The locals always had something funny and appropriate to say to fit the situation. When we took our catamaran sailing tour and they offered Jay a beer I was giving him a bad time because it was only about 10:00 a.m. Gregory, one of the deck hands said, "Hey, you're here for a good time, not a long time! Don't forget!" So true Gregory, so true. And what a good time that day was. I had never snorkeled before and I am pretty sure I am horrible at it. I know, you are thinking how can you be bad at snorkeling? I don't know, but I kept getting water in my mouth and feeling like I was floundering. It didn't really matter though since I got to see turtles and amazing tropical fish. We sailed with Calabaza and if anyone is in Barbados I highly recommend them. The boat is owned by a German named Gina who has been in Barbados for the past 20 plus years. She is awesome and her food is to die for. She even emailed all of us her collection of recipes so we could recreate some of our experience while on the boat. Gregory and Andrew were our crew for the day and kept us laughing. Jay wasn't too sure about doing such a "touristy" thing, but even he had a great time. When we go back we will take our own snorkel gear, but for our first time there this was the way to go.
Go Dead Left or Get Left Dead!
After a long day driving around the island Jay and I couldn't wait to get in the water for a relaxing swim. We were chatting with our favorite local Matthew on the beach, and he asked how we were doing. I said, "Good! We survived driving on the left." His response, "In Barbados we have a saying: go dead left or get left dead!" Ha! He is right though, they drive like maniacs with lots of honking always going on. I don't think we will rent a car next time since the island is so small you can basically see everything of interest in a day, but we are glad we rented it this time. The East Coast, which is the Atlantic side is ruggedly beautiful. There aren't as many places to swim since the cliffs often just drop right into the water. The West Coast, which is the Caribbean is where most people stay and where all the long, sandy white beaches are.
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| Don't worry: Jay only let me drive on a dirt road where the only thing I could hit was a cow. Of course, considering the small size of the car I guess that could have been a problem. |
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| View from St. John's Church, an old Catholic church, which I think might be the highest point on the island. The cemetery there had tombstones dating back to the 1600s. |
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| Long Beach |
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| One of numerous windmills/sugarmills we saw on sugar cane plantations. Sugar cane was the dominant crop under British Rule. Barbados has been independent for 44 years now and there are far fewer plantations. |
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| Little Bay |
From speaking with my friend who has been to Barbados twice before and from reading we had done on the internet before we left we were expecting the locals to be friendly. I am not sure anything could have prepared us though. Everyone we met welcomed us to their island and often told us "Welcome Home!" We would be walking to the store and they would lean out their house windows "Hey Buddy! You alright? Need Anything? Have a good one!" Kids on bikes would ask us if we were lost and if we needed anything. They were always smiling and love a good chat. Besides getting hit up to buy fresh coconuts or fresh aloe vera or on one occasion, a shot of rum, we really only had one bad experience. And it wasn't even that bad. As we were driving up the East Coast a man stepped out in the road and stopped us. All rental cars in Barbados have an "H" on them so we were an easy target, not to mention we are white. He told us the road up ahead was closed and proceeded to give us directions that would take us around the closure and to Cove Bay and Little Bay. He was very friendly, but then wanted 100 U.S. dollars for his five minutes of directions. Uhhhh, no way Jose! I think I gave him 5 U.S. so he would get his head out of our car and we could keep going. Even though he tried to royally rip us off, he did give us directions to two of the neatest bays we would see the whole trip. All is well that ends well right?
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| Little Bay |
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| Cove Bay |
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