- Mariposa Voyage -
December 2014: Tobago and everyday life
Tobago
Tobago island is really green with a huge tropical forest. A lot of birds live here.
The water also is green. The place is beautiful and peaceful.
The village of Charlotteville is small.
For the groceries it is not so easy. The first day we just find some carottes and a few apples.
The next day it is better. A fisherman sells us 2 fishes. Loïc found some fruits and veggies with another guy. He is coming almost every day and Loïc bought him almost half of what he had. We just have to learn how to cook the plantains!
This bay is really relaxing so we decide to spend Christmas here. At the begining we were alone but then some other boats arrive.
As usual, school is taking us a good part of the morning.
Also the kids are preparing Christmas. Louise is baking some cookies. The kids create the lego Christmas tree and decorate the boat with stickers, and drawing.
Sometime a fisherman comes and sells us some fresh fish. Baked in the oven it's really good!
One day, coming back from the village, Loïc and Maël help a fisherman with his red.
One morning we go for a walk in the forest with a guide. At the end we enjoy a fresh cut sugar cane. It is funny to see all this plants growing in the forest because usually we see them inside our houses in a pot.
Most of the time in the afternoon the kids go playing on the beach in front of our mooring.
Christmas
One fisherman Loïc knows because he brought him to his boat with the dinghy proposes to go for lobster fishing. Loïc jumps into his boat with Lucie and Maël.
It is quite far, outside Man of War Bay, close the the Three Sisters Rocks, swells are big and Lucie needs to grab strongly the bench in the boat.
Then Loïc helps the fisherman to raise his traps which are 30 meters deep. Some days ago it was a net Loïc helped the fisherman to raise, now the lobsters traps, his hands are really damaged! The traps made of strong steel bars are very heavy... In the first one there is plenty of fish and in the second 3 nice lobsters and one weights 4 pounds.
The 24th in Charlotteville, there is a music show organized by the tourism office. It is great to listen to local music with people from the village. We are even offered cakes and local drinks like ginger juice and fruit punch.
For Christmas Eve diner we decide to have a drink with 2 other french boats, Camao (Gaël, Alice et Zoé) and Escargot (Thierry). Lucie prepared mini pizzas.
Then Thierry stays in order to help us to eat the three big lobsters, delicious!!!
For desert, Louise prepared some "choux à la crème"!!!
The next day we can see that Santa didn't forget our boat! What a smart Santa, he put the presents in trash bags, maybe because of the humidity?
It is very wet in Tobago, we had several times some tropical rain, we were caught by surprise a couple of times, but it is very good to clean the boat, ropes and sails from all the salt they received during past months. And the island would not be so green without this rain.
Everyday life
For sure, every morning there is school. It is not so easy to concentrate with 3 different students at the same table... but it's ok. Most of the time when we meet other french kids it is the same schedule: school in the morning and visits, beach, tours in the afternoon.
Most of the time Lolo is the teacher while Loïc is going in the village for the groceries or repairing stuffs on the boat (cleaning pumps, changing oil, removing seaweeds...)
We also enjoy eating the local products as fishes, plantains, soursop, creoles sauces...
Depending where, the boatboys are more or less present. They are coming with their boat to sell several things like bread, t-shirts, water...
One morning we buy a baguette and a banana bread. The guy tells us "It would be 20 USD", "Really?!! But it is just a baguette and a cake..." Next time we will think twice...
