Tobago - Rainforest Walk

[Kevin's Post]We have been in Tobago for about a week now and have been constantly amazed at how cheap everything is here. The cost of most grocery items is about half what it is in Grenada. Diesel is less than $1 US per gallon. Eating out at restaurants is pretty cheap too and there are tons of choices, especially in the resort area where we are right now. We are definitely going to stock up before we leave, good thing we raised the waterline!

Yesterday Susan and Hale on Cayuga had arranged a rainforest tour with a retired ranger and invited us along. Steve and Linda from 'Seaman's Elixir' and John and Ann from 'Living the Dream' also joined us. We piled into a rented minivan and drove across the island toward our arranged meeting spot. The retired ranger, Renson Jack, told us that if we get lost on our drive to just stop and ask for him. I'm not sure if that shows how small the island is, or how well known he is, but in any case that's what we did and we found him. He had planned to take us on a walk through the Louis D'or river valley, but with the recent rains the river was flowing a bit too high and he advised against it. Instead we spent a few hours walking around the rainforest surrounding his 'project', an eco-resort in the making which he has spent the past 25 years building. It was a beautiful area with lots of potential, but you had to really use your imagination as he pointed out the locations of the different amenities of his 'resort'. However, Renson was very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, and had no end of stories about his life on Tobago. In the afternoon we drove with Renson farther into the rainforest and walked part of the Gilpin Trace which is part of a trail that used to be the only route North to South across the island. Renson told us that when he was younger, he would walk the entire trail every other Tuesday with the local priest to give mass on the North coast. The rainforest in Tobago is supposedly the oldest nature preserve in the new world, established in the 1780's. Walking through the rainforest was like being in another world with all the ferns and vines and bamboo everywhere. We saw several colorful birds from a distance and even saw an army of leaf cutter ants making short work of a palm tree. The trail was extremely muddy and we were all a mess by the time we got back to the car. We stopped for beers at a bar not far from the Gilpin Trace and ate the lunches we had all packed for the trip. It was getting late in the afternoon, and Renson drove with us back to the Store Bay area pointing out several scenic vistas along the way turning our rainforest tour into an island tour. Back at Store Bay we all collapsed at Bago's for more beers while we watched the sun go down.