What did it cost for 19 days in Barbados?

We always find it an interesting exercise to go back over our trip costs when any particular voyage ends. Of course when someone goes on a typical package vacation, it's a lot easier to add things up. The typical one week all inclusive is especially easy because for the most part you know all of your costs up front.

But with us, you just never know until the end. Of course we try and do things as frugally as possible within reason. But when you travel to a relatively expensive country like Barbados, you're pretty much stuck spending whatever it costs. I mean after all, you still have to eat!

Back in Canada

But it's going to be a whirlwind visit, mostly just to say goodbye. We need to do some last minute shopping (maple syrup, among other things!) and then we're heading into the United States on Thursday morning.

Our travel day was fine yesterday. Everything happened exactly as planned.

October Expenses

There was so much going on in Barbados, we never got around to telling you about our month of October expenses. So I've got some time to waste here in Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Ottawa.

October was an expensive month. Mostly because of repairs and maintenance to Sherman, but also because we always seem to spend more money visiting Ottawa than when we're out traveling!

Barbados rough north coast

Our last day touring Barbados and we finally made it up to the rough north coast. Cliffs and caves and wind where the Atlantic Ocean crashes into the rocks.

Our couchsurfing host Eric was headed out anyhow, and he gave us a drive up to Archers Bay where we could then walk to Animal Flower Cave and the cliffs along the north coast.

Scenic flight around the island of Barbados

Our couchsurfing host Eric owns one of the very few private planes on the island of Barbados. He tries to fly it regularly, just to keep in practice. And, perhaps a small plane is something like an RV... using it regularly is better for it than letting it sit!

Yesterday was a beautiful day here on the island, so he offered to take us for a flight around the island, and we were quick to take him up on that!

Out for lunch

Just a coasting day yesterday. Nothing wrong with having a coasting day in Barbados!

We've been staying the last two weeks with a couchsurfing host. He's a single guy, about our age who is originally from the UK, but has been living here in Barbados for about 11 years.

It's not really "normal" to spend 19 days with just one host when you're couchsurfing.

Fun times at the Mount Gay Rum Tour

Think of Barbados, and the first thing that might come to mind is beaches. But to some, the first thing that comes to mind is rum! Because Barbados is home to the oldest manufacturer of rum in the world!

In fact, Mount Gay has been making rum in Barbados for over 300 years.

The ruins of Sam Lord's Castle

Interesting story behind this part of Barbados history.

Samuel Hall Lord was a wealthy Barbados pirate who lived in a castle like estate that was built in 1820. Legend has it that Sam Lord would hang lanterns in the trees of the estate to look like the port of Bridgetown to lure unsuspecting ships onto the reef. He would then plunder the ships of their treasures.

The "castle" has had several different owners over the years.

Disappointing trip to Harrison's Cave, Barbados

We like to visit caves when we're traveling, and we've been to quite a few. I don't think that we are cave snobs by any means, but we have been to the magical Kartchner Caverns in Arizona, and the huge Grutas de Garcia in Mexico. And we've done the wild cave tour in both Mammoth Cave, Kentucky and in South Africa. Among others.

So perhaps it is because of these past experiences that we were quite disappointed in Harrison's Cave.

140 feet under water!

It's not every day that you get to go on a submarine.

In fact, it's taken us 55 years to get to do something like this! Not that it's an exclusive club. In fact, more than 12 million people have taken one of the Atlantis Submarine Tours that operate at select tropical locations around the world.

And we had heard that it's a really great experience, so we decided to go for it!

Another hike to Barbados wild east coast

When we departed from the Bushy Park Racetrack yesterday, it was around 11:30am. In true Kevin and Ruth fashion, we decided that we could walk the 16 kms (10 miles) in the 30C (86F) heat through sugar cane fields and muddy coastal trails to Bathsheba where we could catch the bus back to Bridgetown.

We had lots of water, and a few snacks with us... so we set off. Worse case scenario on a small island, is that you are never far away from an alternate method of travel should you decide you have had enough!

Go Karting at 50 mph at Bushy Park Racetrack, Barbados

Well yesterday was another fun day!

I love go-karts. And when you get a chance to drive a really fast one, it's a big thrill for me.

