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!