Toco

My uncle and aunt visited during the Thanksgiving weekend. My uncle remarked that since he's been coming to Trinidad (and this is about 6 or 7 years now), he hasn't been to Toco, so we went last Saturday.

The drive to get there is quite long through forest mostly, since the town is located on the upper right of the island, after the Matura forest reserve. A sleepy ride indeed for non-drivers like myself.

Now, I wasn't planning on going along, since it seemed like everyone who was going was, for lack of a better word, old. My parents, aunts, uncles... no cousins. So I was clad in my nightie when I heard a knock on the door and on the other side was my cousin's 5 year old, asking me to come. Of course I got ready right away.

And so began a day of playing in the sand (I haven't built a sandcastle is so long, I didn't know where to start), getting sand thrown in my eyes and mouth, swimming (omg I am so out of shape. I told Kedar and he asked me if I was proud of this), and the trini pastime, EATING an insane amount of... everything. I drew the line at the curried crab though, since that isn't something to eat in public, out of my living room couch. Too messy.

I would like to mention the... um... facilities. The public facilities were closed because the people who run it didn't show up. My aunts and I ended up washing off the salt water at these showers that were LITERALLY on the side of the road. This one taxi passed no less than twice while I was washing myself (fully clothed of course) and then a third time when we were walking back and HONKED at us. As if we knew each other, the perv. When I was changing out of my wet clothes into dry ones without drying my skin (I had to do this next to the car, by the door and I am the least graceful person I know. PLUS I swam fully clothed - shorts and tee over my swimmies because I don't need anyone to comment on my lumps and my relatives WILL, so it was a sticky situation), it started raining. Blessings, I tell ya.

After hanging out by the mostly deserted beach (there were only two other groups of people in the entire Salybia Bay) with good enough cloud cover that I didn't get a whisper of a bad roast tan (the only way I tan) but bad enough for pictures, we took a drive up to Galera Point. There's a lighthouse there and really nice views of the angry water and rocks. There's even a little sign warning you that if you cross the fence, fall and die, the folks who keep the place up, are not liable. I would like to think that that is quite reasonable.





If it wasn't for my uncle, I honestly don't know when I would ever make it there.