Feb 1 2017 – Travel Day – from Trinidad to Tobago

Today was another hot and sunny day in Trinidad and we had to pack up and bid Asa Wright and its guides and staff and wonderful birds Good Bye!!  We were sad to leave here.  It is so comfortable there.   

We had time for a group picture.  We thought everyone was there and we found out that there was one missing.  When the missing person showed up we took a photo of her alone against the green   Barbr worked her magic and inserted the missing person into our group photo and it looked great.

ASA Wright knows how to get its guests to the airport.  Each of us verified that our luggage was packed into the luggage van which would follow our minibus.  Once at the airport we would have our luggage to check it in.   This system eliminated the worry that "maybe my bag did not get picked up from outside the room" and once we arrived at the airport it would be too late to go back and get it.  

 Leaving mid-morning we drove along the road that hugs the side of the mountain.  We traveled this road many times but when we came to the three tight areas there was the usual quiet in the van.  We had only inches to spare and we never knew what part of the road was being worked on.  This work is ongoing and we could only see little bits of progress.  But for an mountain side road, it was still open for traffic.  And this road was busy.  We sort of got used to it by the last day.  The construction crew slept and cooked about 10 feet from the tightest spot.  The security guard also stayed with them.  They even had a bird cage hanging from the work tent with a bird in it.  Nothing like the comforts of home even when one is working on a side of a mountain miles from any town.

Once we arrived in Port of Spain, there was heavy traffic all the way to the airport.  It was slow and all our luggage for the group of 12 on this tour followed in another packed minibus.  It was so slow, and it took over one and half hours.  We then had our packed lunch from the AW kitchen in the airport waiting area.  We waited to get on the plane and had to walk across the tarmack a distance.  No air conditioned corridors to get into the plane.  So we had little steps to climb up to the back door of the plane.  It was a turboprop plane.  The flight to Tobago was half an hour long.  This was the shortest flight I have ever been on, a real baby flight.

Then we were met by a driver of a bus with no air conditioning to drive to the other end of the island where Blue Waters Inn is located.   We opened all the windows and it was fine.  Here is a sign that we came across in our drive.

When I heard that the ride was supposed to take 1.5 hours across the island I claimed the front seat beside the driver, the seat was not taken.  My Gravol was packed in the bottom of my suitcase and I could not get to it.  The driver was very nice and we had a long curving switchbacks by the ocean and the drive took almost two hours.  It was a beautiful drive but we were not expecting to be so long in the car.  We did stop at one pond and just birded by ourselves for 20 minutes.  

Blue Waters Inn is right on the beach. The surf and waves are about 20 feet from our door. 

This is the view from our room

There are bird feeders here along the shore and birds also.  We are on the Atlantic Ocean and when we arrived the surf was pretty strong.  It changed with the tide and became a really wild surf with big crashing waves which were thunderous. 

 Brenda and I took the opportunity to walk in the surf and the short beach.  This was not Daytona Shores or Smyrna Beach but pretty spectacular all the same.

 There were several Ruddy Turnstones which were very tame with people and they were always on the shore, or just resting on the pier.  They would come up to you, maybe hoping for a handout.  There was also a Chachalaca that came to the balconies to see what was going on.  Blue Waters Inn was a very relaxing place.  

 We explored a bit of the Blue Waters Inn today, since there were no birding activities and evening came quite quickly.



We had a welcome rum punch here and then supper at 6:30 pm.  This Bananaquit joined us for the rum punch welcome.  Whoever it was beat him to the rum punch.

Service was fine but a bit too slow for us, and we finally left our table after our delicious main course just before 9 pm.  We four girls went for a swim in the infinity pool and then a soak in the hot tub right by the ocean.  The stars were out and the pools were salt pools so that makes skin so soft. 

By the time we were out of the tub, it had clouded over.  We grabbed our desserts that we had ordered and I got a mug of hot water  for a night time beverage.   By time we walked to our room the heavens opened up and we had a rain shower.   I had a quick shower and was ready to enjoy my dessert now at bed time.  For the first time in a week, we have a TV and CNN!!!   The tide coming in is overpowering and very loud.  It is the best sedative in the world!!!

Tomorrow we will meet up with our guide at 7 am and we will bird all day.  The Inn will provide a box breakfast (restaurant here does not open until 7 am) and a box lunch, so we all looking forward to tomorrow to get started here.

Our impression of Tobago from the drive is that is neat and tidy and colonial in mood.  There are all kinds of people around and the city is very clean as opposed to Port of Spain which has nice areas but some really grotty areas too.  Tobago seems more prosperous and even the roads are better.  As we got further from town, it was still neat but we went through some poor areas and some nice ones.  It is very different from Port of Spain.