Castara...third time lucky.

[Paul Williams]

You will have guessed from the title that this was our third trip to Castara and was not totally the holiday I envisaged when I started planning it 12 months ago.
Then the US dollar was weak against the pound and we thought we would be getting $2 to £1 boy were we wrong, we started by asking two good friends if they would like to join us and when they said yes I hoped they would enjoy the island and Castara as much as we do.
Due to the demise of XL we had to change our plans and booked with Virgin instead and we arrived at Gatwick on Wednesday afternoon to book our luggage in at "twilight booking" and received our boarding card as well, we went to the Gatwick Manor and had an excellent meal before booking in at the Travelodge which was terrific value at £19 for a room and met all of our needs.
Next morning we dropped off the car and took the bus to the terminal and went straight through to departures and we had a really enjoyable flight which was on time on arrival (it was raining) and we were met by Ancle who had 2 cars waiting for our transfer via Pennysavers to Castara, our friends Penni and Andrew went with Ancle and he gave them an interesting introduction to the island on the way.

We decided to eat out for our first night and went to D'Almond Tree and this is where we first noticed the currency situation, I decided to just have chicken and chips with a small salad and it cost $85TT and this was approx £11 and 2 years ago I was eating there for £5 which meant that we had to self cater a lot more than planned amd I know a lot of people who I spoke to were doing the same.
As our friends were staying in the Blue Marlin room at the Naturalist we had a car for the whole fortnight and we repeated a lot of the trips we had done previously the exceptions were.

Our first visit to Pigeon Point which we had avoided in the past for the well published reasons, we had a very enjoyable time (it rained) and were lucky to go on a day when there was no cruise ship in so it was also peaceful.

We also went with Ancle and some other guests (Darlene and Alvin you were great company) to see some of the pan competitions (it rained) and before this I did not realise what fun evenings these are its almost like a sporting event with tremendous competition between the bands.

From a personal point of view a highlight for me was a visit to Richmond Great House when we were lucky enough to have a personal tour with the owner Dr Hollis Lynch who is an amazing character and has a terrific knowledge of the island and a collection of art from Africa if you can arrange it go its superb.

I would like to say a big thankyou to David Williams of King David Tours as we won a prize in the last My Tobago competition and he kindly allowed me to carry it over to this visit and we had a really good trip with him into the rainforest (it rained by the way) and his understanding of its importance to Tobago was obvious to us.

Overall thoughts are that even though the weather was not what you would expect at this time of the year ie 12 days it rained out of 14 we still had a terrific time and Castara is still as lovely as ever with the bonus of a new supermarket and even an ATM (although it had no money).

Its important to say thankyou to all at the Naturalist as usual but also to so many of the people of the village who you meet when walking around who take the time to talk to you and tell you about their life and thoughts so its best to say thankyou Castara.

Regards
Paul (and Leita,Penni and Andrew)

[Paul Tallet]

Hi Paul

I think I was lucky ... I only had one day of rain.

It's not the weather though ... it's the place and the people.

I have a sense that I would have happily swapped my 2 weeks to spend 2 weeks of sogginess and a Carib or 2 with you

Regards

[Susanne Thomsen]

Hi Paul Williams.

I was looking after you, and i also asked Duck where you lived in Castara, because you told me you were liming with Duck, when he phoned our girl.

So maibe another time we can drink a Carib together.

I dont know if you saw me and my family, we had 3 girls, the big one and two smaller girl (10 and12).

Yes the weather was not the best, but as Paul Tallet said, the place and the people around.

It is so lovely when you going around the people knows you, talk to you, asking you how you are today, how was your night. All in Castara is now calling me mom hehe. We had a great time there, and now we are waiting for Duck and Jade going to Denmark. We spend every day together with those two guys, and we love them.

One day we were on Trinidad to make the visa, but it is not so easy, ohh my god, it is very difficult. But i think we had for one off them, and now we have to make for the next.

Susanne

[Carol Townsend]

Castara is still as lovely as ever with the bonus of a new supermarket and even an ATM (although it had no money).)

Paul,
I love that. Good news! An ATM but no money in it. How absolutely wonderful and surreal...
Noe