Speyside - The Last Day and a Half

I suppose it must be obvious by now that while I found the Manta Lodge to be adequate and reasonably priced, I thought it might be a good idea to see if I could do better. As we drove to the pier to get in the diving boat, and everyday I went to a restaurant for dinner, I couldn't help but notice another hotel and dive shop just up the road. So I decided to take a look and see what they were like. The Manta Lodge had been the number one choice on Tripadvisors for hotels in Speyside but the Speyside Inn was number two and from the outside, it looked better.

The Inn itself is almost violently yellow and the dive shop looked nice and new as well. The first thing I noticed that seemed a little odd was that there was a group of four people eating lunch on the dive shop's verandah. I didn't want to bother them so I looked around the dive shop, noting that everything I saw was in either English or German. A few moments later a nice young woman who introduced herself as Tanya approached me, eager to answer my questions. Tanya's accent was oddly familiar but I couldn't place it.

A few moments later, the divemaster, Adrian drove up and the three of us were chatting away about this dive site or another. As Tanya later explained to me, the company they work for needed a photo for the website in a hurry so she and Adrian went out to somewhere green hoping the picture might look something like Tobago. Hahahaha. The two of them, like the divemaster at the Manta Lodge, are Swiss. Switzerland bears essentially zero similarity to Tobago. My impression of the dive shop and the staff there was very favorable.

That evening I went back to the Speyside Inn for dinner and it was in fact superior to most of the fare I had gotten elsewhere. And who should approach me to say hello but Tanya. And a few moments later, here comes Adrian to say hello and ask me how my dinner was. I said it was the best I had had in Speyside and he said the cook would be pleased to hear that. And then he cleared the table for me. In my experience, this never happens. The divemaster never, ever, waits tables in the restaurant. Adrian explained that he and Tanya did a bit of everything around the hotel. So pressing my luck I asked if he could find someone to show me a room. Of course. And a few minutes later, he came back with a couple keys and I was off for a tour of the hotel.

The rooms were almost as brightly colorful as the exterior and instead of evoking thoughts of "Lord, this is modest," I found myself thinking "This is nice."

After my tour, I thanked Adrian and expressed my amazement that the Divemaster would go to such lengths. As he explained, he and Tanya not only run the dive shop, they are the hotel managers as well and suddenly I understood. Then he invited me to join to two of them and three of their guests while they dined. So I joined the two Swiss hotel managers and their three German guests and we had a pleasant evening talking about diving and insects we despise and what not.

The next morning I had my last two dives of the trip after I said good-bye to the other two guests at the Manta Lodge. This is John and Linda from San Antonio, Texas about to get into the same "taxi" that would later take me back to the airport. I was unbelievably grateful this driver knew the roads as well as he did. I might not be back yet if I had driven. They are off to spend several days at the Asa Wright Nature Centre. I enjoyed their company quite a bit as well.

The last two dives were the best of the trip in terms of sea-life, healthy coral and me not feeding the fish. Sean had warned the new diver who joined us that I would get sea-sick on the pier. All told, it was a pleasant diving session and trip.

After the dive I was heading toward the last of the restaurants in the area I wanted to try, Jemma's Treehouse, and as I walked I happened to pass the Speyside Inn. Of course, Adrian and my new German friends called out to me and wished me a pleasant day. Like I said, the Speyside Inn folks made a very favorable impression on me.



Last picture. This is a typical Tobagoan "Mini-Mart." Overall, its about the size of a toolshed and they are quite literally all over Tobago and probably Trinidad as well. I saw the poster on the side of the thing so often on the drive to Speyside that I had to know what the story was. The rather hot looking babe is selling crackers. Such is what they use sex appeal to sell in Trinidad.

Speyside Day 2

I slept really well at the Manta Lodge. Other than the constant breaking of the waves, the hotel was quiet as a tomb. Little town. Off season. Turns out there are two other guests, John and Linda from San Antonio. Since none of us are serious partiers, the bar was quiet except for the tv playing the introduction to Law and Order.

First thing in the morning you go down and enjoy the ocean view from the restaurant - bar area. You sit and enjoy your coffee until the waitress asks what you'd like for breakfast. Today's offering is bacon and eggs with toast and jam. I think the jam was actually orange marmalade. Given my experience, I thought breakfast might be an exercise in futility and it was.

About 7:30 Sean, the divemaster, asks me if I'm ready to go. I am the only diver today so no problem. Sean, Sledge, his assistant, and I pile into their extra fancy dive truck. After a bit of coaxing and one inspection under the hood, the truck starts and we drive down to the town pier to head out for our day of diving.

Sean and I get our gear ready while Sledge prepares the boat. This is one of the smaller boats I've been on during one of our dive trips. Sledge will stay with the boat while Sean and I dive. Sean, oddly enough, is Swiss but he allows that he could never live in Switzerland. I suspect it left its mark though. He doesn't care for Caribbean islands that don't have mountains.

Once everything is ready Sean takes the helm and we're away heading for the wreck of the MV Roundtable. The ship was intentionally sunk for divers so we're able to go inside through a hatch into what had been the engine room, through the interior and finally up to the bridge.