The Bushy Park Go Karts in Barbados has go-karts that get up to 80 km/h (50 mph) on the straightaways. When you're only sitting an inch off the ground, that's fast!

Second impressions

Wow, we're already more than half way through our nineteen day trip to Barbados. Only eight days to go and we'll be back in chilly Canada! We notice that November weather is in full swing across most of the great white north.

When we arrived here on October 25th, our first impressions comment was... The people are friendly. It's not as "modern" as I expected it to be, but we haven't seen very much of it yet. Eric says "it'll look really nice when it's finished". We can't figure out how the locals survive given the cost of food.

Now that we've been here for a week and a half, we'll give you our updated impressions...

A blast on the Jammin' Barbados Catamaran Snorkeling Cruise

Up early yesterday morning and it was pouring rain! But fortunately, the rain stopped by the time we were outside. We hopped on one of the small minibuses for the short ride to Bridgetown.

Jammin Catamaran Cruise Barbados leaves from the very first dock at the entrance to the south side of the river port at Bridgetown. Because we had never been there, we left ourselves lots of time to find the right dock... we didn't want to be late for the fun and games!

Finally, a relaxing beach day...

This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. You know, as opposed to our typical travel lifestyle! But we can't help ourselves... there is too much to see and do! I can't remember who it was, but somebody had mentioned that they thought we might get bored with 19 days in Barbados.

Nope.

Made it back home in the dark...

We hopped on a bus yesterday morning to go check out some more of the island. This time, we were headed to Holetown, which is the site of the first English settlement on the island that began in 1627.

It's also the location of Barbados oldest church.

Sandals Resort, Barbados

Just for something to do, we went and checked out the Sandals Resort in Barbados yesterday.

Sandals is a luxury all inclusive chain for couples only. We have personal experience with Sandals Resorts, having stayed for a week at one in Antigua back in 1993. Of course, they are also very expensive.

But, you sometimes get what you pay for, and at Sandals you get treated like royalty.

Day trip to Barbados east coast

We got out of the apartment fairly early yesterday morning, and waited by the side of the road for a ZR van to come by. These minibuses typically hold about 16 people, although you'll often see them stuffed a little more full than that. (The term ZR is derived from the licence plate code assigned to these vehicles.) They travel the busy roads, and competition is fierce as one competes with another for your business.

As expected, we didn't have to wait long!

Barbados steel pan drum band and new friends!

We had received an interesting email about a month ago. All it said was "Sundays..Southern Palms Hotel, St Lawrence Gap....noon till three.....Steel Pan Band.....rum punch our treat.   We hope to meet you.   Have been following you for quite awhile.  You will love Barbados."

No names mentioned! Who are these people? But, they did mention rum punch! Sounded like fun, and it was located only a 40 minute walk from the apartment.

Not everything in Barbados is beautiful...

Yesterday's blog post was late because our host Eric was going out to do some shopping and wanted to get there early. We went with him so that he could drop us off at the big Saturday market in Bridgetown and we would walk back to the apartment.

He was headed to the big PriceSmart (the Caribbean Costco) store so we went there first to check out prices since he has a membership card.

Just another beautiful day in Barbados...

We wanted to do a little less walking yesterday, and we did. But we still managed 7.2 kms (4.5 miles). We headed down towards St. Lawrence Gap, and wanted to check out the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary along the way.

It's nice to walk along the beach on the way there, and then walk back along the road where there is a chance of some shade, at least on one side of the street.

Caught in the rain!

We are here in Barbados during rainy season. But rainy season means that while it might rain every day, it's usually just for an hour or so every afternoon. So when we set out in the morning, it was a gorgeous day.

We decided to walk to the capital city of Bridgetown, about 4 kms (2.5 miles) away. But of course we don't take a direct route when we're out exploring!

Hello Barbados!

Barbados is country #34 for us!

We left you yesterday in Toronto airport just ready to get on our flight to Barbados. The flight was right on time, and we got in the air at 8:15am. Our flight was with Air Canada Rouge, which is Air Canada's supposedly discount airline, although the pricing often doesn't show up that way! However, we did get the return ticket at $531 CAD, ($405 USD) which is not bad, and of course we used our Air Canada coupons from when we got bumped so only paid out of pocket $128 CAD each for the return trip.

We're on our way!

