Is this really winter?

Thursday 07 January 2016

Tobago - Buccoo

After another good nights sleep, we woke to an overcast sky this morning. Despite our best efforts, we are still using the a/c at night, at 25C overnight with no fan or breeze, it is impossible to sleep well.

Our mission today was to obtain some US dollars! Legally! We have already paid half of the rent on the apartment we are moving to tomorrow, but owe the balance in US dollars. Unsurprisingly, the ATM spits out TT (Trinidad and Tobago) dollars. We did bring some US dollars with us, but not enough for the outstanding rent.

On our previous excursions, we'd seen a bank on the road near Scarborough. We decided it was the obvious place to buy dollars. The bank was a very smart building ( so that's where the money goes) on a roundabout with very conspicuous security guards outside. We went in and stood in the queue for the cashiers. When our turn came, the cashier politely explained that as we didn't have an account we couldn't buy any currency. After explaining why we needed the dollars, she called over her supervisor, Wendy. She was very sympathetic and said if we provided proof of why we needed the dollars, she would ask her manager if they could help us.

We drove back to the apartment and collected a paper copy of the email exchanges between Lynn and the apartment owner and the drove back to the bank. The bank was, by now, even busier, but somehow I caught the eye of Wendy and she mouthed that she'd be with us shortly. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, Wendy was at the counter. After a phone call to her manager and photocopying the emails and my passport, we quickly removed a couple of thousand TT dollars from the ATM and handed them over in exchange for US dollars. Result! I guess Wendy will never read this blog, but I'd like to thank her for her help. It would have been easy to be a 'jobsworth' but she wasn't and bent over backwards to help us.

By the time we got back to the apartment it was nearly lunchtime so I walked back to the mini-market and bought some bread rolls for lunch. We sat in the apartment and ate a leisurely lunch.

The one thing missing from this blog is any mention of sea, sand, waving palms, sun-tan cream and
 swimming, I'm about to rectify that! We threw all our beach paraphernalia into the back of the car after a suitable rest after lunch (did your Mum explain it was dangerous to go swimming straight after lunch as a child?) and headed for Grange beach, not far from the apartment.

We parked directly by the beach, scrambled down to the sand, walked 20 metres and plonked ourselves down. The beach was practically deserted apart from one or two locals. The sea was pleasantly warm, but someone complained that it wasn't as warm as the Maldives! The sea was beautifully clear with small waves breaking onto the beach. There were palm trees to provide shade.

After swimming for about half an hour, we settled down to dry off on the beach towels thoughtfully provided by the apartment owner. I spent my time watching Brown Pelicans throwing themselves into the water to catch fish. Overhead were Magnificent Frigatebirds who are expert at catching fish by stealing them from other birds who have gone to the trouble of diving and chasing fish. Unluckily for them, Pelicans have an advantage. They are as big as the Frigatebirds and secondly after splashing down to catch fish, keep the fish and gallons of water in their huge throat pouches.

The fish were clearly plentiful, several schools of small silver fry kept leaping out of the water. On the one hand, this provided an escape from whatever larger fish was hunting them underwater, on the other, it clearly marked to the birds their whereabouts. Who'd be a small fish?

All this lying on the beach was thirsty work so we drove to Mount Irvine beach for a beer. Whilst drinking the beers we were accosted by a gentleman who explained he was the doctor and proceeded to smother us in fresh Aloe Vera. Needless to say, despite the refreshing scrub down it was a beach scam and we left the beach TT$100 the lighter.

Back at the apartment, we relaxed and had dinner. One other result today was an email I got from our satellite broadband company agreeing that we had been loyal customers and offering us an upgrade of service effectively for free. Now that is a bargain!