LIQUID SUNSHINE - Feedback

[Louise I]

Paul,

Its a gentle snorkel round to Lovers Bay - no need for a boat!! And you can rest when you get there - do stick a bottle of water in your waistband though. Saw lots when we (me, my then 68yr old dad and brother) did it a couple of years ago.

Louise

[Paul Tallet]

Hi everybody

I am off line until later as the Naturalist Wireless is down ... just a quick reply from the Internet Cafe for now.

Weather ... cloudy with rain most of the day ... gives us a breather from the scorching sun on the boat trip yesterday.

It got messy again yesterday ... more on that later when the wireless is back on.

Great to meet you Phil (Bondie) ...

Regards

[WendyKaye]

I am off line until later as the Naturalist Wireless is down ... just a quick reply from the Internet Cafe for now.

The wireless is working now--at least it is for me.

[SandraK]

Dear Pete and James
Am waiting with bated breath for next installment - so pleased it got messy.

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Sandra ... it did get a bit messy ... fantastic trip though, Duck needs his head checking out ... took today off to recover ... sore bums all round ... full report when I get back.

My Canadian friends have gone home so it feels a little quiet around here ... missing them alot.

Thanks Wendy ... been messing with it all day so will do the next weekly Liquid Sunshine jobby tomorrow if I get time.

David ... tried your new number ... no luck ... sorry I was not here when you came.

The cloud and rain looks set to be around for a while ... it's coming from the south ... we need more trades to blow it away.

Regards

[Paul Tallet]

Lovely day ... just one shower this morning.

We went off to Mount Irvine for some lovely snorkelling in calm seas.

Then lunch at the Mount Irvine Beach Resturant, Chicken, burger, chips with 'over the table sauce'.

Going raving mad round here with the elections coming up tomorrow. Processions of vehicles going round Tobago with red (for the ruling party) and yellow (for the hopefuls) colours, people hanging out of car windows, horns blaring and extremely loud music ... I wonder ... is the winner going to be the one with the loudest entourages?

BBQ tonight ... yep, here we go again ...

I will update Liquid Sunshine next Saturday but for now I can say that the pressure is low and there is alot of moisture to the south of Trinidad ... the risk of rain remains but will hopefully stay to the south.

I was lovely today though.

Regards

[Phil Bondie]

Sunday, C-ville The weather was great today. The last couple of days have been party sunny with a little rain during the night. The bay has been fairly calm during the day with some medium waves at night.

Also nice meeting Paul and James, thanks for the Carib.

Paul, I feel we may never meet David. Maybe he was created by Steve.

The processions also came through C-ville today PNM (ruling party)around noon and TOP just finished going through an hour ago. People were surprised at how many TOP supporters came through. I think it may be an interesting election tomorrow. I have been told not to be on the road next Sunday no matter who wins everybody will be liming with the winning party and the procession around the island will be huge.

Phil

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Phil

Yes, lovely to meet you.

We are coming up tomorrow (Mon) ... doing the long swim to Lovers for low tide. You have my number if you want to meet 2 totally knackered individuals for a beer.

Yes, maybe David is an enigma that manifests himself as a Santa or the stuff of Carib dreams?

Great BBQ this evening ... met some interesting people.

Weather ... lovely, hope the rain stays south.

Regards

[Steve Wooler]

Phil

How dare you cast such a slur on my poor old brain and imagination. What sort of disturbed mind could create such a character? I will demand immediate recompense of at least four bottles of Stag if/when we meet on Tobago.

[Paul Tallet]

Great BBQ last night ... finished up in Lime Bar ... no mess, everyone behaved.

I have to say that I have met a wonderful variety of interesting people during this holiday.

Anyway ... weather looking good ... a few clouds, sea calm which is good because we are doing Lover's Bay today.

Phil, I thought you were going to confirm to the forum the authenticity of the smouldering dashing and handsomeness of my avatar ... but then again, no worries ... people seem to recognise me instantly anyway

May bump into you in Charlottesville today.

Regards (off for another nice day)

[Paul Tallet]

Louise ... we did Lover's Bay today but I refused to take a bottle of water in my personal protest over the ban on alcohol for election day

Boy oh Boy ... what a fabulous day ... lovely weather, calm seas, the only niggle being that low tide was later in the afternoon and not when we did our trip.