Writing this from Toronto airport, waiting for our flight to Barbados. Not long to wait, either! It starts boarding in half an hour!

We got up at 3:00am this morning, and daughter Lindsey drove us to the airport. Only saw one other car on the road for the entire 20 minute drive.

Checked in!

Received the notification from Air Canada first thing this morning to do the online check in for our flight to Barbados early Wednesday morning. Very early.

Of course flying from Ottawa, you almost always have to connect in either Montreal or Toronto. This time, we're headed back to Toronto again. So in order to get there in time for our 8:15am departure from Toronto to Barbados, we have to take the first flight out of Ottawa to Toronto.

That one leaves at 5:35am!

Funny Halloween outfit!

We won't be here for Halloween this year so we won't get to see the grandkids dressed in their outfits. But we did get to see our son in law Justin in his outfit the other day. Too funny!

I had been perusing Amazon.ca one day a few weeks ago and saw a great costume on sale. Grandson Cameron is a big dinosaur fan, so I knew that he would love this one.

Beautiful day...

Well, I've managed to survive two nights with my friends. My voice is a little hoarse from laughing and talking so much. But that's what happens when we get together. Good times.

And we got out for a hike yesterday morning. The weather has been perfect.

Out with the boys

I've been spending time with my long time friends the last few days. Was out playing pool with my son on Wednesday night, then another old friend on Thursday night.

Then yesterday, was up early to drive Ruth up to her father's place for the weekend, because I'm at a cottage (actually a very large lake home!) on Whitefish Lake just north of Kingston, Ontario.

Motorhome upgrades

When we're staying in one spot for a while, like we are now with Sherman parked up at our daughter's house, it's really the only convenient time to do some repairs and renovations to get Sherman ready for his big trip.

So we bought some inexpensive blackout curtain panels and curtain rods for the bedroom, and we're having a new table made for the dinette booth!

All set for Barbados!

A week from today, we will be arriving in Barbados. Everything is coming together, including our accommodation.

Some of you will remember that back in July, we had booked to stay with a couchsurfing host Eric, who had offered to let us stay for the entire nineteen days. But that was over three months in advance, and we were worried something might happen between now and then.

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Sorting through our stuff...

As George Carlin once said, "a house is just a place to keep your stuff". Well when you have a small house like a motorhome, you have to keep your stuff to a minimum! So yesterday we started sorting through every drawer and cupboard looking for stuff that we don't think we need any more.

And it's amazing how much stuff you can get rid of!

Planning for Barbados

Nine days from now, we will arrive on the southeastern Caribbean island of Barbados for a nineteen day stay. We haven't really got too much planned, because this is supposed to be a relaxing "vacation".

But most of you know us better than that!

10 years ago today!

It was 10 years ago today that we left Ruth's father's place in Galetta (Ottawa) for our very first big road trip with our new to us motorhome Sherman!

Our very first blog post was also 10 years ago today! You can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2007/10/were-cookin-with-gas-now.html

A huge sigh of relief!

We received a text message from Kal Tire at around 5:30pm yesterday afternoon, telling us that Sherman was ready to be picked up. But we were quite far away, and they close at 6:00pm. So we stayed with our friends Jeff and Shelley again last night, and picked up Sherman first thing this morning.

Like I mentioned yesterday, we had no idea how much the bill was going to be.

Sherman is still at the shop

We didn't plan on being without Sherman for this long. This is day number eight that he's been in the shop. Part of the problem is that we just went through a long weekend here in Canada, so he sat for three days with nothing being done.

And the other part of the problem has been waiting for parts.

Back in Ottawa...

Well, we drove back to Ruth's father's place in Galetta (Ottawa) yesterday. From Hamilton, it was 500 kms (310 miles) which is far more than we typically like to drive in a day. But, we took a bit of a different route because we had a craving for Thai food!

Proof that you can justify anything you want!

Fun afternoon at Pelee Island Winery

We had a 12:00 noon reservation for the Pelee Island Winery on Sunday. But first, Heinz and Ulli made us a delicious breakfast. And then we left a few minutes early so that we could take a drive to see some more sights we hadn't seen the day before!

You would think that an island only 12kms by 6 kms wouldn't have much to see. But there's actually quite a lot!

Finally made it to Pelee Island!

