Well this year turned out to be the most eventful course yet! The company had to contend with an unbelievable number of unexpected occurrences but according to the students this things were tiny compared to the wonderful time they had!

It started with one of our poor students having a terrible time with sea sickness as we travelled on the ferry to Trinidad but we tried our best to make her as comfortable as we could.

When we arrived in Trinidad it turned out that in spite of personal recommendation and checking out the accommodation on the internet that the accommodation was not what we had booked, we however instead spent our first night at what is considered to be one of the best hotels in Trinidad The Cascadia Hotel which included a beautiful swimming pool area where we were also able to hold our first classes.

We then decided to spend the rest of our stay on the other side of the island at Mayaro Beach Resort which not only had its only private pool but was also was a stones throw away from the beach.

During the rest of the time in Trinidad, in addition to our classes, visiting the local supermarket and street market in the mornings and having lunch together a variety of local eating places there was lots to do!

For example, most of the students chose to go a world famous reggae artist’s concert (Beenie Man) which was held walking distance away, we were treated to performances by local Tassa drummers and we enjoyed a boat ride through the Bird Sanctuary at Caroni Swamp. At the beautiful Maracas Bay we swam in the gentle waves and sunned ourselves, rounding off our time there by eating ‘Shark and bake’ a local delicacy, we had a local drummers spend one of the days giving extra classes in drumming with a short impromptu performance by Caroline and Shona. That evening we went to a lovely little eating place where scrumptious food was cooked and serve especially for our group and the evening was rounded off with dancing. We had another special evening when Muraldo D.C. arranged for ‘curry and roti’ another Trinidad specialty to be served to our group at the poolside. Every night many of the students sat by the pool enjoying a drink from the poolside bar until early morning along with late night dips in the pool! There was of course shopping for our ‘shopperholics’ at the local malls, who took full advantage of the fantastic exchange rate of TT$10 – £1. (Average salary in Trinidad TT$1000! per month)

Unfortunately, while we had intended to go to the world famous Pitch Lake, a few of the students had not brought suitable footwear as advised on their list of things to bring, so we were unable to go this time.

Our schedule was however brought to a temporary halt by one of the students having severe pain resulting in Caroline insisting that the student was checked out by the local hospital. (This was to be the first of three visits to hospitals for Caroline as another student had a pre-existing ear infection which became more uncomfortable after swimming but this was quickly dealt with by a very helpful local doctor) The doctors decided that she had to stay in hospital for more tests so of course we could not travel onto Tobago as planned the next day. Fortunately, after receiving a second opinion from a private hospital we were able to have our student diagnosed and treated on the day we were due to leave. This resulted in us, staying a couple extra days in Trinidad, the first day still at Mayaro Beach Resort and the second at a very nice hotel (Monique’s Guest House) back in the capital of Trinidad, Port of Spain so that we would be nearer to the port for our departure.

On the last day after our classes, we ate lunch at a picturesque restaurant, locate by a harbour of yachts and were then taken on a very interesting guided tour of Port of Spain. After this, some of us when to an American themed restaurant to have dinner, while others chose to bring food back to our hotel and sleep early for the trip the next day.

Once in Tobago the first thing Caroline had to do was something she never imagined in her wildest dreams. Unfortunately, we have on this trip one student who caused untold upset for both staff and fellow students forcing Caroline to take the unprecedented step of sending the student back to England at Caroline’s own personal expense! This dealt with; the time in Tobago was wonderful. Local dancers and drummers joined Muraldo D.C. in teaching classes each day (which took place at the Tobago’s minister of culture’s own property), the group had a trip on a glass bottom boat which allowed us to see the lovely coral, however some of us had a much closer look while snorkelling. We walked through the rainforest taking the opportunity to taste the fruit from a cocoa tree which tasted lovely and swam in a natural pool by a waterfall. We went out to local restaurants to eat in the evenings, we spent quality time on the beach, buying souvenirs at market situated near the beach and as well as taking part in a well received performance at the end of the week by students, the Tobagonian dancers and drummers plus Muraldo D.C.

At the end of the course, when we were to finally about to fly home we found ourselves having to embark and re-embark twice due to problems on the plane only to have to stay an extra night in Tobago at the Tobago Hilton! With free food, drink and lovely accommodation there wasn’t much to complain about but it did mean that those of us who were due at Surrey University the next day didn’t make it!

After all that happened what could faze us now?! Roll on next year!

We would like to say a special thanks to Gilbert O’Conner, and the members of The Tobago Academy for Performing Arts for making us so welcome and for sharing their talent with us and an extra special thank-you to Earl Mills and Hermant Soobhanath for being our angels!

Muraldo D.C.