Travel Advice to Tobago has changed.

[Louise W]

I've just been sent this link to the T&T Express. It would seem that the FCO has updated its travel advice.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl ... d=79379432

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pag ... 3618386523

I've just returned from a holiday in Tobago and at no time on the island did I feel threatened or felt that I was in danger in any way.

Louise

[Paul Tallet]

Who gets these ideas about Tobago?

I never heard about the Englishman's Bay incident ... that is a worry ... surely there is a rational explanation for this.

Regards

[Steve Wooler]

Yes, Paul, I would be delighted to know what the FO advice would be for a trip to London or Manchester. It makes one shudder to think!

Sadly the Englishman's Bay attack was real and very bad. I've been unable to get solid details, but it seems four men beat and robbed a villa owner and his friends and raped one lady. Two weeks earlier some tourists had been robbed in the same area. Needless to say, the new police Task Force are out in force. Hopefully it won't take them long to find the culprits in such an isolated area with such a low population.

[Paul Tallet]

I am in shock ...

[Jane H]

When we visited Englishman's Bay on a weekday in late April, although the beach area was just as we remembered it - small numbers of tourists from several different countries, local traders who were all very friendly - at the turning down to the bay, there was a small "cafe"(?) with quite a few pretty rough looking individuals outside and trucks parked along the road.

One of the staff at our hotel who has family living in the north of the island said that there had been a lot of trouble of various kinds since the construction of the L'Anse Formi to Charlotteville road started. They said that quite few of the construction workers had come from Trinidad and that they were the problem - but how true this is we obviously don't know.

Jane

[Bob White]

Shocked like you Paul re incident.

Sad reminder that crime exists everywhere..... but agree with Steve that the chances of this group being caught is high. Think that it has been stated before on this forum but punishment will be severe for those found guilty.

Fortunately serious incidents involving tourists on Tobago remains low...... but there is increasing evidence from locals that Trinidadian criminals are becoming regular visitors to Tobago. They make a hit then rapidly head back to Trinidad for cover..... and the level of crime on this island is on a completely different scale.

[Steve Wooler]

Yes, Jane - that totally ties in with the information from my sources who say that Tobagonians in the area are totally horrified by the incident and are more than anxious to help track the perpetrators. There are various construction projects going on in the area, of which the L’Anse Fourmi-Charlotteville road is the biggest and yes, many/most of the construction workers are from Trinidad.

I’m sure that most Trini construction workers are decent law abiding people, but I have to say that a disturbing percentage of the ‘serious’ criminals caught in recent years have been from this sector.
.

[M Smith]

We are shortly due to go to Tobago. I am becoming increasingly concerned about the safety issues in light of this information!
Do people think its still OK to travel arround the island (by jeep etc) after dark to visit different cafe's etc? Surely although rare, kidnappings can occur by roadblocks as they do in occasionally on other Carribean islands?? We are not particularly anxious individuals but, according to the formal government it sounds as though at night there is quite a significant risk unless one stays in the hotel??

[Steve Wooler]

To the best of my knowledge and belief, there has never been a kidnapping or road-block of the type you describe in Tobago. Those sort of incidents are associated with TRINIDAD - a completely different island with a totally different cultural, ethnic and religious mix and very different social mores and standards.

Your profile doesn't indicate where in the UK you live, but I would put the risks of travelling around at night in Tobago at no higher than ANYWHERE in rural Britain and a fraction of the risk of travelling at night in any of our cities or towns.

[Steve Wooler]

Some information hot off the press.

I am sure that anyone who knows Tobago will have been as shocked as I was at the reports of this case. It just didn't make sense - not in that remote area of Tobago.

Well, whilst totally unconfirmed, reports are starting to creep in. I will refrain from detailed comment until I've been able to validate the facts, but this would appear NOT to have been a random attack. There is a evidence that this may have been a situation that blew up out of control over unpaid building work. If true, it makes a lot more sense of the story.

[John Brownlow]

We were staying in Castara during the first week in May when one of the robberies occurred at Englishman's Bay. We heard that a Swedish couple with two young children were robbed at gunpoint by masked men in the early evening. The robbers took their keys and left in their car, abandoning it at the top of the hill. We were advised that a number of thefts had taken place at Englishman's Bay, with thieves emerging from the trees behind the beach and snatching belongings. We were advised that it is safer to stay fairly close to the stalls at the entrance to the beach.

That said, we spent 2 or 3 days at the beach and didn't experience any problem, neither did we feel in any way unsafe duing a wonderful 2 week stay on Tobago.

[Paul Tallet]

Getting a bit sick of these 'hearsay' stories being posted.

They cannot all be true and I have a sense that some of us are letting our imagination get the better of us.

