Tobago January 2020

Background 
My wife & I traveled to the tropical island of Tobago in search of sun, sea and sand. As an avid nature photographer I spend some of the time exploring parts of the island looking for interesting wildlife to photograph.
In the next day or two I will be adding info, photographs, highlights and disappointments , so drop by later 

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Car Rental

There are several big name company rentals (Alamo, Enterprise, National etc in and around the Airport area. After some research and price checking I ended choosing a small local organization which happened to be very close to the Hotel we were staying at.
Birdi Car Rental are located in the small community of Blackrock, and have several decent cars - not new but based on the vehicle I ended up with, in good shape and certainly did the job it was asked of it. Prince, the owner of the company was very accommodating and helpful. I had the feeling during our initial chat, and at car return, that Prince is an honourable and honest guy, so I can certainly recommend this car rental company.
https://www.birdiesnesttobago.com/carhire.htm

Hotel

After a bit of research, and after looking at several hotels in a few other countries, my wife and I decided to head to Tobago and specifically the Starfish - an all inclusive  hotel under the Sunwing banner. First impressions were generally very good, but I could see that the hotel was well worn in, so to speak, but still really clean and homely. 
The rooms were quite large with a nicely stocked fridge with a few beers, water & pop. A small patio which was accessed through a sliding patio door, had a couple of chairs and a small table, which was perfect for sitting in the shade (with a beer of course)  and looking out towards the ocean. 
​The facility has two largish restaurants and one smaller place (that was geared towards lunchtime BBQ's) but only one of the main restaurants were open during our stay. I assume the guest numbers were less, so wasn't worth opening.
However the food was adequate and well prepared, but tended to be quite simple, with not too much variety. Saying that I was happy with the daily choices and we certainly didn't go hungry.

There were a total of 3 bars in the resort - The one next to reception was never open during our time there, but the small bar next to the BBQ lunchtime restaurant and the main pool bar were open at the designated times.  Like many 2 & 3 star resorts it appeared that the alcohol was very weak, but mixed as the cocktail of choice very refreshing. 

​Bird Guides

Initially I had hoped to use the rental vehicle to make a few trips up to the rain forest. I found out after that the roads are extremely difficult to drive, with lots of local traffic, mountainous roads with hairpin bends so after an initial foray I ended up giving up.
However, a day or two later I happened to meet Michael (the Birdman) as he plied his salesmanship along the beach in front of our hotel, so I took a chance and paid a deposit for a trip a day or two later. 
Michael picked me up at the Hotel at 6:00 am and drove me the 1.5 hours to the rainforest. We arrived around 7:30 to some pretty heavy rain, so we parked at the entrance to Gilpen Trace (one of the hot spots in the Tobago rainforest) and sheltered under the shelter there. After about half an hour the rain eased so were able to check out a couple of spots, but maybe 30-40 mins after that we are back in the car and heading back. I ended up back in the hotel before 10:00 am - to say I was a bit disappointed is an understatement. My advice when you "hire" a bird guide ask for an itinerary and an estimated trip duration.  

General

TO BE UPDATED LATER