A SUGAR SHACK IN TOBAGO March, 1993

We learned about Charlotteville, Tobago one rainy sunday morning reading the Boston Globe travel section. The article described Man 'o' War Bay, a quiet secluded fishing village on the far side of Tobago, as a great hideaway. Say no more, we're there!

Since it is quite a distance to travel, we decided to take a bit more time than usual on this trip. Our plans included four days in Trinidad and then on to Tobago. Our experience in Trinidad was not the best, and next time I would bypass it altogether. I am sure there are some beautiful places on this island, but Port-au-Spain is not one of them! This capital city keeps everything and just about everyone in security cages since the crime rate is so high. We chose to stay at a bed and breakfast and were extremely disappointed in our choice of establishments. Most of our time in Trinidad was spent trying to track down our luggage and more importantly the fiore importantly the fishing equipment which American Airlines lost. By the time we got our luggage it was time to get out of town and not too soon for me. Another misjudgement was made when I decided to turn in our plane ticket to Tobago for a ferry ride, thinking that a quiet, romantic ride would be just the thing to get our spirits up. WRONG!! I won't go into details because I think I blocked out most of the experience, but leave it to say it was the ferry ride from HELL!

Eventually we made our way to the lovely lush island of Tobago and our vacation finally began. We spent two nights in Scarborough, the capital town, and had a lovely time at the Blue Crab bed and breakfast. We had a terrific room overlooking the bay and woke up to some great flying fish for breakfast. The owner, Alison, was extermely helpful in making arrangements to get us to Charlotteville. Our driver, Muhammad showed up in a beat up big old chevy to take us on a two hour roller coaster journey across the island. We did some sight seeing along the way and ended up at Man-of-War Bay at the Turpin plantation. Here we moved into the sugar shack by the ocean and made ourselves at home. The sugar shack was part of an old cane mill and it has open air rooms that go from outside to sort-of-inside. The chickens came and went as we did. Tobago is very tropical and lush and everyday we awoke to the calls of parrots, cockatoos, and macaws outside the window.

This fishing village is exactly that. When the catch was in, they would blow the conch shell. Everyone in hearing distance came running down to help bring in the catch. Not too many tourists here but those few of us that were there, also pitched in and helped. We had fresh fish daily, and all the bananas, oranges, grapefruit we could pick. We did alot of hiking through the forests and rented a jeep for a day and toured the entire island, even went to beautiful Little Tobago, a wildlife reserve.

Our fondest memory of Tobago is Mac. This is a 70 year old man we met who became our own personal tour guide, not to mention friend. He owns a small wooden rowboat which he built himself. He took us out fishing any morning or night we wanted. We caught kingfish, big eyed snappers, and even a small shark. During the day Mac would row us over to Lover's Beach where we did some snorkeling and played with the 4' resident barracuda. We met quite a few of the old locals. All you have to do is put a bottle of rum out on the front porch and every night around sunset you are guaranteed to have some company. If you don't drink yourself, one bottle could last about a week! The older generation was well worth getting to know. There is local breadmaker, the neighbor who walked into our kitcken one day and made us cocoa tea, and the woman who makes the greatest hot sauce on the island. Unfortunately, some of the younger generation, seeking an easier life, are turning into hucksters trying to hustle the tourists and are not paying any attention to the beautiful land and resources that they have there.

Charlotteville is a wonderful, unspoiled place as of yet. I sure hope they don't decide to pave paradise!