Store Bay, Tobago … nothing much needs to be said …

 2 - All Tobago Posts, 2010, Trinidad  3 Responses »
Dec 262010
 

Getting from Trinidad to Tobago is an easy plan; no hassle, short flight, no crazy drivers that one has to worry about in Trinidad. If you’re in Tobago, after taking the 14 minute flight from Trinidad, your next steps should go something like this …

  1. Call pre-arranged taxi rental company to pick you up from airport and head straight to the rental company. Fill out paper work and take car out.
  2. Depending on what time you get in, there are two logical options
    1. If you come in anytime BEFORE sunset, go directly to the beach – Store Bay or Pigeon Point. They’re close (2 min drive in either direction) and proceed to eat and get your water or tan on.
    2. If you come in anytime AFTER sunset, go directly to the hotel, check in and go for dinner and check back to hotel for drinks. If you’re new, you won’t know any places to go for drinks. (MyTobago.info maintains an excellent listing of places to eat in Tobago – updated every three months and has pertinent info.)

In High Season (Christmas time [Dec 15- Jan 3rd] or the two weeks after Carnival) Always prearrange your accomodations and rentals from Trinidad … if you don’t, you will probably not have availability or you will be charged a king’s ransom – either way, not a great start to a trip.

We couldn’t find a taxi, so I went up to a guard, asked him where to find a taxi, he directed me to another guard booth. She said there was none, but then asked a friend who with her liming to give us a lift to our homestay. Of course, he couldn’t do it immediately as he was looking in the parking lot for his keys to his house (seriously!) … so now it is the three of us (female guard, her friend, and me) looking through an empty parking lot for a bunch of keys. After we found the keys, the friend gave us a lift to the hotel … no cash, compliments of the car keys :D

After getting to the hotel, it was late – hence dinner and drinks – however trying to find an open bar on Christmas night is next to impossible – but we were quite lucky to find a local bar that was serving.

In the morning, we collected our car and went off to Store Bay for a couple hours in the water. The other thing about Store Bay is that it is the collection point for tours to the Buccoo Reef, Nylon Pool and Coral Gardens. Driving into Store Bay, many guys will wave at you trying to sell you tours at different prices – there are only 4-6 boats that do the tours on any given day – twice daily (leaving between 11 and 11.30am or 2 and 2.30pm).

The tours consist of the following sequence of events:

  • Journey to the Buccoo Reef
  • Snorkel in the Coral Gardens
  • Swim in Nylon Pool – use the coral sand to exfoliate your skin
  • Stop off at No Mans’ Land for some BBQ and Rum Punch (optional and usually on a weekend, depends on weather, and depends on nice you are to the tour guides)

 

If you want to get a decent price – talk to a couple guys. They’ll give a piece of paper with their names and phone numbers and ask them their price (a good price is something between $50 and $70 TT ($8 – $11 USD)). All the boats are fairly do the same route, all have glass bottom sections and they all leave around the same time.

Once you’re set, then you’re off for breakfast at the Store Bay food sheds and then hit the beach and go on your tour. BTW – if you’re in Tobago, you have to do the tour – it’s completely worth it, just to bathe in the Nylon Pool.

Store Bay

Nylon Pool

No Mans’ Land

Store Bay | Buccoo Reef

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 Posted by rishiray at 6:00 am  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Tobago 2006 – Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool – Day 3

 2 - All Tobago Posts, 2006  No Responses »
Apr 102006
 


As the third and final day started up, we had decided that at the Hilton (the previous night, where we paid about 700.00$ TT for a pretty crappy dinner, considering the price, although it must be said that we decided to hit the Hilton very very late on Sunday night.), we would rise very early in the morning and start our day from about 7.30am.To even my surprise, Tara and I woke up pretty early and went straight to the beach. The plan for today was that we would get to the beach early, have breakfast, buy tickets for the Buccoo Reef tour and head to Pigeon Point again. So we went straight from the guest house to Store Bay and hit the water early. Of course, the usual scene, jump in the car, hit the beach. Nothing to different there!At about 9am or so (since one tends to lose track of time in the islands, although Tara was quite curious about my ability to tell time by the sun, or how bright it looked. I was usually within 15 mins of the actual time, just by sight of the sun), we headed for breakfast. At Store Bay, there are quite a couple of breakfast sheds, and the usual beach breakfast consists of “Fried Bake and Something”.

Fried Bake for anyone, who hasnt had this heart clogging start to a morning, is basically flour fried in oil,there is no simpler definition of this. It is meant to be eaten like bread. Hence the “Something” is usually SaltFish (Buljol) /Smoked Herring/Tomatoes Choka or some “Choka” derivative (Meaning tons of chopped onions, garlic, cilantro, salt are tossed in).

Buljol derived from the French words “Brule” which means burnt and refers to the pepper in this recipe (since the dish is served at room temperature or cold), and “geule” which is the slang for mouth.

So my breakfast was Bake and Buljol, while Tara had Bake and Smoked Herring, of course with some fresh OJ. I had to douse my Bake with tons of Pepper sauce though, since this was food made for Tourists (!)

After Breakfast, we headed back to the beach for another dip and really to wait for the Glass Bottomed Boat and the Buccoo Reef and Nylon Pool tour. So once we got on the boat, the water is really very, very clear

I cant really describe the tour and what was said, since our tour guide wasnt really much a tour guide, besides a couple corny jokes, and some basic facts about the types of coral that there were in the reef. It is startling to know though that from the last couple times, I have been to the reef, it looks like the reef is really dying, but that is just to my eye!

This is one time, where blogging or anything else, cannot begin to capture how clear the water was. It was clearer than a pool,IMHO. Just a great day to see the water.

Teh tour itself took about 2 hours in total, and of course by the time we came off the boat, it was close to 1.30pm. So we didnt have time to really hit Pigeon Point again, which was kinda sad in a way. So instead, we did the next best thing.

We left the beach, and headed for lunch. Of course, it was the usual Baked Chicken and Pork for me, with rice, salad and a Peardrax. Tara had something similar. Then it was back to the guest house. Shower and then headed back to the Car Rental agency.

Upon dropping the car off, (which BTW was now 2 hours late and dirty with Sand – but of course, there was no charge), the agency guy offered to drive us to the airport. This would be a normal request, except when the airport is literally 300 metres away from the agency, it seemed quite dumb to take up his request.

So we walked to the airport, checked in, at the one gate and then headed back to Trinidad – which takes 15 mins via plane.

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