Trinidad/Tobago - Day 5 - Tobago

2/29/2004 (Sunday) 

We decided not to get sweaty before our flight, so slept in a little later than normal. We got onto the veranda at around 7:00. Of course, our new friends Jeff and Bev (from Great Britain) told us that they’d been seeing a Squirrel Cuckoo that morning. We’d missed that bird so far, and luckily the naturalist was able to relocate it and we got great scope views. It was cinnamon colored with a very long tail, tipped in black and then white. A Barred Antshrike male and female then appeared alongside the veranda in a bush, which filled the gap on another species that we’d missed the first three days. Who knows what we might have seen if we’d simply stayed on the veranda the whole time!

Female Barred Antshirke

Our driver arrived at 9:00 a.m., and dropped us at the Port-of-Spain airport an hour later. The airport was a bit confusing because of flights leaving for Tobago within just a few minutes of each other, but we boarded our flight and arrived in Tobago about 11:30. We were met by our driver and driven to the Blue Waters Inn on the far end of the island by 1:00. The towns of Tobago were much smaller and cleaner than those on Trinidad, which made sense because Tobago is principally a tourist economy.

Checking in at the Blue Waters Inn

View of the Caribbean

The Blue Waters Inn was a more conventional hotel than Asa Wright, and seemed to cater to more of a “Club Med” type of crowd. The rooms were very nice and air-conditioned, and there was a lot of emphasis on drinking and dining. The first birds we saw were Rufous-vented Chachalacas roaming the grounds. We had lunch with Elaine and Cara whom we’d met at Asa Wright, and they said that the snorkeling was excellent.

Our room. Back door leads out to the balcony. 

After lunch we headed over to the dive shop to rent flippers and headed for the beach. The waves were breaking pretty hard. The water was comfortably cool and very clear, with lots of brightly colored fish. 

We saw a parrotfish around eighteen inches long, a pufferfish, and a long skinny fish that was eighteen inches long but no more than one inch high. After taking about ten pictures with our underwater camera I lost it, so that was the end of that! One would think that you could find a bright blue camera in clear water, but you can’t!

The dive shop had a pet Macaw.

After snorkeling we walked up the entrance road to the Inn, and turned on a dirt road that continued up above and behind the hotel. We got great looks at White-fringed Antwren, Barred Antthrush, and Blue-black Grassquit. We got fleeting looks at Black-faced Grassquit as well.

Next time: Boobies and Glass Bottom Boats - it's not what you're thinking!