A three-week Tobago vacation left a Kazakhstan-born woman so captivated by the island that she returned to Germany, packed her bags and came back on a one-way ticket.
But when she returned to Tobago intending to make the island part of her life, paradise suddenly looked very different.
The woman, who would eventually spend 17 years in Trinidad and Tobago, has revealed how the Tobago she fell in love with as a visitor collided with a much harsher reality when she returned intending to stay.
Her first trip came in November 2008, when she checked into a small guest house in Lowlands following a difficult breakup.
She had travelled to Tobago wanting to get away from her old life and spend time alone.
Instead, she became captivated by the island.
She recalled friendly people, beautiful beaches, warm weather, fresh fruit and nights where the sky appeared filled with stars.
More importantly, she said Tobago gave her an overwhelming feeling of calm and belonging.
She described feeling as though her nervous system, which had previously been constantly unsettled, finally relaxed.
By the end of the three weeks, she didn’t want to leave.
But she returned to Germany, moved back in with her mother and found work at a Latino bar.
About two months later, Tobago was still on her mind.
One freezing night, while driving home from work around 3 a.m. through snow and rain, she heard Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds playing on the radio.
The song immediately brought her Caribbean experience flooding back.
She went home, started searching for flights and contacted a man she had met while staying at the Lowlands guest house.
He had previously told her that if she ever returned, he would help arrange somewhere for her to stay.
She asked whether the offer still stood.
He told her to come.
This time, she wasn’t booking another three-week vacation.
She bought a one-way ticket to Tobago.
She estimates she arrived with only around €200 in her pocket, driven largely by a desire to experience again the sense of belonging she had discovered during her first visit.
Then came the rude awakening.
By the time she returned, the guest house she had fallen in love with had closed and the man she knew from there was no longer working.
He arrived to collect her in an ageing purple Nissan B13 with shiny rims.
Her description of the vehicle painted an immediate picture of just how different this Tobago experience was going to be.
She recalled the car door not closing properly and said a screwdriver was being used to hold up one of the windows.
Then they headed towards the accommodation he had arranged for her.
Having grown up in Germany, she admitted she expected at least something resembling the standard of the guest house where she had stayed during her vacation.
What she encountered was far from what she had imagined.
Looking back, she said that was probably the moment she should have turned around, returned to the airport and waited for the next flight back to Germany.
But she didn’t.
The contrast marked an important turning point in her story.
Tobago as a tourist had been beaches, stars, warm weather and an almost immediate feeling of peace.
Tobago as someone arriving with a one-way ticket was about to become something very different.
There was no longer a comfortable guest house waiting for her, no return ticket in her pocket and very little money to fall back on.
The paradise she had experienced for three weeks was now becoming real life.
Despite that rude awakening, she stayed.
And the decision not to turn around would ultimately become far more significant than she could have known at the time.
The woman who first arrived in Tobago for a three-week escape would go on to spend 17 years building a life in Trinidad and Tobago.
Her experience also carried a lesson she could only recognise in hindsight: falling in love with Tobago while on vacation was one thing.
Trying to build a life there was going to be another story entirely.