We set off from the west side of MoW Bay and got there easily in about 10 minutes ... negotiated around the corals and landed on Lover's Bay, sat down, felt very smug about ourselves, then got bored and looked at the visual feast before us.

Back in we went ... splosh!!

We snorkelled around in crystal clear water and over some pristine Coral, we followed huge shoals of beautiful 'Doreens' accompanied by these huge Parrot Fish ... we started tinkering with shoals of tiny silver fish and shaping them only to attract the attention of the local Barracuda that like to sneak up behind you with that 'what you think your doing mate?' expression on their face ... life everywhere ... and to top it off, a couple of large squid before we set off back.

The swim back was much harder against strong currents and took about 20 - 30 minutes, so you need to be quite strong to get back after 2 hours of snorkelling around Lover's Bay.

Exhilarating and exhausting ... so much so that I fell asleep in the car on the way back while James got himself completely lost driving about in the rainforest.

Lovely day.

Regards

[Glen O]

Paul - I'm really enjoying your daily snippets about your visit. We're travelling to Castara in 3 weeks so it is all very relevant to me. Glad you're enjoying yourself. Please keep up your blog while you're there.

Glen

[SandraK]

Dear Pete and James
That sounds awesome - a definite "must do " on our next trip. Assuming I have shed the Christmas pounds, which ain't proving that easy ! It's been a delight reading your updates, am expecting a blow by blow account once you get home, especially the messy bits.

[Louise I]

Glad you had a good swim and snorkel. There are some great fish and coral round there!

[Phil Bondie]

Tuesday, C-ville, Yesterday had some rain late afternoon, same thing today. Most of the day was quite nice. The water in the bay has been calm and pretty clear. When I got here the end of Dec. the water was so dirty you could not see your hand 6 inches under water. They were cleaning the drains and it was raining so all the mud just washed into the bay. They finished a week and a half ago so the water is clearing up. The prevailing current goes away from Pirates Bay so it has been nice there all along.

Went to town today and stopped by Castara on the way back to say goodbye to Paul. Yes he is as handsome as his picture. I told him as I am floating in the water, 85 deg. F, I will be thinking about him for the next couple of months.

Steve, I thought that(David) might get a rise out of you. Any time on the Stag. I've meet you so I know you are real. Hope you can make it down this year.

Phil

[Paul Tallet]

Erm ... just got back and still waking from a night's/day's/whatever sleep. It's gut-wrenching to come back ... the worst flight experience ever (No disrespect to Monarch ... it's just awful coming home and I was an irritable bastard all the way ... so well done for putting up with me).

What an awesome holiday ... working on my notes ... Subversive Pete's accounts will be published in due course (in the General Comments) and there will be some personal reviews ... lets see who I upset this time

Precious precious memories ... this year was really special and it was some special people that made it so good ... now back to work (just found out I still have a job ... yeah!!) ... start planning for the next one ... yeeeez

Regards

[David Watkins]

Hi All sorry about the absenteeism TSTT lost blink in this area....just got it back.
As regards to my being a figment of an elderly gentleman's imagination,I truly do exist.For proof positive be at Tino's Bar in Scarborough after 2pm on Carnival Tuesday
David

[WendyKaye]

My husband and I had the pleasure of meeting Paul and Jim here in Castara during their visit and I just wanted to take the opportunity to put a few rumors to rest, from a neutral eyewitness perspective. 1. There were indeed some "goings on" having to do with rum; 2. no prisoners were taken and the survivors are not talking, so details are sparse; 3. Everything reported about the magnificent snorkeling at Lover's Bay is true and then some (just watch for the bellybutton scraping reef); 4. Paul's photo on the Forum does not begin to do him justice. He is much better looking than the photo, and his son Jim is a very close runner-up to his dad.

All reports about the pleasures of Castara are true--generous and welcoming residents, incredible ocean, day after day of sunshine with just enough rain every now and then to cool down.

[Phil Bondie]

Saturday,C-ville, The last three days have been great. Plenty of sun and a very calm bay. Paul, glad you made it back ok. It has been pretty slow here, not many tourists. Fishing has been ok, no big catches but not to many coming in with nothing. Big local birthday party tonight at Grey's. David I will try your last number and see if we can't get together. Phil

[Paul Tallet]

Thanks Wendy ... the cheque's in the post

Regards