Shas­tri Boodan

Bar own­ers in To­ba­go are hop­ing busi­ness would pick up by the week­end. Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed sev­er­al bars and two of the sis­ter is­land’s most pop­u­lar beach­es yes­ter­day and va­ca­tion­ers were slow­ly trick­ling in­to Store Bay to en­joy the cool wa­ters un­der skies over­cast with Sa­ha­ran dust.

Mer­le Mo­hammed who jour­neyed to To­ba­go on Sun­day said she was dis­ap­point­ed that tours to Buc­coo Reef on the Glass Bot­tom Boats had not be­come op­er­a­tional.

Tour guides said tours to the Buc­coo Reef would not start un­til the first week of Ju­ly since some boat op­er­a­tors are un­der­tak­ing re­pairs to their craft.

Mo­hammed and her trav­el com­pan­ions from Erin, South Trinidad said they had wait­ed in vain to vis­it To­ba­go to get away and re­lax.

Ash­ley Mc Mil­lian, a fa­mous for­mer foot­baller in To­ba­go and the op­er­a­tor of Man on the Rock Bar, said busi­ness had been slow since he re-opened for busi­ness on Mon­day.

How­ev­er, Mc Mil­lian said he was hope­ful that busi­ness would start rolling again by the week­end and well in­to the Ju­ly-Au­gust va­ca­tion pe­ri­od.

The craft mar­ket at Store Bay re­mained closed and grass had grown through the cracks in the con­crete pavers as work­men worked through­out the morn­ing to up­lift the en­vi­ron­ment.

An­cel Richard­son jour­neyed to To­ba­go for just one day to en­joy the beach­es.

Richard­son, a Unit­ed King­dom res­i­dent, said he had been trapped in T&T since the bor­ders were closed and was mak­ing the best of his time on the is­lands.

The Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park was opened for busi­ness. Cur­tis Lin­coln, who op­er­ates the Tra­di­tions Bar and Grill at Pi­geon Point, said busi­ness was slow.

Lin­coln said he hoped the man­age­ment of Pi­geon Point could of­fer some free days dur­ing the up­com­ing week in a bid to at­tract more pa­trons to the pop­u­lar beach.

Vis­i­tors usu­al­ly pay a $20 ad­mis­sion fee.

Lin­coln said so­cial dis­tanc­ing would be prac­tised on the beach bar. Man­age­ment paint­ed bare feet sym­bols to in­di­cate spots to con­gre­gate around the bar. Kevon Per­sad who will re­main in To­ba­go for a week said he plans to vis­it the beach dai­ly.

An­oth­er group of vis­i­tors in­clud­ed mem­bers of the Grace Joy Dance Group of Port-of-Spain, whose spokesman Jenelle Kerr said the young dancers were ex­cit­ed to get a break from Trinidad and used the time in To­ba­go to prac­tice and vis­it the beach­es.