Trinidad and Tobago
Today we arrived in Scarborough, Tobago. Tobago is one island in the Country of Trinidad and Tobago. According to our cruise director Kimberley, Trinidad is the much larger and more industrial island. Trinidad is one of the largest exporter’s of oil and natural gas. Tobago remains closer to it’s natural state. Trinidad and Tobago are off the northern coast of Venezuela.
We decided back in our days of planning that Tobago was so similar to the many Caribbean Islands that we have been to that sight seeing was out and golf was in.
The ship was docked and ready for passengers to debark at 8 am. Our tee time was 10 am at the Magdalena Resort (formerly the Tobago Plantations Golf Course).
Uber was out in Tobago but TT Ride Share was available. I downloaded the app, created an account, was verified by the company and was ready to go when we hit the dock.
We grabbed our clubs which I had stored on our balcony and were off the ship by 8:15. Luckily our T mobile account was good here and we had cellular service. Service was good but the availability of drivers was not. Not one driver appeared on the app. Probably works better in Trinidad.
This left us at the mercy of regular cab drivers. Most of the folks getting off the ship were boarding busses for tours they booked through HAL or other organizations. Cruise Critic is a popular 3rd party platform that many also use.
We went up to the Taxi stand and were told that it was $50 USD to get to the course. When I used the ride share app to get an idea of costs a few days back I got a price of about $5 USD. The $50 quoted was round trip. I haggled as best I could and managed to get it down to $45.
It was a 20 minute drive down the coast to the course and the sights along the way reinforced our decision to play golf. The ocean was beautiful but the surrounding town was poor and run down.
We arrived in time to hit a bucket of balls to warm up and get on the course an hour early. I gave our driver instructions to pick us up at 2:30 pm. All aboard was 4:30.
The course was in good shape and very challenging. The wind was a factor as the ocean was in view for many of the holes. The course was lined with many beautiful homes.
We finished our round at about 1:15 and sat outside and had a drink. Other folks from the ship were there as this was the end of one of the HAL bus tours.
Our driver arrived on time and we were back at the port at about 3 pm. Ship security approached us as we boarded and said that we cannot store the clubs in our room. They would store them for us (probably next to the smuggled steamer). Less hassle for a us.
No evening entertainment tonight. We finished with a game of cards. We are now tied.…