Turtle watching, Goat and Crab Race

[Dave M]

I read the following on another website:

Good Friday & Easter Monday - these two public holidays in Tobago are always accompanied by a huge street party down at Buccoo Beach. Revel to the music of reggae and soca with locals and visitors alike. A great time to be had by all.
Goat and Crab Races - that's right, guys and their goats compete to see whose the fastest of them all - a fun day for all at Mt. Pleasant.
Easter Monday - Mount Pleasant sports and cultural activities

Turtle Nesting season - March is traditionally the best time to catch a glimpse of giant Leatherback turtles coming up on the beach to lay eggs. Two of the most popular beaches for this is 'Turtle Beach' and 'Courland Bay' on the Caribbean side of the island; although the turtles also come up on many other beaches surrounding the island that are not accessible by land.

I will be staying at Tropikist in March and would like to find out if the above is true. Can someone suggest a good place to book a turtle watching trip.
Also does the goat and crab race have a food fair

Thank you

[Paul Tallet]

Dave

I am interested in this as I will be there from March 13th for 3 weeks.

I am searching for other threads in this forum that I recall saying that there is a type of 'Turtle Call' whereby the Turtle Watchers on Turtle Beach give the alert as soon as they see one of the giant Leatherbacks emerge from the sea to lay eggs.

I understand that you can be put 'on call' although I would guess that most of the major resorts would be notified of a Turtle presence anyway.

I wonder if the consequences of such an alert would lead to a blur of tourists manifesting themselves from all corners of Tobago, racing around the hairpin bends and converging upon Turtle Beach with numerous dead jaywalking chickens left in their wake.

On this basis I guess you may need to gain some favours to receive such alerts if you are in a small obscure guesthouse like me.

I understand there is also a strict protocol here ... to protect the Turtles ... such as no flash photography etc.

I have no idea about the Goat/Crab races but it is an event I wish to attend ... hence this years booking in March.

Regards

[Steve Fifield]

The Easter Goat and Crab races are on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th March this year, as found on http://www.mytobago.info/calendar.php

At Buccoo there is a dedicated all year round goat race track (to give you an idea of how serious this event is!), and there will be many stalls serving food to eat in or take away I'm sure. Should be a great day out!

Steve F.