New Year and Elliot´s birthday in the Caribbean

Trip Start Nov 01, 2006

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
Sunday, December 30, 2007

We arrived at Trinidad airport and nearly had to leave again as we didn't have an onward ticket that immigration normally insist on. I think the woman was quite shocked at our answers to questions as we told her that 'No we don't have a ticket out of Trinidad, no we don't even have a ticket home from any other country, we didn't really mean to come here, we were heading to Venezuela'. Then we went to tourist information to try and find out the best way to get to Tobago. They told us that all the ferries were sold out for that day but we could try and get one the next day (31/12). We decided to go to the port and check that out and luckily enough we got standby tickets on the 2pm ferry that same day. It's a massive ferry and really quite swish. It's takes about 3 hours and is a really nice way to travel. We arrived in Tobago with nowhere to stay, but after a quick telephone call we jumped in a taxi to a guesthouse called Millers in Bucco. The owner Winston was really nice and we ended up staying there for 8 days

Beach

. We started off in a double room and then moved to the apartment which had its own kitchen and views of the ocean and palm trees. The next week was then spent lazing on the beach, doing a spot to snorkeling and drinking the 3 litres of rum we had bought from Guyana! There was of course New Years Eve and Elliot's birthday during that time and for NYE we started off having a few drinks on our balcony with some French people staying at the guesthouse before moving onto a local bar to have some food and watch the fireworks. Elliot didn't make it that far as he's had a bit too much rum and beer and he was asleep by 11.30pm! Mind you the fireworks consisted of 3 rockets, one of which went sideways into a wall, so he didn't miss too much.
For Elliot's birthday we went to a restaurant that was a old colonial house that had been converted. He had a prawn vindaloo (his reason for picking the restaurant was because it served curry!) and I had some local fish.
We also made friends with some locals Emma and Ricky who took us own on their boat on our last day and we got to snorkel and chill out drinking beers, which was great. All in all our time here was very relaxing, we cooked a lot to save money and the local beach was the nicest we found so we spent most of our time there.
Soon enough it was time to get back on the travelling circuit and head to Venezuela

Cricket on the beach

. We booked ourselves on the ferry to Guirua in Venezuela which leaves once a week from Trinidad and after getting loads of US dollars to change up we were ready to go! We arrived at the port to find a tiny little ferry that was going to take us the 3 hours to Venezuela. It had comfy seats and unlimited soft drinks so it wasn't too bad. Although if anyone is checking this blog to find out about the ferry, I would say it's easier and about the same price to fly (they make you by a return ticket and then you get 75% of the single back as a refund in Trinidad). The ferry is owned by the minister of tourism as a nice little private sideline. We were stuck on the boat for another hour whilst we waited to go through the immigration procedures. The immigration woman was very fierce so we were on our best behavior. Then we were off the boat and in Venezuela, finally!!

(Photos to follow)