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Name: Barbados Pronunciation: Bar-BA-dos Size: 169 Sq. Mi. Population: 282,000 Capital: Bridgetown Affiliation: English (drive on the right) Independence: 1966 |
Excursion: Highlights of Barbados
I couldn’t sleep past about 5:45 am. We were underway and maybe that’s why. But anyway, I got up to see the sunrise and it wasn’t bad. The phone is definitely embellishing though. Sneaky.
Another driving tour today. I didn’t really consider that when I changed the Granada excursion to the all-day drive. But I didn’t want to snorkel again, and I didn’t want to have the ‘rum experience’ so this was the answer. Marion and I did this one together.
On the plus side it was substantially shorter. About 4 hours vs 7. And the roads were better and not quite so twisty-turny. On the negative side, the sites weren’t particularly interesting. And the guide wasn’t as good. So, it was mostly sit on a bus and get told a bit about Barbados while not particularly interesting scenery rolls by. I thought Barbados was supposed to be really beautiful, and maybe it is in parts somewhere, but not so much what we saw. It’s flat too, unlike all the other islands, which doesn’t help from a ‘dramatic view’ standpoint.
Unfortunately, the tour was an hour late leaving (since we weren’t in port when they hoped). There was some concern about getting lunch when we got back since it’s typically 12-1:30 and we were supposed to be back at 12:30 as it was before the delay.
First stop was Codrington College, an Anglican seminary founded in 1745. I’m not sure why it’s such a big stop on the tour, but we dutifully got out and wandered around a bit. It’s in a nice spot overlooking the bay where the British slave ships stopped and it had a reasonable view so maybe that’s why. It sits on top of a natural spring that at one point (and maybe still?) supplied a good chunk of the water to the island, which is historically interesting I suppose. It happened to be near the home of our guide, so we heard a bit about her life in the area. It sounded like a happy childhood.
Next stop was St. John’s Church. Another big landmark for some reason, also with a nice view. Actually, I think the view was the primary attraction. But per the tour description it is “steeped in the island’s history” and “the churchyard contains the remains of Ferdinando Paleolocus (a descendant of the last Byzantine Emperor), and the interior’s pulpit is carved out of seven different types of wood”. Not that anyone mentioned that at the time. I managed to take a picture of Fernando’s grave without realizing its significance. It just looked kind of cool. The church did have a bathroom and that was a key feature. And actually, the cemetery was kind of cool.
The last stop was the Gun Hill Signal Station. A signal post, one of 6 on the island, that allowed spotters to let people know when ships were coming, which was important at the time. As we heard from several people, Barbados made England rich, and they weren’t about to give it up without a fight. So they needed to know when any ships came into the area, just in case they were hostile. This was pre-radio, so they used a semaphore system (using flags on a mechanical arm) to communicate.
It was also noted in the signage that people were required by law to alert the nearest town if they saw 7 ships, and the entire island if they saw 12. Alarms were raised by cannon fire. Which, if you’re trying to get someone’s attention, is an effective method
.
It was an interesting bit of history but there was not much to see or do at the site. Looking at the information on the signage I took pictures of, it’s perhaps more interesting than we felt there at the time. I think we were just hoping for more from Barbados. We did get a glass of bitter orange juice while we were at the station. So there’s that.
Back on the bus we lamented with the wife of ‘Mr Chaffeur Man’ that the tour wasn’t too interesting. (Side note, we haven’t seen him since St Lucia. Hopefully she hasn’t ‘offed’ him). And we hoped we would head back to the ship after this. But there was a detour on the way. We drove by the old garrison (a Unesco world history site), racetrack, and George Washington House. The garrison is “an outstanding example of British colonial architecture” per Google. It might well be, but we just had a glimpse of it out of the bus window. As for the George Washington House, Barbados is apparently the only place outside the US he ever went. And as I can attest, after living in Pennsylvania for a while, if George Washington slept there (or even was reported to have slept there), someone is going to charge admission.
Thankfully, we got back before lunch was over (they delayed it a bit), and bowled over a few old people on our way back through the duty free/immigration terminal to the boat to get there in time. Marion doesn’t get breakfast so she’s not missing lunch.
We decided we’d been sedentary too long and thought we’d wander into town and maybe to the beach. We ended up walking for close to 2 hours. It was pretty warm. But we still got it. We can walk with the best of them. It seemed like we were always walking the opposite direction of people though. It kept making us wonder if maybe we shouldn’t be headed the way we were headed. But it was all ok.
The town was more interesting on foot than by bus. We got past town and into less touristy areas. It was a little dicey looking, but we persevered. And we did finally get to the beach. It was packed with people! It’s likely where all the cruise ship people go. There were two big ones in the harbor next to us. We were thankful that’s not where we had our beach day.
It was even hotter on the beach than in town, so we didn’t stay long. We managed to extricate ourselves without getting hustled into a taxi by various drivers who REALLY wanted to drive us back to the ship. But we wanted to walk. (Although about halfway back we were starting to second guess our decision.)
It was really good to wander around town. We stopped into a store and bought a drink and had a nice interaction with the proprietor. And it was just nice to have an hour or two to ‘get a feel for the place’.
We got back by 4, which is what we were supposed to do. So good on us. And given the ship was leaving shortly, it’s good we did.
Some thoughts on Barbados:
It definitely didn’t feel as friendly as the other islands. It seems like they have more going on than just tourists. Stuff was happening. It’s a banking center. There seems to be more money around. And a lot of traffic.
It was our least favorite of the islands. Even out in the country it really wasn’t particularly pretty scenery. Nor amazing houses or anything. I feel like somehow we missed something because various places on the Internet describe it as the Gem of the Caribbean Sea.
Some things we learned about Barbados:
Both the prime minister and the president are female (and single). There’s lots of government support but high taxes – free health care, free education, excellent support during COVID (e.g. you couldn’t evict people, care packages were sent to all). It sounded like crime might be a problem, among the young men especially. Gangs? A lot of ‘foolishness’. “But they won’t hurt *you*”, per the guide. There are green monkeys, who are a nuisance. But we didn’t see any.
The VAT is 17%, which is pretty high. Gas is $8/gallon which is also pretty high. Electricity on the island is from diesel generators. Water is from springs and very clean. One little trick the locals have figured out is if you don’t paint your house it’s considered ‘not finished’ and the property taxes are lower. We saw a lot of unpainted houses.
We got back in time to see the sunset. And once again it kind of faded out. I waited a bit after the sun went down to see if it would do anything (trying to learn from previous experience). But nothing. So back to the room.
We had to do all the packing tonight (well, Marion did). We definitely brought too much stuff. And now we have to slog it home. I happened to look out the window and what’s this? Brilliant orange sky. Gah! Foiled again. I managed to get one picture before it faded out.
The farewell gala is tonight. So down to the main lounge for ‘cocktails’ and sitting around not talking to anyone until it’s time to introduce all the crew. It was nice to give them a round of applause as they are introduced. They worked their butts off.
Scott and Susan (the couple we met at the airport on the way in) asked to join us for dinner. We had a really nice chat/meal with them. But next thing you know it’s been 2 hours and we still have to pack.
Packing was especially tricky since our checked luggage will remain at the airport when we are at the hotel in Miami. And, the checked bags have to be out in front of the room at 6am. So a few toiletries and a change of clothes (and the evil CPAP) have to go in a little duffel we brought along just for this purpose. But the duffel has to be out at 6:00am too, so a 5:45 wake-up to put the last items in. The backpack is going to be a little heavy on our ‘tour’ tomorrow.
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