Muggings ... rapes ... gangs of thieves emerging from bushes ... car theft ... guns ... all in Englishman's Bay.

All these stories are different ... next we will be hearing about the remains of a tourist that was gobbled up by a mutant palm tree !!

Please give Steve a chance to validate these stories which are upsetting enough without hearing further variations.

Regards

[Nikos]

Being a journalist, I know how easy it is for an untrue rumour to spread like this. Please, Steve, post any validated facts that you collect. Same goes for anyone who may have access to the true story. We've been in Englishman's Bay, and we realize that it wouldn't be so difficult for a theft to take place. But rape? Robbery at gunpoint? I don't know. Sounds far-fecthed. Anyway, let's have the truth, please. It'd be sad for anyone to miss a trip to that gorgeous beach because of false rumours.

[Steve Wooler]

Sadly, John's story is not just hearsay - a couple were robbed by armed men near Englishman's Bay at the start of the month. I caution use of the word "armed". We automatically assume that this term means gunpoint, but from what I've heard (although unconfirmed) these robbers were armed with that favourite Tobago tool-of-all-trades, the cutlass.

Whether the two incidents are connected, I cannot say. I hope so. One thing appears clear. There has been a rash of mainly petty crime in the area since the construction gangs moved in. I guess it’s a bit like gypsies moving in over here (no apologies if I am not PC enough for some readers).

It may take some time to get more information on the villa attack, and possibly not until the culprits are caught. However, it increasingly looks like it is far more than a random attack/robbery against a tourist.

Let’s hypothesise over an imaginary scenario. Take a southern European owner who wants to build a new villa in a remote and tucked-away location. Let’s imagine that he hires various local workers, possibly including Trini construction workers from a road construction gang who may, or may not, have been using government equipment and materials to do the job. Let’s assume that this owner refuses to pay anyone, either because he hasn’t got the money; because such situations are such a ‘game’ where he comes from; or possibly because he thinks these local boys would have little recourse to the legal expertise necessary to recover funds from him back in Europe. I imagine such a situation, if it ever were to occur, would be one fraught with risk – particularly if rough-and-tough Trini construction workers were involved.

Incidentally, may I extend my apologies to my many Trinidadian friends if I seem to be constantly putting down their country and nationality. I totally acknowledge that most Trinis are wonderful people who are just as horrified as everyone else at the increasing lawlessness of their country.

[Cornelia Montgomery]

Wouldn't the unpaid workers have a legal right to place a lien on the property of the "southern European," rather than taking the claim to Europe? Seems like the court system in Tobago could help work out such a claim, short of rape and mayhem.

[Paul Tallet]

Eh?

The plot thickens ...

Cornelia

Please share your wisdom and knowingness.

[Cornelia Montgomery]

Oh, don't pay any attention to me, Paul. I was actually amused to see Italians getting SteveI'mEnglish treatment.

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Cornelia

Good to hear from you. I thought your xenophobia had driven you off to Panama. Welcome back!

Yes, I'm proud of my nationality and to be English. I appreciate you wouldn't understand such feelings. However, I was brought up in the Caribbean and that has very much influenced my outlook, so whilst I am English, I don't totally feel it and do see our country and nationality from the outside. Neither am I less than realistic. If you were less selective in your reading, you would have seen how often I have commented and even condemned British national traits. Unlike some, we Brits don't take ourselves too seriously and can laugh and learn from open discussion of these characteristics.

[T Heie]

I must have missed this simmering feud developing.
Anyway, I can say with some degree of (first-time) authority that RE: TOBAGO SAFETY, we were virtually out and about every day and night for a week in the Crown Point area and traveled to Bucco, Mt. Irvine and all of the Atlantic side -- Tobago novices not knowing one street from the next with scads of locals everywhere, and only once -- two young gents seemed to follow our path as we carried a load of souvenirs from Store Bay one day -- did we even think to pop in a bar and wait it out. WITH A DELICIOUS CARIB TO EASE OUR HEADS.
The Englishmen's Bay incidents are horrid, but we never heard of anything like that during our trip. We found Tobago to be, perhaps, the loveliest spot on this giant twirling ball we call Earth.
Trinidad, however, was aflame with grenades, kidnappings and murder and mayhem. We'd love to go there some day.

[Steve Wooler]

Hi T

No feud, I can assure you. I just have a sick sense of humour, I guess, but find it difficult to take Cornelia seriously. It seems I've upset her over my description that the Hilton "will appeal more to North American tastes than European". She also took exception to a comment I made about something/somewhere being "Americanised" (sorry, Americanized) and saw my comment as being anti-American.

Enough said - we're getting off topic.