After getting back onto the boat, the futility of eating breakfast became apparent and we headed off toward dive spot#2, the Japanese Gardens. This is a particularly rich assortment of coral and fish and I saw several tarpons, lobsters and some strange little eels who were busy pretending to be seaweed. The underwater currents were very strong and now I fully understand the idea of drift diving.

After another surface rest period, demonstrating the futility of eating breakfast again, and admiring the view of Speyside from the boat, we do our third dive of the morning at a location called The Cathedral, or if you happen to be from around here, De Cadedral. All the white spots on the shore are buildings.

By noon, the day's diving is done and I'm starving. So after cleaning the salt out of everything, I'm off down the road to find lunch.

Today I pick Birdwatcher's Restaurant and Bar. Their place is much nicer than Redman's; they have glass windows and matching furniture. The menu is similar though; chicken, fish, lobster and shrimp. With any of those you get the same sides; rice, salad, macaroni pie, callaloo and provision.

The two mystery items, the callaroo and the provisions are on the upper left of my plate. The callaloo is a pureed spinach with some assorted spices. The provisions are an assortment of starchy foods. In this case I got a couple of slices of plantains and some purplish yam that was like the taro I've tried in Hawaii. In any case, the food was fine and abundant and a bit less expensive than at Redman's.

And, yes, I had a bottle of Carib Beer. And a bottle of Sorrel Shandy. I have no idea what a sorrel is... the bottle had pictures of some bright red plant or flower or something. It was definitely tasty.

Speyside Day 1

One of my ongoing regrets was that I took up scuba diving after I finished my assignment in Jakarta. Indonesia has some seriously primo diving sites. But if I had I would have missed out on the experiences with my number one dive buddy, Kalyn. Still I was determined to not repeat the misstep and so I booked a scuba trip this three day weekend.

Trinidad itself has comparatively few dive spots but the sister island, Tobago (the formal name of the country is Trinidad and Tobago) has several so it was off to Tobago. (Unrelated sidelight; corporate security wants to know whenever I leave the country and in their minds, that includes leaving Trinidad and going to Tobago. I wonder how seriously they take that Texas tourism slogan: It's like a whole 'nother country.)

There are two choices on how to get to Tobago from Trinidad; the 20 minute flight or the two hour ferry ride. I opted for the flight. The airport on Tobago is on the southwestern most tip of Tobago while the town I chose to stay in, Speyside, is pretty much on the northeast end. So getting to the airport is the short half of the trip. The driver... and thank God I decided not to rent a car. I might still be on the road... complained bitterly about the traffic and with good cause. The traffic was awful. Lesson learned: You don't need a lot of people and cars to cause traffic jams. You just need a lot more than the roads are equipped to handle.

After about an hour of windy, twisty, poor roads, poorly marked and poorly maintained, we arrived at the Manta Lodge in Speyside. You can just see the scuba shop on the left. The dark area on the ground floor on the right is where the restaurant and the hotel's one television set. The TV seemed to be playing the Law and Order channel. Georgia would have been happy with that.

The room is modest... spartan might be a better word. Although it was described as an "Ocean-view" room, you can barely see the ocean for the trees growing around it. But like a cruise ship, you don't go on a scuba trip to spend a lot of time in your room. (Although on a scuba trip, you spend a lot more time in your room than you might guess.) You come to see the ocean.

Speyside is a little town nestled among the hills. Given that the population of the entire island is only about 50,000 I'm not sure what I expected. According to the 2000 census, the population of Speyside was 59. I think if you include the entire metropolitan area, that number probably increases to at least 100. It is, by a large margin, the smallest place I've gone to scuba dive. Again, you don't go to visit the town. You go to scuba dive.

I managed to get in just one dive the day arrived. The divemaster decided to take me and a couple from San Antonio to a dive site called "Step-up." It is located close to the jagged rocks on the far left side of this picture. And yes, that is a house on the far right side of the island. That is the home of Ian Flemming, the author who created James Bond. He built his home on "Goat Island" presumably to get away from the hubbub and the crowds of Speyside.

The dive itself went just fine. Lots of little fish and sea-slugs and healthy coral. Visibility was about 60-100 feet though it started to decline toward the end of the dive.

Despite what I said earlier, you do go into "town" to eat and this is the restaurant I picked. Or rather it picked me. The proprietor called me in and I went. This place is known as Redman's. I suspect it has something to do with the paint. And yes, you are correct. It has no windows. The menu consists of three choices: chicken, fish or lobster. I went with fish.

This is the interior of Redman's. Note the elegant plywood ceiling and concrete floor. Almost note the source of light. The one, count them, one light bulb is it after 6:30. The food was plentiful and done in the local creole style. It was a bit heavy on starchy foods. Dinner included a huge bowl of rice, a macaroni salad and an assortment of sweet potato and plantain sides. It was ample. And though they didn't offer beer, I topped it off with a ginger shandy which is sort of like beer mixed with ginger ale with just a touch of pepper. I liked it.