park close to the beach and it hat food and drink and trinkets for sale. Stella.