Pam's Blog

In the cover of darkness, a taxi min-van transported us to the airport. The driver asked us what we’d done and seen on the island and I listed off all of our activities. I asked him if he’d been to those places (Maria, the property manager at the apartment alluded to the fact that being a local, she didn’t get to most of the tourist locations) and the taxi driver said “Oh yes. Too many times”. So, maybe as a driver he goes to these places more often than others on the island.

Flights were on time and the lay overs just long enough to grab a bite to eat and make it to the next gate. Arrived on time at DTW and back to the stark black and white reality of winter.

Getting the award for the worst shower on the planet, The Blue Horizon is a hotel across the street from the gorgeous public access beach near Rockley.

Sunday afternoon the beach was busier than other beaches we’d been on (although, all the beaches we’d been on all week were nearly completely vacant of human beings) with people in beach chairs under umbrellas, youngsters out in the waves on boogie boards, and others walking the beach.

There’s a nice boardwalk along the coast that’s maybe a mile right along the beach. Just before the boardwalk, there was a tiny sandman; three balls of sand stacked up on top of one another, maybe six or eight inches tall, and written in the sand, “Canadians Were Here”.

The two questions the locals ask the tourists are 1) Is this your first time on the island? and 2) Are you from Canada? The tourists are mainly from England and Canada. The four people in the first floor apartment were Scots and the four next door were English. I met two women at the bus stop from Canada. One day, while walking on the beach, I met a group of six people from the US, originally from northern Ohio now living in Virginia. And, the two guys renting the place next to us were Michigan State students.

It was cooler Sunday, yet still swimsuit weather, and when we inquired about snorkeling gear, the woman at the reception desk at The Blue Horizon said “It’s a bit nippy today”. I just about burst out laughing. These people don’t know “nippy”.

On the way from Orchid World to The Blue Horizon (our hotel for the night) we stopped at Gun Hill Station. The signal stations, six of them, were used in the before-telephone-time to relay messages to Bridgetown about incoming ships. The view from there is almost 360 degrees and is lush and gorgeous.

At Gun Hill Station

We headed to Orchid World on the way to the hotel that’s closer to the airport. Orchid World is a nice piece of property near the center of the island. It rained on the way there, the first real rain shower we’ve had then entire week. It didn’t last long but it came down hard.

When we entered Orchid World the woman told us that the bloom percentage was about 40%. She gave us an umbrella just in case there were more rain showers (there weren’t). The grounds are well kept and supplemented with lots of other tropical plants and flowers. The view of the sugar cane fields is quite gorgeous. This is more of a farming area much like the northern part of the island.

Orchid

Orchid

The view from Orchid World

for way too many photos of orchids go here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BcMWbNu2ZKZ3g

Linda and I took the bus to downtown Bridgetown. We waited for the blue national bus, passing up a couple yellow buses, before hopping on one of the yellow buses. I got the last seat in the bus and the guy who takes the fares signaled to Linda she could ride shotgun. So, she had an up close and personal view of all the things the driver didn’t hit!

As we got closer to the downtown area traffic came to a stand still. The locals emptied the bus en mass, choosing to carry on by foot. We stayed on a little way longer and got off near Cheapside Farmer’s Market and headed to the Pelican Craft Market, which was a bust.

On our way towards the center of Bridgetown, we came across the fish market. It stinks to high heaven of fish and it was fascinating to see all the workers cleaning and skinning fish.

Fish market

We walked down Broad Street, with high end diamond and Emerald stores, past the parliament building, and over to the bus station, where we caught the number 13 to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, housed in the former garrison. There’s some information on the wildlife display, (where we figured out the little animal we see darting across the country roads is a mongoose), historical information, a small military display and quite a nice area of African Art. Most of the rooms weren’t air conditioned and at one point I had to cut short my stay because I was too uncomfortable.

Barbados Museum

The museum is right across the street from the horse race track and it was race day. The Barbados Gold Cup looked like a high deal judging by the number of cars and people there were.

Barbados Gold Cup

We had lunch at a Little Jamacian place. The food was spicy and plentiful and the woman serving us was delighted to have us there.

We waited for the bus and finally gave up and hailed a taxi. After agreeing on the fare we hopped in, buckled our seat belts, and sped off. At one point the cabbie made a phone call and upon ending that call he took a severe right hand turn, out of the heavy, heavy traffic. He sped through little empty streets and at one point slowed, honking a couple of times. A guy walked out into the street and the cabbie held out money, one bill I couldn’t tell what denomination, and the guy in the street grabbed it as we kept going. Just doing a little business while doing business.