A Single Snapshot: Overlooking Great Courland Bay, Tobago

Whether it’s freshly caught fried fish seasoned by the salt of the sea or the delicious homemade coconut ice cream bought from the ubiquitous ice cream truck that drove back and forth on the narrow beach road, most of my memories of Tobago surround the beach at Buccoo where I’ve been going since I was a child. And while these memories are certainly pleasant, they had grown a bit—how shall we say—stale. Like a local who views his hometown with indifference, my time on Tobago was more about visiting relatives and less about me exploring the island on my own.

A few years back, however, I finally had an opportunity to move outside the boundary of the southern part of Tobago and venture northward, gaining a new perspective of the island. Traveling toward the Mystery Tomb of Betty Stiven, we also stopped at tiny Fort King James, a small structure built from slabs of coral and surrounded by a semi-circle of seventeenth-century cannons. On that day, the Caribbean Sea , powered by a southerly wind, pounded the rocks below sending great white sprays of sea foam into the air. At least, that’s how I remember it.

From that vantage point, I turned my gaze to the southwest, and was treated to this—I daresay—picturesque arrangement of colorful fishing boats, bobbing unmanned on the liquid blue landscape of Tobago’s Great Courland Bay.