Breakfast, cash-flow and Scarborough - Twice!

Sunday 17 Jan 2016

Tobago - Castara

Well, I got up this morning, made a cup of tea, and sat on the balcony eating a banana and anticipating a slow start to Sunday when I was reminded that I'd apparently agreed to go out for breakfast! Cue quick shower and get dressed and hurriedly collect what we'd need for the day! Swimming trunks and towel. Check. Beach shoes. Check. Camera. Check, Suntan cream and insect repellent. Check. Cash, not much!

Down at Chellans, we found a table on their small, open-air dining area and sat down. The smells coming from the kitchen were mouth-watering. A cup of coffee arrived pretty quickly and a fruit juice for Lynn and not long afterwards, our order was taken. The menu was simple, coconut bake or toast with two side orders including scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. We both chose scrambled eggs and bacon.

By the time our breakfast arrived, two musicians had turned up with acoustic guitars and we're playing in the background, amazingly not reggae! Our two slices of toast came with a pile of bacon, American style, scrambled eggs, tomato, cucumber and a slice of watermelon. Butter and pineapple marmalade arrived too. How good was that? Very, is the simple answer and the bill $100 TT for the two of us, just over £10.

As alluded to earlier, we'd emptied our purses, pockets and piggy bank and realised we could use some more cash. Very few local businesses accept credit/debit cards. With that in mind and having already found the ATM in the village wouldn't give us anything, we headed for Scarborough, about 25km away on the southern, windward coast. As the speed limit is 50kph and the roads are narrow, windy and hilly it is about 30-40 minutes away.

Once at the one bank we know takes our card I was rather surprised to find it wouldn't give us cash either. Whilst pondering this dilemma in the car park, Lynn suddenly realised it was because we hadn't actually moved money onto our travel card - duh!

Ho-hum, back in the car and drive to Castara so we could get to a computer and load the card. It's an interesting drive at least! Fortunately, the Internet was working and we did our online banking and had a drink of water, then it was back to Scarborough for the second time in a day. We can say we know the road quite well now. The owners of our apartment told us the bank that own the ATM in the village has stopped accepting foreign cards.

After returning to Castara, we had a lazy hour before we headed down to Little Bay for a swim. The sea is slowly calming down and after I bravely flung myself into the ocean to check the wave action and entry and exit points free of stones washed up by the storm, Lynn finally made it for a swim. I say swim, but was more like a bounce around in the waves. It was rather refreshing.

We've spoken to our new neighbour's today. They are both Polish but live in Austin, Texas! Luckily, they aren't freaked out by bats as we have flocks of them on the feeder as usual.