New Year's eve was a wash out!! It rained for 7 hours straight form early evening and that flooded out the clubs where we had planned to see the Old Year's Night turn into New year's day. Such a disappointment because people in Bartica do know how to party...Frankie our friend came around to see in the New year in, we watched CNN for a bit and then went to bed. A couple of days later we found out that The Garden bar did reopen on the morning of the 1st January to party but we missed all that because we are not yet in the know of the social scene to that extent....
But our trip to Tobago from the 5th - 10th January was a New Year's treat that went beyond our expectations . We stayed with a an old friend from Oxford days in her beautiful house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean . It was not far from the airport and so we were quickly into holiday mode. Despite being in her early eighties, she retains a zest and enthusiasm for life that is impressive. Her house is big and wooden and full of books and original paintings by Trinidadian artists and we were only too glad to fulfill our part of the deal... to do the cooking. The weather was warm without being oppressive and the house oozed a relaxed style. There was an immaculately maintained swimming pool in the garden which she almost never used now and during the week we were able to visit several lovely beaches and places around the island. It is has a rugged unspoiled hilly coastline and we relished the smooth, sandy, litter free beaches and the clear blue Caribbean sea. The contrast with Guyana was stark... Here was a developed island full of good roads and restaurants and whose taxi drivers had a friendly, infectious manner. Clearly the revenue that Trinidad and Tobago gain from oil and the small size of the country have contributed to their development, but the Guyanese tourism industry could learn some valuable lessons from the way the people in Tobago market and present their tourist attractions.
No comments:
Post a Comment