Barbados holiday, Post 11: Bridgetown again

We spent Friday, our last full day in Barbados, wandering around Bridgetown again. We did some shopping, browsed through an almost-deserted craft centre, came across random roadside markets, saw one of the oldest synagogues in the western hemisphere, and found the post office so we could mail postcards to our parents.

Here are some of the sights from Friday...

This is a neighbourhood pub, called a "rum shop". I read that there are about 1600 of them in Barbados. With a population of around 290000, that's one rum shop for every 180 Barbadians! And considering that that population figure includes women and children, and rum shops are mostly frequented by men... it must take a lot of pints per patron to keep them all in business!

This is the bus depot from which we caught the bus to Harrison's Cave two days earlier (in the pouring rain)...

Handmade leather sandals...




School kids...












Here are some photos from the Nidhe Israel Synagogue (the pink building below). It was built in 1654, destroyed by a hurricane in 1831, rebuilt, and then fell into disrepair until it was sold in 1929. About 300 Brazilian Jews, persecuted by the Portuguese, settled in Barbados in the 1660s - it was they who introduced the sugarcane crop and helped Barbados go on to become one of the world's major sugar producers.


















That evening we were picked up from our guesthouse by David and Raquela (mentioned in Sunday and Wednesday's blog entries), and we went to the Oistins fish fry together. Our third time in a week! This time I tried dolphin, which June had recommended - but don't worry, it's not what we call dolphin, i.e. porpoise! Dolphin in Barbados is actually mahi mahi. And Ben tried marlin, which David recommended. Here we are enjoying our grilled fish on the beach...








Our next stop was for dessert - a fantastic ice-cream parlour called Creamy Moo's at the south coast's Quayside Centre. The line-up was so long it took about half an hour to even get through the door and into the air-con! But the ice-cream concoctions were AMAZING...

This is not an optical illusion - my ice cream really was about three times the size of everyone else's. But I finished it!

Afterwards we went for a quick visit to David and Raquela's house. And then they dropped us home so we could get about 4 hours of sleep before our flight in the morning! It had been a thoroughly enjoyable evening with them, filled with lots of discoveries of things we have in common. We definitely hope to cross paths with them again!

The next morning we flew out of Barbados at 7am. The most eventful parts of the trip home were: my being randomly flagged by American Airlines for extra security screening (resulting in thorough bag searches and pat downs at TWO airports), and getting stuck in line at Miami customs behind a group of Cubans who couldn't speak any English. But they were eventually allowed into America, and so were we. After 24 hours of travelling - which included four airports, three flights, two taxi rides, and one 2.5 hour drive in our own car - we arrived home half an hour into Sunday morning, May 30th.

And that was our fantastic holiday in Barbados! :D

Barbados holiday, Post 10: Scuba diving

On Thursday (May 27th), our second last full day in Barbados, we went scuba diving! We were collected from our guesthouse in the early afternoon and driven to the scuba instructor's office in Bridgetown.

The dive company was Eco Dive Barbados, which is ranked the #1 "thing to do" in Barbados on TripAdvisor (although this wasn't why we chose this company - we just came across them while researching our diving options the previous day!). The company is run by a man called Andrew, and a younger guy called Mikey works with him.

As I don't have my PADI certification, I had to start by doing an introductory course in Andrew's office, and a shallow water practice with the equipment before getting to the dive site. A guy from Toronto, Paul, was also doing the introductory course. This plus a one-tank dive cost USD $100. And because Ben has his PADI certification, he could join in on the actual dive for $75. He also got to sit in on the course (basically just Andrew talking to the three of us around a table), so that was great.

Once we'd finished learning the basics in Andrew's office, we boarded the boat and set off for Brown's Beach, where Paul and I could practice in shallow water.

Andrew casting off...

At the practice site, Mikey got into the water with us to make sure we could breathe, remove and replace our regulator, and drop and recover our regulator. As it was only 6 months since we went diving in Hawaii (my first time), I felt fairly comfortable with all of this.

It was good for my underwater confidence that I felt a bit more responsible for myself this time too, due to Paul being a complete newbie and therefore needing most of the instructor's attention - that was me in Hawaii! I'm definitely keen to get certified so I don't have to keep doing these introductory courses every time I want to dive. :)

Ben took these photos from the boat at the practice site...











Scary photo...



And here's Ben...



