9/23/06

Barbados!

To celebrate our 10th anniversary on September 7, 2006, we decided to head to the Caribbean for a second honeymoon of sorts. So we left our construction zone apartment and our half-finished kitchen and drove to Pennsylvania where we left Eden and Elliot safely in the hands of their grandparents (who split the time taking care of them), aunts, uncles, and cousins. On Sept. 4 we caught a plane in Philly bound for Barbados with a brief layover in Miami. Eight days later, we flew back to Philly to pick up our relieved but somewhat reluctant kids! What follows is a pictorial tour of our time in Barbados--a beautiful country, to be sure (click to see a map--Barbados is the eastern most of the Lesser Antilles, so in the lower right of the map).

Our first view of the Caribbean was from the air. Our air route from Miami to Barbados took us over many of the islands, although it was hard to identify each one.

The cloud formations were astounding--tens of thousands of feet high, sometimes dwarfing the islands over which they hovered.

Eventually we reached Barbados and got some nice views of the southern coast of the island, which is where our resort was. Although we didn't know it then, later in the week we would snorkel among the shipwrecks in this very bay! [Maps: Caribbean; Barbados]

Barbados is a relatively flat island, with only the only high points being hills and bluffs on the east coast. Barbados is the only Caribbean island to not be formed by a volcano; instead, it is a coral reef that pushed up from the ocean floor. 80% of the "rock" in Barbados is coral, which provides a wonderful water filter purifying all of the island's water--a huge asset since tourists need not worry about the typical stomach problems associated with many other third-world countries.

The Grantley Adams International Airport is very clean (recently renovated), small, but quaintly designed.

There is a lot of construction on Barbados. Although there are parts of island that are very poor, the presence of a middle class reduces tourists and rich natives vs. the dirt poor locals feeling that many Caribbean islands have. Barbados is often labeled as the most advanced or developing of the Caribbean countries, and indeed it felt surprisingly progressive.

A cool little store we passed on the way from the airport.

Ahh, at the resort at last! We got a really good package deal for seven nights at the Bougainvillea Beach Resort in the parish (township) of Christ Church, on the south coast between Oistins and Bridgetown [map].

Our view from our 4th floor room balcony. The resort had three swimming pools and two private beaches separated by a rocky outcropping in the water.

More of the resort, with two hammocks in the background that we wanted to use but never got around to doing so as Jo's first attempt on one made her nauseous!

 Each morning we were treated to a large buffet breakfast right on the beach. We'd tank up and walk ten steps to claim a free beach lounger for the day, walk another ten steps and enjoy the clear 80 degree Caribbean waters.

The main part of the resort from the water.

The other beach and same resort from the water.

The resort provided a lot of free recreational activities, including sea kayaking. This was our main view from our beach all week.

Lin and Jo returning from a fun jet ski ride (which was decidedly not free).

Jo's picture of relaxation perfection.

It's a sea monster--no, it's Lin emerging with sea treasures for Eden, wearing Jo's funny mask from college.

The view of the beach from the rock outcropping. Behind the fence to the right is a little trellis and patio where a lot of people get married.

A very rough panoramic of our resort beach view (is it possible the curvature of the earth close to the equator made it more difficult to take a pano??). Scroll to the right for more of the picture.

Lin sea kayaking.

Lin was looking forward to sailing by himself after learning to sail on the Charles River this summer, but the smallest sailing vessel they had available was a Hobie Cat that the beach crew was reluctant to let him take out by himself. Here Lin, Carl (from Vermont), and one of the beach water sports guy return from a long ride way out into the deep waters.

A close up shot of the Hobie Cat.

The lovely pool bar, replete with ample pool seats and a generous 2-for-1 happy hour special.

A few nights we enjoyed the sunset and cooler evening temperatures on the beach.

The sunsets were stunning almost every night.

We met a great couple from Vermont at our resort. Carl and Mary Kate had rented this cute little car for the week. It had no doors, holes in the floor, and a thin soft top for those very rare five minute showers during the "rainy" season.

