So here it goes. We haven't posted in quite a while so there's a lot to catch up on. We are now back in Port of Spain, Trinidad after spending three great weeks in Tobago. We have just one final week left until we leave for Guyana, very exciting.

We left off in Castara on our way to the town of Plymouth. Castara actually turned out to be probably the nicest and most relaxing place we stayed because of our proximity to the beach, the very small size of the village (less than 500 people), and just the general atmosphere.

Anyway, we actually ended up in a little town called Black Rock instead of Plymouth, they're pretty close together but Black Rock is where we layed our heads. That was really the big problem with Black Rock now that I mention it. We got a place at this very charming guest house called Auldwyn Lindsay. You can see from the picture that it looks great, kind of set into the natural scenery with cherry trees, a variety of interesting birds, and a private patio. The place had a kitchenette, two rooms, cable tv, and warm water. What it didn't have was air conditioning (or air con as some British people we met called it). Now you're probably thinking that if these two can't deal without A/C for a few nights then they are in big trouble for Guyana. You have to understand though this was a unique situation. So with no A/C you have to sleep with the windows open, not really a problem, actually sounds kind of nice, we had even done it before in our first very run down room but may a remind you this place was set in a very "natural" environment. I would guess that somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 - 100,000 insects of varying sizes shapes and colors spent the night with us that night, and being stubborn or ignorant, I'm not sure which one, we opted against using the mosquito net. So your thinking one bad night with bugs, no big deal, but it goes on from there. Now I can't say for sure if it was a specific bug, several bugs, a reaction from the wild key limes we picked off a tree on the side of the road, or a combination of both, but I woke up at 6:00am with the right half of my upper lip swollen to about twice it's normal size. This was very dissapointing and to add insult to injury Jessa thought it was kind of funny. We decided to give it a day and see what happened. Luckily it went away, we both had a laugh, used the mosquito net that night, and made our way to Bon Accorde the next day.

Black Rock turned out to be a bust almost completely. We were hoping to see turtles hatch, but it was a little bit to late in the season. We did however have a pretty good time the first night as we ended up at a bar helping a local celebrate his birthday. His friends called him "Fari" like rastafari, and they were having a BBQ and we were offered some really good local food for free. A mixture of lentil beans and dumplings. It was absolutely delicious! We were also nominated to buy the birthday boy and his cousins a beer in celebration which we graciously agreed to.

We left there for Bon Accorde which is in the "lowlands" part of the island, kind of the busier more tourist oriented area. Our previous stops had been much more off the beaten path with very few, if any, other tourists in sight. We got a place for three nights at a little guest house called Merle's House. It was nice but to far of a walk from the beaches, so we moved to Crown Point where we spent 5 nights at Mike's Holiday resort. (They use the term resort loosely in Tobago. ) Mike's was great though. It was very close to Store Bay which had crystal clear waters, a little busier, certainly not the desolate beaches we had gotten used to, but still lots of fun. We met Dexter at this beach who told us about his tour company "Island Man Tours". They do these all inclusive, semi-private all day tours for $75 USD. We thought it over and decided it would be a great thing for our last weekend in Tobago and went ahead and booked a trip.

The tour turned out to be great. We took a small boat out with 3 other tourists and a two man crew. It was nice because we got to see the island from a different angle. There are so many beaches that are only accessible by water and these are truly the nicest beaches. There's white sand, yellow sand, and even black sand beaches. Just stunning. We got to do some great snorkeling at places you can only get to by boat and we saw fish and coral of every color in the rainbow. This was my first time to snorkel on a reef and I was just amazed. After snorkeling we went to a beach where the crew knew we could find a sting ray. This was a incredible. We got out of the boat and played with the ray. I am sure everyone is thinking were crazy now but the guys new all about the "crocodile hunter" and actually gave a speech about how it is perfectly safe. The first ray, Nemo, no longer had a barb as it had been broken off by someone. They said that people sometimes break off their tails for sport. Kind of sad. It was a very friendly sting ray and kept coming back for us to touch it and play with it. We took off from there to another beach you can only get to by boat for a BBQ they had set up for us. We had some great local food, rum punch, and relaxed for a while. Another sting ray showed up there and it was even friendlier than the first. We finished the day with a trip to the nylon pool. The nylon pool is in the middle of Buccoo reef off the coast of tobago out in the ocean. It's actually decomposed coral which is like coarse sand. You can stand up in it and the water is only waist high while you are way out in the ocean away from shore. It was a very unique experience.

The next day we packed up and headed back to Scarborough to catch a ferry to Trinidad. This time we opted for the quicker ferry, just under 3 hours, and it was actually pretty nice, complete with an on board movie. Very fancy!

Now were here in Trinidad, lounging our last few days away as we prep to head to Guyana. We have some idea of what to expect but really no idea. We are very excited, anxious, nervous, but nonetheless ready to jump head first in to a new adventure.

We have loved the comments from everyone so please keep them coming. Sorry if you've checked the blog over the past two weeks and have seen no new postings, we got a tad bit lazy in Tobago. Hopefully lots of interesting stories to come.

Blake and Jessa