Tobago

This article covers the island; for the television film from the series Das Traumhotel see Das Traumhotel - Tobago .

Tobago
Tobago: Man O'War Bay with Charlotteville
Waters	Caribbean Sea
Geographical location	11 ° 15 ′  N , 60 ° 40 ′  W Coordinates: 11 ° 15 ′  N , 60 ° 40 ′  W
length	40.7 km
width	11.9 km
surface	300 km²
Highest elevation	Pigeon Peak 576  m
Residents	61,000 (2011) 203 inhabitants / km²
main place	Scarborough

After Trinidad, Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands of the island state of Trinidad and Tobago , located off the north coast of South America .

geography

The island belongs to the Lesser Antilles and is located between the southern Caribbean and the Atlantic , about 30 km northeast of Trinidad . The nearest Antilles island is Grenada, about 150 km to the north-west . According to the demarcation of the IHO , the Lesser Antilles and thus Tobago are located within the Caribbean Sea .

The island is 40.7 km long and 11.9 km wide. More than half of the island is covered by a forested mountain range, the highest point is Pigeon Peak with 576 m. While the island is flat and sandy in the southwest, the north is rocky. The coast here is very rugged, interrupted by sandy small bays.

Tobago has an area of 300 km² (with minor islands Little Tobago, St. Giles Island, Goat Island and Sisters' Rock 303 km²). Tobago and its side islands are administered by the Tobago House of Assembly and form one of a total of 15 administrative regions in the country.

The climate is tropical and characterized by high temperatures around 28 ° C with little fluctuations.

history

Book by John Poyntz (1695)

Trealawney Town (around 1790) was a plantation and the center of the Maroon slave revolt in the interior

Postage stamp Tobago from 1889.

Tobago, like Trinidad, was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1498 . He named the island Bella Forma , later it was renamed several times. The last name Tobago is likely derived from tobacco . The original Indian inhabitants were largely exterminated by the Spanish settlers, the survivors were assimilated. The island changed hands frequently; one was Cornelis Lampsins , the Baron of Tobago. Sometimes it was defended with great losses, and sometimes it was simply abandoned. France (Name: Tobago), the Netherlands (Name: Nieuw Walcheren), Great Britain (Name: Tobago) and even the Polish Duchy of Courland (Name: Neukurland ) claimed the island and built fortified structures. Between 1498 and 1814, the island changed hands at least 33 times, which is the record in the changing colonial history of the Caribbean islands. In the meantime it was a pirate base. In 1763 the seven parishes were set up. Georgetown on the south coast in Saint George Parish was the capital from 1764 to 1769, and Scarborough since then. In 1814 Tobago finally came to Great Britain. From 1879 to 1899 Tobago formed an independent postal area and issued postage stamps. In 1888 it was combined with Trinidad to form a colony. In 1958 both became independent as part of the West Indian Federation , in 1962 as Trinidad and Tobago.

population

Most of the 61,000 inhabitants live in the more densely populated west of the island between Crown Point and the island's capital Scarborough , which is also the capital of the Western Tobago region . In this band of settlements, which is well developed by roads, many villages merge seamlessly into one another, for example Crown Point, Canaan , Bon Accord and Lowlands . In the mountainous eastern part, besides Roxborough, the capital of the Eastern Tobago region , there are only small towns in the bays on the coast that can be reached via narrow roads. In the north these are, for example, Castara , Parlatuvier and L'Anse Fourmi , in the east Charlotteville and Speyside .

90% of the population are black, the rest are mixed race, white and Indian. The religious affiliations are distributed as follows: 35% are Anglicans , 11% Methodists , 10% Moravians ( Herrnhuter ), 10% Adventists , 8% Catholics and less than 1% Hindus .

structure

Division into divisions 1779

Historical-statistical map of the parishes

Tobago is administratively divided into two regions ( regions ) divided: Western Tobago and Eastern Tobago. Historically, these are divided into seven parishes , which were established in 1763 at the beginning of British colonial administration. The parishes no longer have an administrative function, but are used as regional reference units for official statistics .

