Into the Emerald Land of Oz

Son-son is pointing and we are squinting up into the green canopy, binoculars and cameras ready. Then, suddenly, we see the bright blue of a Mot-mot. On a limb right in front of us. Our rain-forest guide, Mr.Leaton Eastman, called Son-son by all, has been whistling, clukking and chirping just ahead of us on the sticky yellow clay trail, calling for tropical birds. He's not satisfied til all five of us have seen both the male and female. We have plenty of time; no hurry.

The "Babette" dinghy was tied up at the pier at 8am as we'ld agreed. When Son-son appeared, after a bit; he was still arranging things. The arrival of a huge sailing cruise ship may have complicated things. Soon Son-son had joined the steel-band playing at the pier, on the large, bass pan. So we let our packs rest on the bandstand and relaxed in the Caribbean xylophonic rythmns. A hypnotizing phrase repeated until someone decides it's over.
About 10am we're all gathered in the van, a Canadian couple, their 20 something-ish daughter and us. We drive along the North-East coast, stopping to get a glimpse of Ian Flemming's house on Goat Island, off Speyside. We stop and look at huge old tropical trees with their load of vines, at tropical birds in the bushes. We have plenty of time, no hurry.

Then we drive into the Tobago Forest Reserve, protected since colonial times, ca. 1765. To avoid the cruise-ship tour we take a walk first on a less-used trail. It's just us and the birds. Son-son ahead, whistling, and us sliding along the yellow-clay road into this emerald green "Land of Oz". The screeching parrots, light green on green, flashing a little yellow, orange, are mostly ignored. Son-son regards them as a sort of "crow", a garden nuisance. It's the smaller tropical birds we're after. The bright rainbow-hued Mot-mot is "common", too. But wonderfully photogenic! Small red-crowned black Manakins sit in bunches in certain trees. A yellow-breasted something, seen in flight, is Kingbird, shown to us in the bird book and identified by Son-son. "It's a male".
The cruise-tour isn't long on the trail, and we take the main bird-trail, Gilpin Track, into an older, denser part of the rain forests. Huge, old dense tropic trees, straight as an arrow, are allowed to grow in peace here. Vines, air-plants, strangle their hosts and send an airy curtain of liana, Tarzan ropes, down. Enormous fans of bamboos, the size of huge bass organ pipes tower above us. They are as smooth as our polished fiberglass hulls. Seeing the hanging termite nests I understand the trees' hardness and the strong resins.
The trail gets narrow, occationally steep and rocky. We cross rickety wooden bridges over waterfalls and emerge high in the mountains, with a glimpse of "Bloody Bay" on the North side, just visible through the greenery.
Same way back. And, back at the trail entrance, we are met by a strategically located cake and icecream seller. Great home-made cakes! Not possible to pass by. A long rest and interesting discussions with Son-son and the other Tobagoans there. We have plenty of time, no hurry.
Next walk: To the Argoyle waterfall.Entrance fee, $T6. Another rocky, muddy walk into the forest. But we first pass a lot of edible planted plants. A field of calaloo ("spinach"), bananas and plantains, sugar cane. There are papaya, mango trees and tropical trees with handy name-signs attached.
We pass the waterfall lake and climp further up to the first big fall and take a brisk "shower". Our Canadian companian, the guide and Oernulf all stand in the hard falling streams of water, while I choose a softer section. A great back massage! Then, down again to the pool where a local boy demonstrates a swallow dive and we take a swim up to the falls. Great to wash all the salt off!
On the way back we stop and pick a cocoa tree pod. The big white "corn-kernels" with gooey grapefruit-y taste, not exactly chocolate yet. Takes some fermenting, and treatment first. We do a bit of bird-watching, again. No hurry.
It's almost 6pm when we arrive back in Charlotteville. We've agreed og a half-day trip, four hours, but got the double. Son-son doesn't attempt to re-negotiate the reasonable price. Tip, voluntary!
We enjoyed the walks (understatement!). Fabulous country, and we recommend Son-son to anyoe else coming this way.

And these are the birds we saw:
White-tailed Sabrewing
White-necked Jacobin
Copper-rumped Hummingbird
Blue-crowned Motmot
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Barred Antshrike
Blue-backed Manakin
Tropilcal Kingbird
Tropical Mockingbird
Cocoa Woodcreeper
Blue-grey Tananger
Collared Trojan
White-fringed Antwren
Striped-breasted Spinetail
Plain-breasted Spinetail
Bare-eyed Thrush
and, also seen round about....
orange-winged Parrot
Bananaquit
Carib Grackle (black-bird)
and on the beaches...
Southern Lapwing (large plover)
Frigates and Pelicans
think that's about it.