Up at 6:00am yesterday morning, and on the road for 6:30. The Pelee Island ferry leaves from Kingsville, Ontario on the north shore of Lake Erie. At this time of year there are only two sailings per day, one at 10:00am, and one at 6:00pm.

But we had a 300 km (186 mile) drive to do. I figured I had done the math okay...at 100 km/h (62 mph), we should be there in three hours, right?

Just a quick update...

I'm writing this blog post on my phone! Who would have thought?! Anyhow, we're relaxing in the backyard of Ruth's sister's house in Hamilton, Ontario just west if Toronto.

Grocery shopping tip of the day

Rainy day yesterday, so we just stayed in and got caught up on a few computer things. We're doing a travelogue presentation on October 13th at the seniors residence where my mom lives, so I spent some time putting some of that together on the computer.

We're going to talk about our trip to Moldova and Transnistria last December.

Well, what a day that was...

Monday afternoon, I had called a Kal Tire franchise near Lindsey's place. They have a full service truck mechanical bay, and I had to find someone to do some work on Sherman that I wasn't prepared to do myself.

I don't mind doing the work, but I know my limits. And when I don't have the proper tools to do the job, it's better to pay the money and hand it off to someone who does.

Help, if you want to.

As you know, Ruth and I are leading an RV caravan through Mexico this winter, and the company that is operating the caravan is spearheading a small earthquake relief campaign on their own.

On October 5th, Caravanas de Mexico will personally go to Cuernavaca to buy groceries and other Items urgently needed for people suffering the consequences of earthquakes in Morelos State. The area was at the epicenter of the Sept 19 quake and the situation is terrible in several towns such as Jojutla and its surroundings.

Picked up the car rental!

We've got wheels again!

Yesterday morning, Lindsey drove us to Dollar Rent a Car near downtown Ottawa. We had a reservation for 10am, and got there right on time. I had booked the deal back in July when they had a special price on their "whatever car we have is what you get" deal.

September Expenses... one of our cheapest months ever!

Well September was a good month! I would have to go back into the records to check and see, but it may have been a record low month for us. We only spent $515 CAD ($415 USD)!!

The main thing we were trying to do this summer was to keep our grocery budget around the $550 per month mark, and we did a lot of stocking up in May and June, sometimes buying enough of a sale item to last all summer. So if you remember, we spent a lot of money on groceries in May ($929) and June ($726).

Too many rules

First of all, I got the new solar charge controller installed and working. And then the clouds moved in and I couldn't properly test it! Too funny. Solar energy works great... but only when the sun is shining!

Today is supposed to be bright and sunny (not a cloud in the sky so far) so tomorrow I'll give you an update as to how our batteries are charging.

I didn't plan that very well...

I found us a fantastic deal on a car rental a few months ago, and I booked it for three weeks during our time here in Ottawa.

Only problem is, I have it starting this coming Monday, October 2nd. I figured that Lindsey and Justin have two cars and that one should be available for us to use occasionally for a few days our first week here. But, it turns out that the one older car needs a major brake job now and it's not safe to drive the way it is.

So we've been without transportation these first few days.

Getting Sherman ready for his adventure

Had a great sleep Wednesday night back in the motorhome. Seems like it only took the one night to get caught up on the lack of sleep from our travels the night before. So that's good. We got our bags unpacked and everything sorted out to live in Sherman on and off for the next three and a half weeks or so.

I say "on and off" because we're headed down to Ruth's sister's for a night, and then Pelee Island next weekend. And then of course we'll be up at Ruth's dad's for a few nights along the way and I've got my guys weekend away on the 20th of October.

Arrived in Ottawa!

When we left off yesterday, we had been at Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Ottawa. The gate agent had offered us $200 cash each to take the next flight at 9:15am, but had said that she had to wait until boarding was complete to confirm that was going to happen.

Everybody was on the plane, and she called our names.

Well that was a busy 24 hours!

Writing this from our daughter's home in Osgoode, just south of Ottawa, Ontario. Arrived here at about 9:30am this morning after our four flight marathon from Regina.

Our friend Wendy drove us to Regina airport from Moose Jaw yesterday afternoon. (Thanks again Wendy!) About a 45 minute ride, and we purposely arrived at the airport a couple of hours early, because it's better to be early than late. :-)