What is the Allure of the Caribbean?
By John Coles, November 2022.
Why has this diverse collection of islands become our favourite holiday paradise? Is it the blue sky and clear seas? Palm fringed beaches? Or is it a laid back lifestyle? The music, the food, and exotic cocktails?
I launched Kew Bridge Travel because I had been fortunate during my aerospace career to travel to many parts of the world. I like to share my personal experience to help clients create inspiring journeys. But I had never been to the Caribbean. So when Tobago Beyond offered the opportunity to visit Tobago, I jumped at the chance to discover what makes the Caribbean special and see how it contrasts with those resorts I know in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea.
Well, first and foremost it is the natural beauty: the turquoise waters, soft white sandy beaches, and swaying palm trees. But Tobago goes beyond, it is a natural wonderland, lush vegetation contrasting with sunny skies and blue seas, creating vistas as spectacular as anything I have seen in Spain, or Mauritius, or Thailand.
I loved Tobago’s leeward coast, where a series of cosy, often deserted, bays are separated by tree covered rocky headlands. My favourite was Englishman’s Bay where this Englishman enjoyed his first dip in the warm Caribbean Sea.
Tobago is a haven for wildlife. The central rainforest (protected since 1776) is home to a vast variety of colourful birds, including several species of delightful hummingbirds. The offshore reefs host a multitude of fish of all colours, shapes and sizes. The mangrove lagoons are an important nursery for young fish and contain plankton which creates a remarkable bioluminescence.
These natural wonders are a tangible attraction, but I also felt an intangible thrill of being in the Caribbean. Perhaps it’s the mystique that had been crated in my childhood imagination when reading Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, or watching Pirates of the Caribbean. As I lay on a sun lounger on the beach, my mind drifted off on such adventures. I recall a similar feeling when visiting Tonga, Fiji and Samoa some years ago, where a similar expectation had been crafted by reading about James Cook’s voyages and the mutiny on the Bounty, and watching the musical South Pacific.
The phrase “friendly people” is overused in travel writing, but in Tobago I found a genuine warm welcome from a relaxed confident people. The Caribbean does not have cultural attractions like the cathedrals of Europe or the temples of Indochina, but there is a living cultural heritage that I was happy to encounter.
Tobago is not a place of all-inclusive resorts, where tourists are isolated, or fear to venture outside. Here I encountered the culture the very best way: by meeting and speaking with the locals.
I watched football with the lads at the Anchor beach bar, enjoyed Alison and Ken’s home cooked food at Blue Crab restaurant, tapped my feet to the rhythm of the pans (steel drums) at Sunday School, and swayed to the sound of reggae and soca in the Jade Monkey nightclub.
We are aware that the Caribbean has had a troubled, often horrific, history. However, the descendants of the Africans and Indians brought to Tobago have created a unique vibrant culture and they are justifiably proud of their neat tidy island home.
They will always extend a warm welcome to visitors who want to experience the culture and discover the natural wonders of their unspoilt, untouched island paradise.
