Tobago U18 ITF Grade 5, Day 1

Friday 23^rd August 2013

It was a full day of travelling today as we said goodbye to St. Vincent and hello to Tobago which will be our home for the next week.

We had an early start this morning and were at the airport checking in at 7.30am but as we were travelling with Liat Airlines we should have known there was going to be a delay! Even at 7.30am the flight had been delayed from 9.30am to 11am so we made the decision to check in and then get a local bus back to the hotel to relax there in our air-conditioned rooms! Leaving the airport after checking in reminded me of when I was travelling with my wife in the Cook Islands – you could check-in and then go across the road to the pub to wait until you saw the plane land, then go through security and board straight away!

We eventually got on the flight at about 11am and enjoyed a very scenic view over the Grenadines on the way to Trinidad.

We were scheduled to fly to Tobago on the 5.45pm flight but the national coach for Tobago (who has some very good contacts at the airport!) managed to get us on his flight at 3pm which saved us a good couple of hours of waiting around.

We arrived at the Blue Haven hotel at around 5pm and were pretty impressed by the view from the reception:

The restaurant at the hotel looked a little pricey so we decided to take the 15 minute walk into Scarborough to go to Ciao Cafe – a family run Italian restaurant that had been recommended by a couple of people. After going into the café first (and almost getting our heads blown off by the crazy music) we were told that the pizza and pasta restaurant was next door. Alex and I both opted for the pasta and we weren’t disappointed. The food was amazing and I think we’ll be coming back each evening this week.

After dinner we had a walk further into town to get some food from the supermarket and some fruit from the local street vendors. We then looked for a taxi back to the hotel but because the town was so packed tonight every driver was busy. The restaurant owner then tried his contacts and after he couldn’t find anyone he did us a massive favour and took us back to the hotel himself.

It was then an early night to get ready for a full training day tomorrow.