In Tobago

* Tobago was a separate country until the late nineteenth century when it was joined to Trinidad by the British. Tobago is more tourist oriented than Trinidad, and has more resort hotels. It is marketed as "Robinson Crusoe's island", but that's like saying Manhattan is Superman's Metropolis. Crusoe, like Clark Kent, is a fictional character and was based on someone marooned in the Pacific, not the Caribbean. But it's an extraordinarily beautiful island, much prettier than Trinidad, with gorgeous scenery, white sand beaches and picturesque fishing villages.

* Buccoo Reef - What was a dazzling, living reef in 1985 filled with thousands of fish has been turned into an underwater desert of dead coral fragments by pollution and thousands of trampling tourists. Unfortunately the reef was situated in waist high water a mile out to sea, perfect for tour guides to bring boatloads of tourists out to stumble around on. Take the tour and survey the damage for your self, and enjoy live fish and coral through the glass bottom of your boat on the way out.

* Nylon Pool - Tour boats stop here on the way to Buccoo Reef, it's a smooth, sandy bottom three feet deep half a mile out from shore. When you get off the boat and splash around, it feels like you're standing in the middle of the ocean.

* Scarborough - Is the capitol of Tobago, and the largest city on the island. The city is the center of commerce and government in Tobago, and boasts lots of historical sites, like a bridge with railing made of British "Brown Bess" musket barrels.

* Fort King George - Is a large colonial fort overlooking Scarborough, with many of the buildings and fortifications intact. The view is magnificent. This is not the Fort Geoge in Port of Spain, but a much more imposing structure. Tobago was sharply contested for by European powers in the eighteenth century, changing hands seventeen times between the French, English, Dutch and Spanish.

* Bird Sanctuary - An internationally famous bird sanctuary is located on a island just off the coast of Tobago.

The Pitch Lake in southern Trinidad, source of much of the world's asphalt

Carnival Revelers

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