D'Limin' at D'Lime (11 -15 December 2010)

Life here in Castara is quiet. It limits the choice of food and drink, but we have managed to find the local bar "D Lime" which does a killer rum, often necessitating an afternoon snooze. It is situated just off the beach and does have the feel of sitting at a bus stop, but for two Brit's always in search of a cool drink it has become our lifeline.... And we are learning the art of "limin'" - sitting about in the heat of the day chattering and gossiping about the meaning of life with the restorative powers of a large rum and coke.... The village is scattered up the hillside with the little houses in pretty pastel colours, and there is some local fishing activity on the beach. The other activity seems to be the local lads congregating and smoking a rather fragrant local tobacco.... Ant is thinking of having dreadlocks transplanted to fit in.... The locals are not rude, but they don't go out of their way to make you feel at all welcome, and service in most places can be called surly at best. The only really friendly things around here are the biting insects, normally Ant is immune, but not here. We both look the picture of a pair of Brits just arrived with white limbs spotted with bites, it's so not a good look! But the place is beautiful, the cresent of sand beeing lapped by the Caribbean is picture postcard stuff. Ant has the Blue Marlin suite, perched on stilts over the sea. He spent the first couple of days in the Anchovy room which somewhat reflected its namesake's habitat, dark and damp as in under the sea or in a tin can! But the Blue Marlin suite is just the opposite, possibly the best room location in the Caribbean, and light, airy with amazing views and the continual sounds of the lapping sea. It's a great place to watch the booby birds diving at speed into the water and coming up with their fish.


But our dreams of little seafood places along the beach where we could order what we want and wash it down with a cold glass of decent wine are not to be had here in Tobago at least. Basically the four or so decent restaurants we have found all serve the same. You choose the protein - chicken, shrimp, goat, lamb, beef or veggie (not all avaialable all days....) - and it is served with rice and peas, a bit of salad and an odd vegetable. Or you can have the same choice but with a roti - the version here is a very heavy suet like pancake....

On Saturday night we went to the "coffee shop". Still haven't worked out why it's called that, the nearest thing to coffee is a Nescafe and the menu is the same as everywhere else. But there were a troupe of Parang singers there which were great. They were "proudly sponsored" by the local wholesalers. Parang is music from Trinidad and Tobago only played at Christmas. No idea why as it's not carols or religious but a really lively mix of salsa and reggae and sung mainly in Spanish. It was a bit of a family party. There were us and four other tourists, a table of about eight people who are Europeans and run local guest houses (it appears Saturday is their group night off), and then granny, grandpa and the kids running round, well the kids were running around, not granny and grandpa!  But it was a bit us and them. The restaurant is on the side of the main road. It might be the main road but only about two cars an hour go through. All the locals sat on the other side of the road with their beer and smokes enjoying the music and dancing away. And the local ladies were in their Saturday night finery, many giving Shirley Bassey a run for her money. So it felt a bit odd when the local bus went through as if driving straight through our party! But at least they had a licence so we could get beer and rum punch. Marguarites, our other favourite place (same menu.....) doesn't, so we have to sneak in a bottle of rum in a brown paper bag like a couple of wino's to pour surreptitiously into the fruit juice... And whilst the menu at Marguarite's is the same as everywhere else, she is a good cook and her vegetables added to the rice and beans are always good - she does a mean plate of greens. She's quite a character. She moved here from St Vincent 28 years' ago to marry her penpal and has brought up three kids.

Sunday we decided to go to church as even though the village is small there are quite a few places of worship. But we were obviously on Caribbean time and missed it all. Decked out in our Sunday best, we arrived just as everyone was leaving....