Another gorgeous sunset we saw while walking along the beach to the St. Lawrence Gap, a local restaurant and nightlife hotspot.

A view of the rising moon in the opposite direction.

We often snacked for breakfast on our balcony and saved the resort's breakfast buffet for an early lunch, since it was served until 11 a.m.

We arrived Monday afternoon, and hung out on the beach the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday. By Wednesday we were ready to see some more of the island and give our crispy skin a break, so we took a free shuttle into Bridgetown, the capitol of Barbados. It had two shopping districts back to back: the one was largely duty free and for the tourists; the other, literally a block away, was clearly for the locals. Needless to say, we found the local shopping area much more interesting. Here Jo enjoys a cupful of flavored ice from a street vendor.

A local fruit market in Bridgetown.

We asked a local merchant where we could get good, cheap local food, and he sent us to a hole in the wall  that was hopping with midday local business. We were the only non-locals but were pleasantly surprised by large serving of food for only $5 USD per plate! The touristy areas of Barbados are not exactly cheap; even though you get two Barbados dollars for every US dollar, the vendors and hotels jack the prices so that you pay the same amount in US dollars. This place was an exception, though.

A boardwalk running along a bay in Bridgetown.

Barbados was a British colony from 1625, when it was first settled, until it gained its independence in 1966. It shows clear signs of British influence, with people driving on the "wrong" side of the road (left), the plenteous "roundabouts" (rotaries in Massachusetts), and other Britishisms, like this sign "give way" instead of "yield" and the statue of the cricket player in the center of the roundabout. As in much of post-colonial British countries, cricket is the sport of choice (with soccer as a close second). The Cricket World Cup will be held in Barbados in 2007, so the country is buzzing with activity and anticipation of that event. 

All this running around called for a little relaxation, this time in the form of floating on two boogie boards in the waning sunlight.

On our actual anniversary, Thursday, Sept. 7, we kicked back once again, this time on the much quieter other beach at the resort.

Our anniversary view from the shelter of the beach umbrella. Barbados, like many other tropical countries, has disgustingly consistent weather (that coming from a Bostonian, who is used to four seasons and weather patterns that are notoriously difficult to predict). Each day was basically the same: a warm, sunny 86 degrees, a touch humid, but generally beautiful with blue skies and big puffy clouds. We only experienced five minutes of rain the whole eight days. The 80 degree water was just the right temperature to cool you off during the day and keep you warm during a night swim. And there was little fear of being hit by a hurricane. Barbados is well outside of the hurricane belt and hasn't been hit since 1955.

More on our anniversary. Lin was on a quest to get a native tan and got a bit more than he bargained for.

One can only take so much lying around, however; here Lin attempts to master the very difficult art of wind surfing. Between the ocean currents and crosswinds, he didn't get very far. But it was still fun and blew away his other experience windsurfing on the murky Charles River in Boston.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary with a lovely beachside dinner at our resort's classier restaurant. It was a beautiful evening with a full moon rising over the water to the east. Our waitress could hardly believe we were old enough to be celebrating 10 years OR expecting our third child! Neither can we sometimes... :o)

On Friday we went on an safari tour of the whole island, which turned out to be lots of fun. Every stop consisted of rum punch and a variety of fruit juices, along with snacks if desired. Jo got to sit in the front cab since she was pregnant and we did some off-roading.

A view of Bridgetown in the distance, looking south from a little bluff. In the center of the picture you can see the Barbados "skyscraper"--a ten story bank.

This statue dates back a few centuries, supposedly. The lion's paw represents the British empire, and the red ball is the world, hence representing the dominance of the English empire over the rest of the world.

The tall palm trees (cabbage palms) designated plantation boundaries and served to help workers find their way out of the tall sugarcane fields. Only a few plantation houses are still standing; one is the center of the trees in this picture.

Another plantation house, this one converted into a center of homeopathic medicine. The founder claims that, using plants and medicinal practices native to Barbados, he has not had to visit the doctor since 1965.

