Our Favorite Place to Wake Up!
Sunsrise on the beachfront of the Resort
When we are on vacation, we are those types of people who like to wake up early to maximize the enjoyment of our free time. I find it extra relaxing to wake up just before dawn, get a cup of tea and just enjoy not having to rush to go to work. It is such a serene feeling knowing that you don't have to go anywhere and you have all day to relax! Sunrises at our favorite resort, Sandy Point Beach Club, are what we look forward to during our vacation visits to the island of Tobago. Today I'm going to share the relaxing rituals we indulge in each morning with you!
Just before dawn, most of the other patrons are asleep and we have the place to ourselves
There is something about the morning air at this time that just seems to heal, invigorate and bring peace to the soul. The night lights are still on and the magic of this time of morning brings about a certain excitement to start the day and explore unknown things to see and do on the island.
This is a view of the tennis court from our room balcony with the rising sun in the distance. At this time, my wife and I make a hearty cup of black tea (preferably lipton) with a splash of milk and some sugar.
Here is another view of the oceanside from the resort balcony. Look at that morning glow!
We then make our way down from the room to the beachfront with our comforting yet warm cups of tea to sit and enjoy the rising of the sun! The feeling of these moments cannot be explained but it sure is serenity undefined! Nothing beats hearing the ocean crash upon the shore with a cup of tea in hand and watching the sunrise with your loved ones!
This is what we saw as the sun got higher and brightened everythingn a little bit. The coconut trees sway in the gentle morning breeze complementing the perfect morning soiree at the beach front. The colors of the sunlight in the clouds were also so mesmerizing and morning dew coated the sands making them easy to walk on without it annoyingly getting everywhere. Because of this, we decided to make our way closer towards the shoreline, teacups in hand!
The clouds and the waves seemed to mirror each other in pattern and color with the water being more green colored. It was as if there was perfect harmony and at the horizon, the ocean and sky met for the morning greeting. I should say that along this coastline, around the resort, are many jetties we could walk on, this being one of them.
Here is another stunning view of the oceanfront. You can see more clearly what I meant now when I said that the sky and ocean mirrored each other as the clouds looked much like they took up wave patterns just with cotton candy colors and textures. I really loved how the sand looked here, with some footprints already in it by most likely a sea dog!
The waters began to get a little more rambunctious and the waves started getting larger as well. Around this time, the golden sunlight from the rising star crept toward the shore illuminating the crests and troughs as they hit the sands.
I just loved the way the cresting waves held and diffused the golden light and mixed it with their green hues. Nothing was more beautiful to see than that at the moment as it was quite alluring.
By this time, more people started coming out to observe the morning's pretty ambience before the resort's breakfast program. The water was quite rough and seemed to want to destroy the jetty upon which people were standing.
I managed to catch a fisherman with his GoPro and fishing rods on one of the jetties. This platform was quite low compared to the others and so he was not at all sheltered from waves. He seemed to be quite the pro at what he was doing.
Really and truly, I was quite anxious for him as larger waves than those you see above were crashing against him and it sometimes looked as if he was going to b swept away at any moment. We stayed and watched him for quite a while and could understand why he was filming. If he did have some sort of social media, this would be quite interesting!
We walked around to the higher platform that allows you to get a higher up view of the beach front. Before we ascended the stairway, I took a quick shot that you see above of the magnificent waters, the beach we were just on and the golden sunlight filtering in!
This is what it looked like from higher up above on the balcony. At this point, out tea was finished and we were gearing up for coffee and breakfast at the resort's breakfast program at their beachfront bar. Before that though, we thought we would digest the tea and work up and appetite by walking to the other side of the beach outside of the resort's bounds.
Before that though, here is a edited shot of when we, ourselves took a walk on the jetty on another morning when the waters were much calmer! I just love the look of serenity in this shot as well as the colors and clarity of the skies!
I took another shot of the coconut trees before we left as they looked so awesome in the rising sun's golden hour lighting! There's nothing quite like this time of day for photography, everything manages to look amazing no matter what you do!
We exited the resort and headed down the road that lead to the other side of the beach where there was un developed and untouched natural beach! We always take this walk whenever we come as it is a nice differentiation from the sterile resort environment.
The sands here seemed to be even more amazingly colored even though it was the same beach front technically. The view of the sky on this side was more breathtaking with large towering clouds on in the distance.
This is the view looking back at the resort from where we were and you can see one of the jetties in the distance as well as our footprints in the sand. You an also see a seadog's footprints that was there before us.
We kept walking for a while until we went around the natural curvature of the coastline. here were these wild almond trees on the beach itself that lead to who knows where of thick jungle. It was quite nice being away from all civilization like this for a while.
The sunlight filtered through the trees beautifully in a heavenly like manner, I could not help but want to take a photo of it. I just loved the lens flare in the camera as well!
I almost forgot to take photos of the beach's ocean side! I was entralled by this large ship off in the distance not far from the coastline. We could not at all see this from the resort and it looked so cool with its orange/red color paired with the emerald green waters and the blue sky! It was quite the shot.
After we had our fill of nature and worked out the tea we just drank, we headed back to the resort's beachfront bar where the chairs were set up for the morning breakfast program. People were already up in their numbers anticipating their breakfast and complementary coffee.
Before the seats were filled up, we decided to go get out local beans brewed coffee (in the silver server) as you see in the photo above before more people came down and it was finished. We were early and so the coffee was quite fresh, hot and flavorful. This coffee does actually finish quite quickly as the local coffee is amazing!
As the seats were filled up, the Sandy Point resort general manger came down to start the program where we are informed of the rules as well as things to see and do on the resort. We were also informed of the things to see and do outside of the resort on the island where the there were different individuals who introduced themselves that talked about scuba diving, hiking and other activities they were responsible for arranging for the patrons.
At the end of the introductory program, we were told that there was a random seat where a piece of paper with the word "winner" written on it was stuck to! Everyone was told that whoever's seat had the paper would win a prize. It turned out that my wife sat on that seat!
She won an awesome treat box with local sweets and delicacies! On the right you can see a fried aloo pie (a fried pie stuffed with well seasoned potato), on the top left is a coconut drop cake and on the bottom left is a bake and buljol sandwich. The bake is coconut bread and buljol is a well cooked and flavored salted fish filling! All of these things were always a pleasure to eat and quite delicious.
It was at this point, we were told to head to the buffet where we all lined up for breakfast! These are my favorite types of mornings with beautiful, laid back sunrises, relaxing and unwinding nature walks to start the day of island exploring! We weren't quite expecting to win something but were quite glad we did! Thanks a lot for reading, Cheers!