Barbados holiday, Post 1: Arrival

From May 20 to 29, we spent 9 wonderful nights in Barbados. It was our first real holiday of 2010, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

I came across the idea of going to Barbados quite accidentally. We had been intending for the last year to do a 7-night Alaska cruise in May, but the sailings I was watching never dropped in price like we were hoping they would. At some point I stumbled across a Barbados deal on a travel website and realised it wouldn't cost a great deal more than a cruise. A bit more research and I very quickly decided I'd rather go to Barbados than Alaska - especially after a long, cold, rainy Vancouver winter! Ben didn't mind either way, so off to Barbados we went.

We worked on Wednesday the 19th, and drove to Seattle that evening. Ben's cousin Connie had kindly agreed to babysit our car and drop us at the airport (thanks Connie!). Our flight departed at 10:40pm. First we flew to Miami, Florida, which took 5.5 hours, and from there to Barbados, which was another 3 hours. We arrived in Barbados at 1:20pm on Thursday.

Here are some views of Barbados as we came in to land...





Now might be a good time to include a few facts about Barbados...

• It is the easternmost Caribbean nation, and almost as far south as the top of South America. It is 400km north-east of Venezuela.
• Barbados is shaped like a lopsided pear, 34km from bottom to top and up to 23km across at the widest part.
  
• It is an English-speaking country. After more than 300 years of British rule, Barbados gained independence in 1966.
• The population is 284000. The ethnic make-up is 90% Afro-Bajan, 6% Asian and multiracial, and 4% European.
• The economy in Barbados was once dependent on sugarcane, but since the late 70s has revolved around tourism and manufacturing. It is the 51st richest country in the world in terms of GDP per capita (Australia is 15th, Canada is 19th, the UK is 24th, and NZ is 31st).
• The currency is the Barbados dollar, which is pegged to the US dollar at $1 USD = $2 BBD.

And no doubt there'll be various other snippets popping up in my posts!

The first 4 nights of our holiday were to be spent on the west coast of the island. This is known as the upmarket part of the island, lined with luxury resorts (although we weren't headed to one of them!). Oprah has a home there and it's popular with celebrities seeking to escape the paparazzi - someone told us Simon Cowell had just been there.

We had booked an ensuite room in a privately-owned guesthouse called Villa Marie, and I had obtained directions via email from the owner on how to get there by bus. The airport is on the south-east part of the island, and we had to travel about one quarter of the way around the island to reach our accommodation. So, while all the other tourists got off the plane and into taxis or rental cars, we set off to the bus stop with our luggage (thankfully only carry-on).

We immediately realised we felt very hot. The temperature was 31 degrees throughout our visit, dropping only a few degrees overnight. The temperature in Barbados actually only varies by a few degrees all year - the average monthly low ranges from 23 to 26, and the average month high ranges from 28 to 30! Humidity hovers around 70%. It didn't take us long to realise that we have completely acclimatised to Canadian weather, and for my "I'm really looking forward to some sunshine" enthusiasm to turn into complaints about how disgusting and sticky I felt!!

With the help of a few locals, we managed to catch the right bus, travelling to Oistins and then changing to a Speightstown bus. Both buses were an extremely memorable experience - the first one due to the heart-in-throat driving techniques and the second one due to its sardine-tin resemblance - but I'll talk more about the buses in another post. Suffice to say that it must have taken well over an hour and we were rather glad to finally disembark with our luggage and walk the final few hundred metres to Villa Marie.

We met our host, Peter (a German who moved to Barbados 16 years ago), and some fellow guests from Florida, checked out our huge room and bathroom, and spent some time doing very little until we had cooled down enough to want to go out again.

Here are some photos of our accommodation at Villa Marie - one of the highest-ranked Barbados guesthouses on TripAdvisor...









At sunset, which occurs about 6:30pm, we walked down to the beach. Very pretty! It was quite deserted, except for one or two locals and some little sand crabs scuttling about.













After going to the nearby Jordans supermarket and stocking up on some breakfast supplies, we ate dinner at the neighbourhood diner Peter had recommended - Wendy's Snack Bar. We had delicious grilled fish and fruit smoothies, and were amused to see that the movie "Australia" was playing on the bar's TV - with Portuguese subtitles!

And that was our first afternoon and evening in Barbados. Coming soon: an exploration of the capital, Bridgetown, and lots of colourful photos!