Barbados is known for two things: rum and sugar. In the seventeenth century, Barbados was the biggest single trading destination with the New England colonies, with horses and crops sent to the island by the boatload in exchange for sugar and rum from Barbados. Although "firewater" was brewed very early in the seventeenth century, the first official rum distillery was Mount Gay, which has records dating back to 1703. For centuries sugar was the chief economic staple in Barbados, but today that has been replaced by tourism. While there is a lot of unemployment in Barbados, many locals prefer not to do the difficult work required in the sugarcane fields, so labor is often imported. And ironically, 100 percent of the finished product is shipped to Europe while Barbados imports lesser quality sugar from South American for consumption on the island. The locals don't understand this, but it makes economical sense for the island.

An interesting wall of graffiti.

A close up of the many coral cliffs and boulders on the island.

A drive through the sugar cane fields (we missed the harvest by about a month) was rough and bumpy, but led us to a beautiful lookout on the eastern side of the island called Edgecliff.

Lin got to bounce around in the back of the Land Rover with a couple from England on their honeymoon, a couple from Philadelphia on vacation, and three Irish girls suffering from severe hangovers and lack of sleep!

The eastern coast of Barbados [map] is one of the only places in the Caribbean where there are waves big enough to attract professional surfers. There is a seven-mile long sandy beach, but where the sand and water meet is often rocky, with slimy moss in abundance. The eastern coast is beautiful, but you can see why all the resorts are on the placid west and south coasts. Interestingly enough, there is nothing but spacious Atlantic waters between Barbados and the Cape Verde Islands, around 3,000 miles due east.

Edgecliff on the eastern edge of the island. Some people also call the cliff by another name associated with a man who rode his horse off the cliff and died after his wife refused to give up relations with one of their slaves. Our tour guide said the innocent horse should have been spared, and the man should have ridden his guilty wife over the cliff!

The full 180 degree view of the east coast of Barbados from Edgecliff. Bathsheba (pictures below) is on the left hand side of the picture. Scroll to the right for more. [Map of Barbados]

Palm and banana trees were in abundance along the eastern edge of the island.

A colorful home with one of the seemingly standard solar panels on so many of the houses in Barbados. With something like 360 days of sun per year, you can understand why solar technology would be a good option.

This particularly rocky area on the eastern shore is called Bathsheba and is a favorite surfing spot. [Map]

This large coral boulder is one of the landmarks in Bathsheba.

The sleeping giant. His forehead is to the right with nose and chin in the middle and "beer belly" to the left, according to our tour guide.

Barbados, under English Anglican influence (Anglicanism was the first official religion in Barbados, though supposedly more than 100 religions coexist peacefully on the island today), is divided into 11 parishes. St. John, St. Andrew, St. James, St. Lucy, Christ Church, etc. Many of the old parish churches are still standing, including this one, which is possibly in St. George.

The Morgan Lewis mill is the only sugarcane windmill still in operation in Barbados though remains of many others can still be seen on the island.

This historic home (as designated by the blue circle on the lower right side) is a good example of a chattel house often seen in Barbados. These homes were frequently constructed before many people owned property. When the owners decided to move, the corner trim pieces were removed along with the roof and the four walls collapsed on themselves, making a very portable home. They were often set on cement blocks rather than a foundation as shown here. Now more and more Bajans (sounds like Cajun) are purchasing property so these homes are built less often.

This beautiful cove on the eastern coast is called Bay Cove and is often compared to the white cliffs of Dover in England.

Little Cove is nearby and with its spectacular coral formations, provides exciting geyser like sprays of water before settling into a small, calm swimming area.

A home hoping for a view. They'll be all set for the next hurricane...wait, never mind.

Maneuvering through traffic on the west side of the island.

A whole yard of semi-retired fishing boats.

Our safari tour included a buffet lunch at Sand Ridge Resort on the west coast. The fried flying fish is a standard on many local buffets as is rice and beans, but the rum cake was a little too potent for consumption.

One of two Baobab trees on the entire island. While this one is quite big (10-12 feet in diameter), the other one takes 25-30 people to encircle it holding hands!