After that, we headed to the dive site for The Real Thing!! Mikey stayed on the boat while Andrew led our underwater adventure. Ben got a few extra minutes, as Andrew let him descend the rope before Paul and I had even been tipped backwards off the side of the boat (the easiest way to get into the water with all that gear on). Ben later said it felt like he was down there for ages by himself before we arrived!

The main attraction for scuba divers in Barbados is the abundance of sunken wrecks, and we saw two of them (the Berwyn and the Bajan Queen), plus an old pier, during our 40 minute dive. Unlike last time, there was no underwater camera, so we can't share with you what this looked like! The visibility wasn't too good - a recent influx of plankton gave the water a murky green tinge - but we saw lots of schools of colourful fish up close. At one stage there was a whole wall of little fish just a few inches in front of me!

One of the most amazing moments of the dive was when we held on to the top of a sunken ship with our fingertips, and floated there for a minute watching the abundant marine life that lived in the rusted out wreck. There were bright blue dory fish, long-snouted yellow trumpet fish, and lots of others. The underwater world really is mesmerising!

It was all over far too quickly - Paul ran out of air first so we all had to go back up. I had only just passed the halfway mark on my air tank... Andrew said women always use less air (contrary to popular opinion?). Our dive had lasted 41 minutes, but time seems to fly underwater!

Overall, Ben and I both preferred the dives we did in Hawaii (purely because of the turtles; they were such a highlight!), but our instructor in Barbados was far better - nicer and more professional. Andrew and Mikey were both very likeable and reassuring. We can definitely recommend Eco Dive Barbados!

After the dive, Andrew drove us all home, and recommended an Italian pizza restaurant we passed en route - Mama Mia's. (Andrew has an Italian wife and they lived in Italy for a year.) So that evening Ben and I took the bus to Mama Mia's and enjoyed a big pizza each. (Note to Delle: mine had mascarpone on it; I chose it thinking of you!)







Afterwards, we walked part of the way home along the beachfront boardwalk, and then took a bus the rest of the way. A wonderful day!

Barbados holiday, Post 9: Harrison's Cave

Our outing on Wednesday was to Harrison's Cave - one of the main tourist attractions in Barbados.

The cave is in the middle of the island, less than 20 kms from where we were staying, but getting there involved taking a bus into Bridgetown, walking a couple of kilometres to a different bus depot, and then riding another bus for about an hour! As we got closer to the area where the cave was, we were following along on the map to try to figure out where we needed to get off. Eventually we saw a sign that said "Harrison's Cave 1km".

It seemed like a couple more kilometres before we reached a bus stop, but another passenger told us it was the right place to get off. So we disembarked and started walking down a country road that looked nothing like the road to a major tourist attraction. However, after walking for about a kilometre, we got there! And we saw this disgusting yet awesome sight in the gutter along the way - it's a jackfruit...






After paying the US$30 per person entry fee, we were directed to a glass-walled elevator that took us down to the buildings that housed the entrance to the cave.










Before our tour started, we had a few minutes in a room filled with displays and information about the cave. Here's part of a timeline about the cave's history - note the mention of AXYS Environmental Consulting... a subsidiary of the company Ben works for! One of his colleagues actually did this work, and at Ben's work there is a little model of the tram we were about to ride during our tour. (He didn't know this before we went to Barbados though!)




After watching a 10 minute video, we hopped aboard a tram and set off into the caves. A tour guide talked about the history of the cave as we went. The earliest historical record of the cave is from 1795, and the cave was then forgotten for a couple of centuries. In 1976, it was rediscovered and explored by a Danish cave expert and a local man. It opened as a tourist attraction in 1981, and in recent years has undergone extensive redevelopment.




The tram tour lasted about 35 minutes, and there were two spots where we stopped and walked around for a few minutes. One of the rooms we drove through was called "The Cathedral", and is over 100 feet (30 metres) high. I think we were about 160 feet (50 metres) underground at the deepest part. The stalactites and stalagmites throughout the cave were amazing! Here are our best photos...
















Overall, we thought the cave was impressive, but not quite worth the steep entry fee. Yes, the price went up a lot due to the recent renovations, but $30 each for a half hour tour kind of sets unmeetable expectations! We also didn't have a very enthusiastic tour guide. Anyway, at least we can say we've seen Barbados's "number one tourist attraction"!

Back in Bridgetown later that afternoon, we enjoyed a sandwich at the Waterfront Cafe beside the harbour.




That evening we were picked up by David and Raquela (from Sunday's blog entry) for the Wednesday night meeting. We made plans to get together on Friday night, our last evening in Barbados, so they'll reappear in that blog entry!