Castara Retreats - Review Page 2
Accommodation
The accommodation at Castara Retreats consists of four apartments. The upper floor of the main building houses the two-bedroom Rainforest Apartment, while the lower level is split into two smaller studio apartments, Osprey and Pelican. Since our visit, the adjacent Fisherman’s Lodge has been extended and now represents a second two-bedroom apartment.
The total property will therefore sleep about 12 people. It would make an ideal retreat for groups of family and/or friends.
I will describe each apartment separately.
[Update December 2005: Two additional one-bedroom Haiku-style lodge cottages are nearing completion and will be available in 2006]
Rainforest Apartment
The two-bedroom Rainforest Apartment is stunning and must offer the best views of any accommodation in Castara. The apartment occupies the top floor of the main building; a total area of around 1,000 square feet. The rear wall is the only solid one and even that has ten sets of wooden louvered windows for ventilation and light. The other three sides are entirely open to the elements, except for an 0.8m-high child-friendly balustrade. Wooden shutters can be lowered to close the sides of the building, if necessary, but doing so seemed like sacrilege.
With this degree of openess, it is not surprising that the property has no need for air-conditioning. Large, efficient and exceptionally quiet floor-standing electric fans were provided in each apartment, but they were certainly superfluous to requirement during our stay.
Living Area
Rainforest’s living area runs the full width of the building and measures some 7.9 x 4.4 metres. It is a wonderfully spacious and comfortable area in which to relax. The bird life was amazing. I have never seen so many blue-grey tanagers. The nearest birdfeeder, just two metres from my ‘desk’, invariably had five or six tanagers feeding on our scraps. A cheeky little Bananaquit had built a nest in a carved calabash gourd hanging from the roof rafters and was a source of constant pleasure to us.
The high vantage point allows you to see so much of the activity in Castara Bay and the village, with every sound amplified by the natural amphitheatre of the surrounding hills. Whether it’s the fishermen calling for assistance pulling in the seine net, the children playing their assembly drums at the local primary school, the local steel pan players practising, or the ladies baking their bread in the clay oven in the centre of the village, there was always something to watch or listen to. These pleasant distractions made drafting this review hell.
The main living area of Rainforest, with its gorgeous yellow cypress wooden floor, is furnished with an attractive cane sofa and chairs and a large circular dining table which can comfortably seat six. There is a bookcase with a nice collection of reading matter (you are encouraged to leave your old books) and a small compendium of games. Finally, a lovely Amerindian hammock sorely tempts one to while away the hours with a good book and a bottle or two of Stag while watching the passage of time and life in Castara.
Main Bedroom
Leading off the living area is the main bedroom, which at 3.9x3.6m (14sq.m.) is adequately spacious. Best of all, the 2.5m-wide shutters separating the bedroom from the living area can be thrown open, as allowing one to lie in bed and look out over Castara Bay. It was magical!
The master bedroom is equipped with a very comfortable queen-sized bed and two bedside tables. A wall-mounted dimmer switch mounted just above the headboard controls twin spotlights shou
ld you wish to read in bed. Mind you, like most visitors, we suffered from Tobagoitis, retired well before 10pm and were asleep within minutes. Reading (or anything else) just wasn't an option. If it affects the locals like that, I guess its explains why Tobago's population is still only around 50,000.
We slept solidly throughout our stay. This is a little unusual because having just arrived from the UK, it normally takes a few days for our body clocks to adjust and get used to the sounds of Tobago. We were never woken by cocricos (chachalaca) or cockerels (roosters). As every visitor knows, the early morning calls of these tiresome creatures can be the bane of a good night’s sleep. I don’t understand why we weren’t disturbed. Maybe the distant sound of crashing surf masked the sound.
The beds in all the apartments at Castara Retreats have mosquito nets suspended from a wooden frame over the bed. They look very attractive and might be useful during the wet ‘mossie’ season. However, despite the extremely unseasonable wet conditions during our stay, mosquitoes were a rarity. Maybe they had emigrated to dryer climes.
The master bedroom has a simple one metre-wide open cupboard, half of which is hanging space and half shelving. Additional storage space is available in the six large drawers of an attractive dressing table. Given the totally casual nature of life in Castara, you will have no need for large amounts of clothing, even when dining out. Frankly, a single medium-sized suitcase is all that the average couple will need for two weeks in the village.
Other facilities include a small security safe, hairdryer and an iron.
Second Bedroom
The second bedroom offers 11.6sm.m. of space, at 4x2.9m. Two single beds are pushed together to form a double. The room has wooden-louvered windows on two sides, plus louvered doors leading out onto a grass terrace. Being at the end of the building, this room benefits from the night breezes even more so than the main bedroom.
Furnishings in the second bedroom include an attractive cane dressing table with drawers, an open hanging space for clothing, a chair, plus bedside tables with one lamp.
Bathroom & Kitchen
At 2x1.7m, the bathroom is of adequate size and located next to the two bedrooms. The walk-in shower, toilet and pedestal basin were in perfect maintenance order. Hot and cold water are provided and at no time did we experience any shortages of hot water.
The kitchen is large, measuring 3x2.5m. It could easily handle the catering for all four apartments and is equipped with a large fridge-freezer, bottled gas oven (but no grill), toaster, cafétiere and an adequate range of pots, pans, cutlery and crockery, etc.
Just outside the door to the apartment is an open shower; ideal for washing off sand and salt when returning from the beach.
All in all, Rainforest offers wonderfully simple, but comfortable, accommodation for parties of up to four people. It’s not for the fastidious. This is natural living. Birds can fly into and around the apartment, day or night. If you're bothered about the odd bit of bird muck you’ll hate this place and should stay in the antiseptic air-conditioned cell of an all-inclusive resort. It's no contest to us! Sitting there watching bananquits and tanagers feeding on ripe mangoes is worth an awful lot of bird muck
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