Pigeon Point, Tobago

Back from my travels some weeks now and rather overdue to post some fresh photographs. So don’t give up on me yet! Well, the most obvious photos to post are some images from my travels, even if they do have nothing to do with New Zealand. Our destination was Trinidad and Tobago via San Francisco and New York. And from New Zealand that is a hell of a long way. Everywhere is! Tobago, where Pigeon Point beach is located, is the complete opposite of Trinidad: slow, serene and very laid-back. It’s where Trinis go to unwind. It does also get some foreign tourists, on which its economy really depends, but it would, and should,  get a whole lot more if those within the industry understood the meaning of service, the demands of foreign tourists and the pitfalls of overpricing.  It would also help if the authorities were better able to manage their tourism product, but that’s another story and one that could keep me going for weeks.

Pigeon Point is Tobago’s most famous and picturesque beach. At least it used to be picturesque, but the Tobago House of Assembly who bought it are doing their best to ruin it by filling its idyllic sands with as many structures as is humanly possible: huts, booths, bars, shops, shelters etc. You can hardly move without tripping over some freshly painted thing — not that you would know from these pictures as I have been careful not to include these eyesores.  Once, you could lie idly on the sand beneath a swaying coconut tree, rum punch to hand, nodding off in the serene stillness, disturbed only by the occasional waft of tropical breeze rustling the palms, gazing along the beach at its restful, natural beauty. Now, however, you are assaulted all day, every day, by very, very loud soca, rap, or reggae which is impossible to escape unless you sit on the ocean bed with a scuba tank. And, of course, there is far less space on the sand to sit now because of all the bloody buildings! Such a shame. “Pigeon Profit”, said a friend. How right he is.

This photo is taken around the corner from Pigeon Point’s commercial heart, a reminder of what it once was.