We passed this home on our walk to Oistins for the Friday night fish fry. Many of the homes are built very close to the water with seemingly little concern for the possibility of flooding.

Another beautiful sunset on our walk to Oistins.

The Friday night fish fry in Oistins is an event not to miss. Oistins is a fishing town with a large fish market, but the weekends are when it really gets hopping, especially on Friday nights when locals and tourists alike flock to stand in ridiculously long lines awaiting a plate of delicious and inexpensive grilled fish along with the traditional rice and beans, macaroni pie (baked mac and cheese), garden salad, and coleslaw. There are also venders hawking local creations like shell jewelry and birdfeeders carved from coconut shells, as well a several DJs who vie for the loyalties of potential dancers. We arrived early and avoided the crowds and lines, enjoying a peaceful meal just yards from the water.

As the evening wore on, the tables filled up and it was great to see the mix of tourists and locals all in one place.

We left the blasting stereo systems behind and started for the resort when we came upon this marvelous steel drum band. If we closed our eyes, it almost sounded like we were listening to an orchestra. Then we hopped on a minibus for home--something like the matatus in East Africa or the gbakas in Cote d'Ivoire. It was again a great way to get a feel for the local flavor rather than taking a taxi. And the savings was great as well--only 75 US cents per person rather than the $8 or so it would have cost us to get a taxi. We enjoyed our walks to Oistins and St. Lawrence Gap, though we had to do them early because the sun sets soon after 6 p.m. and we were told not to walk after dark. Overall, though Barbados is a very safe place and we felt very secure there.

Sandy Beach just east of Bridgetown (not to be confused with Sandy Lane on the west coast of Barbados, where Tiger Woods got married on Oct. 5, 2004, at the famous Sandy Lane Golf Club) is a gorgeous beach lined with resorts. A sandbar lies out from the shoreline creating a natural breakwater and a wonderful calm place for kids to test the waters.

Another view of Sandy Beach and the boat we took on Saturday to go snorkeling and to swim with the sea turtles. The waters near our resort were a bit too rough to load there that day, so we went to Sandy Beach where we could just walk right out to the boat.

A sea turtle pokes his head up for air. They were congregated off the west coast of the island--close enough to the shore that people could swim out from there to see them. Our guide provided small pieces of raw fish to attract them near our boat and we saw at least a dozen turtles and were able to touch many of them.

Below the surface, Jo gets her hand on one of the turtles.

This guy swam very quickly right at me, with Jo in tow.

The turtles glided elegantly through the water, able to stay down for minutes at a time.

On the return ride we stopped in the bay to snorkel around two ship wrecks. One was from 1919 when a boat caught fire in the bay and sank. The other was a party boat that was intentionally sunk about six years ago to provide another snorkeling attraction. You can see the dark, murky outline of the 1919 wreck in the foreground.

John Paul, our trusty captain and guide, was one of the nicest guys we met on the island, though we did get cheated out of doing this excursion on our actual anniversary since not enough people were signed up. When we went, two British couples were also with us.

Ah, the glamour of a snorkel mask. Some tours provide oxygen tanks or lines for longer time under water, but we opted for something more simple.

Although the water looks clear and calm from the surface, underneath it was teeming with activity! Whole schools of fish were hanging out near the ship wrecks.

If you stayed still enough, the fish would just swim right around you, bumping into you and moving along.

I swam down to the one ship wreck in hopes of getting a close-up of the purple fish in the middle, but she was too quick for me, and I was running out of air.

Unfortunately the camera just didn't capture the clarity and brilliance of the water and fish.

Lin diving down next to the 1919 wreck. The ships were surprisingly large, and had whole living quarters inside that could have been explored if we had the lung capacity of sperm whales...

Jo hanging out with the fish.

This little bay had the most astounding water around.

After another relaxing day on Sunday, we headed to the airport around lunchtime on Monday morning to catch a plane back to the real world of kids, diapers, house management, and dissertation writing. Overall it was a fantastic time, with a truly affordable deal found through www.cheapcaribbean.com. We'll be back, I'm sure, perhaps next time with the kids in tow.

The end! Thanks for reading.

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