Division of Tobago into two regions with 7 parishes Parish region     Former division Biggest place Area in km² Population 2011-01-09 Western Tobago   Scarborough 97 41,829  Saint Andrew Rockly Bay Scarborough 21st 17,536  Saint Patrick Sandy Bay Bon Accord 38 15,560  Saint David Courland Moria 38 8,733 Eastern Tobago   Roxborough 203 19,045  Saint George Barbado Bay Mount St. George 43 6,875  Saint Mary Great River Goodwood 56 3,297  Saint Paul Queen's Bay Roxborough 49 6,048  Saint John North East Charlotteville 55 2,825 Tobago   Scarborough 300 60,874

Tobago by regions and parishes

environment

Although Tobago lies south of the Caribbean's hurricane-prone zone, the island was badly devastated by Hurricane Flora on September 30, 1963 - many plantations were destroyed. In 2004, Tobago was hit by Hurricane Ivan , but much less severely.

The southernmost coral reefs in the Caribbean lie in front of the island. The " Buccoo Reef Trust (BRT)" tries as a non-profit organization to promote sustainable development of the underwater world. The town Speyside in the north-east coast is a center for scuba divers.

On the north coast of Tobago, the endangered leatherback turtles lay their eggs on some beaches . The non-profit organization "Save Our Sea Turtles" tries to improve the protection for these animals.

A special feature is what is probably the oldest nature reserve in the world: the tropical rainforest in the area of ​​the "Main Ridge Forest Reserve and Creation Site" has been under nature protection since April 13, 1776 . This prevented the deforestation of the rainforest by British plantation owners who wanted to use the cleared land to grow sugar. It is thanks to this fact that Tobago has an impressive biodiversity, especially birds.

The small neighboring islands of Little Tobago and St. Giles are important breeding grounds for birds.

politics

Tobago has had its own parliament ( Tobago House of Assembly (THA) ) since 1980 with 15 members, 12 of which are elected. Since then, two parties have ruled the body: the People's National Movement (PNM) and the Tobago Organization of the People (TOP), until the PNM won all 12 constituencies in the election on January 21, 2013.

Attractions

Pigeon Point

Argyle Waterfall

• Scarborough with Fort King George. The island's capital Scarborough is located in the southwest of the island on the shores of Rockly Bay. The city has a population of just under 20,000 and is the island's lively business center. Above the city is the Fort King George, built in 1777–1779 in the Gregorian style. The well-preserved fortress is also home to the Tobago Historical Museum and offers good views over Rockly Bay and Scarborough.
• Pigeon Point is Tobago's most famous bathing beach in the west of the island. The sandy beach with the palm trees rising above the blue water and the jetty with a palm-roofed hut is one of the classic photo motifs in the entire Caribbean.
• Buccoo Reef. Not far from Pigeon Point is the coral reef Buccoo Reef, whose abundance of fish attracts many snorkelers and tourists in glass-bottom boats.
• Argyle Waterfall. Argyle Waterfall is located in the southeast of the island, a little inland from the town of Roxborough. Swimming is possible in some of the waterfall's pools. However, access to the waterfall is chargeable.
• Little Tobago. Little Tobago is a small, uninhabited island off the eastern tip of Tobago. Little Tobago is particularly known for its abundance of birds.
• Charlotteville with Pirates Bay. Charlotteville is a small, picturesque fishing village in the far northeast of the island on Man O'War Bay. A second bay directly to the north, Pirates Bay, is a former hideaway for pirates and is now a popular snorkelling area.
• Tobago Forest Reserve. The Tobago rainforest, which runs parallel to the north coast along the Main Ridge in the east of the island, is the oldest untouched rainforest area in the western hemisphere and the oldest nature reserve in the world. The rainforest is traversed by a road in a north-south direction between Parlatuvier on the north coast and Roxborough in the south, which passes the small station "Main Ridge Forest Reserve and Creation Site" at the highest point of the Main Ridge, which serves as a starting point for guided hikes serving through the rainforest.

traffic

The only two-lane road on the island, the Claude Noel Highway , runs from Scarborough to the airport. The Windward Road leads along the southern coast of Roxborough and on to Charlottesville. The Northside Road leads over Moriah to the north coast and there to Castara, Parlatuvier and L´Anse Fourmi. The Parlatuvier Road crosses the island and connects Roxborough with Parlatuvier. Hermitage Road has been connecting Charlotteville with Parlatuvier since 2007 .

From Scarborough there are blue and white painted buses (mainly from the Chinese company Higer Bus ) of the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) . The main routes are: west to Crown Point and Black Rock , east to Charlotteville, and north to Moriah, Castara and L'Anse Fourmi. The tickets must be purchased before starting the journey. The same routes are used by shared taxis - they are called maxi taxis (blue and white painted minibuses with eight seats) and route taxis (cars with four seats). Both types can be stopped in the open.

In the south-west is the ANR Robinson International Airport with daily connections to Port of Spain and some international flights, including Frankfurt am Main .

The only port is in Scarborough. From the ferry terminal, fast ferries run to Port of Spain in Trinidad in 2.5 hours.

kitchen

→ Main article : Trinidadian cuisine

The cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago is shaped by African and Indian influences, as well as, of course, the kitchens of the respective colonial powers. The result is a mixture of different traditions. An independent Tobagonian kitchen does not exist.

media

Appears with the Tobago Tobago News Fridays own (weekly) each newspaper.

The radio station Radio Tambrin 92.7 FM , which was founded in 1998 and is still the only radio station in Trinidad & Tobago that focuses on the smaller of the two sister islands, broadcasts from Scarborough .

Sports

golf

There are two golf courses on Tobago that are open to the public. The "Mount Irvine Bay Golf Course", laid out in 1968, is located on the Caribbean north coast with a view of the Buccoo Reef.

The "Tobago Plantations Golf Course" is located on the grounds of the Magdalena Grand Beach Resort and directly on the Atlantic coast. The course extends about 3.5 kilometers along the coast and offers a view of the island's capital Scarborough . An artificial lake has been created on the site in which caimans have settled.

Diving

Tobago has the southernmost coral reefs in the Caribbean, making it a popular diving destination. Numerous diving schools have settled in Speyside on the Atlantic coast. The area around Mount Irvine and Black Rock is also home to some diving centers.

The island has some of the most beautiful diving spots in the Caribbean. Of the three known wrecks, the "Maverick" ferry is probably the most popular destination due to its size of 110 meters. The ferry, which formerly operated between Trinidad and Tobago, is located in Rocky Point, in front of the beach at Mount Irvine, and has become home to numerous species of fish.

In the period from April to June, female leatherback turtles can be found. a. drive to the beaches of Turtle Beach, Stonehaven Bay, Castara and Englishman's Bay.

literature

• Lennie M. Nimblett: Tobago. The union with Trinidad 1889-1899. Myth and reality . AuthorHouse, Bloomington 2012, ISBN 978-1-4772-3449-5 .
• Imbi Sooman, Jesma McFarlane, Valdis Tēraudkalns, Stefan Donecker: From the Port of Ventspils to Great Courland Bay. The Couronian Colony on Tobago in Past and Present . In: Journal of Baltic studies , ISSN  0162-9778 , Vol. 44 (2013), pp. 503-526.

Web links

Commons : Tobago  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ International Hydrographic Organization: Limits of Oceans and Seas. 3rd Edition 1953, Monte Carlo 27.- Caribbean Sea
2. ↑ Stefan Noack: The dream of the Duke Courland colony on Tobago. GRIN Verlag, 2009 24 pages
3. ^ Caribbean-Atlas.com: Tobago - In and Out of Colonial Empires. Retrieved October 27, 2016 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Anglican Parishes in 19th Century Tobago ( Memento from July 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ E. Seeliger-Mander: Trinidad and Tobago, Verlag Peter Rump, Bielefeld 2007
6. ^ Official census report 2011. Retrieved on December 9, 2015 . 
7. ^ Map from 1776
8. ↑ [1]
9. ↑ [2]
10. ↑ caribbeanelections - The Election Portal of the Caribbean ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 22, 2013. 
11. ↑ PTSC homepage. September 9, 2010, accessed September 9, 2010 .