Bajan Days - Barbados

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It was with much anticipation that I flew into Barbados; the exotic land of my great grandfather, as much a family legend as a reality.

To my knowledge I was the first family member to return in the over 100 years since his arrival in New Zealand. I never knew my great grandfather; he was gone long before I was born.

Memories of my grandfather and his two unmarried sisters were my closest link. It seems to me I have more in contrast than commonality; my grandfather was short while I am tall, he was dark while I have very pale skin, he was fleet of foot and a great sportsman while I only have enthusiasm but no ability, he worked with his hands as a carpenter while I have to be content tapping at a keyboard and talking to people, he was a great character while I am quieter, yet he is in my blood, my heritage.

Images of my Aunty Betty are a bit of a blur, but those of Aunty Ada are clear. She was a small dynamo of a woman, sharp of mind and penetrating of view. My mother hated to visit, but was compelled to by virtue of family connection. She would take Aunty Ada’s sharp words to heart, but I enjoyed the cut and thrust of conversation with her. She was a “Tory”, while I was brought up with socialist leanings so the debating lines were clearly drawn. In her day she was the highest ranked woman civil servant in New Zealand, perhaps a link as I spent a few years in management.

Landing at Bridgetown airport was the fulfilment of an ambition that I held going back to childhood. I was filled with emotion as I walked down the steps of the plane to finally stand on the land of my great grandfather.

I met my first Bajan at the duty free store while checking-out the rums. As an amazing coincidence, she was returning to Barbados with her husband, a New Zealander. He worked on construction projects in the Caribbean and was returning to Barbados for the surfing. She recommended the Mount Gay Extra Old, which turned out to be an excellent choice, either straight or with a mixer.

We took an apartment in Barbados for the 16 days of our visit. This enabled us to relax and cook our own meals. The Blue Dolphin apartment was a good choice; my only criticism was that it was a little far from the beach for my liking. It was run by a chunky Swiss lady who I nick named ‘burn the bra’ for reasons that would be obvious if you met her. She kept the apartments in good order and provided local information as needed. In the front yard were four native tortoises. Eileen enjoyed feeding them leftover mango. They soon learned to recognise her and would come running (okay crawling, but as fast as they could go).

The apartment was 5 minutes walk from Dover Beach, where I swam most days. Dover Beach has classic white sand and palm trees. The water was the perfect temperature. It would cool you when you got in but was not cold. There was sufficient surf for body surfing during the first few days of our stay, and then it flattened out to virtually nothing. There were always people about in the northern section near the shops, but plenty of space on the remainder of the beach. At low tide you could walk north around to the headland of the next beach.

We arrived just prior to the final event of the Crop Over Festival. We decided not to attend the main stadium at a cost on advice that the participants all parade down the street. We imagined a street parade of Caribbean music and dancing by mostly locals in celebration of the harvest. What we saw was a huge number of participants including former residents who had flown in for the event and a good number of tourists, dressed in skimpy stylised costumes, walking/shuffling/dancing drunkenly down the road following trucks blaring with very loud music, trucks filling the revellers cups with booze, and trucks towing trailers with “port-a-loos”. It was certainly a spectacle but not stylish. However, we did see a truck with a steel band ... not playing (when they did briefly play they were drowned out by the pop music from the truck in front), and one local group! A range of stalls and bars were set up on the roadside to cater to the needs of the spectators.

After a few days relaxing we hired a car to travel about the Island. First on the agenda was a visit to archives to see if we could trace records of my great grandfather. We visited several times to check through the records, we found some possible matches but nothing that we could triangulate a direct link to information held from New Zealand. Very little information about births, deaths and marriages was collected in Barbados until recent times so it is difficult to ascertain linkages. We also went to the historical society library and checked for references to the name Wilson, alas there were no solid leads for us. We did however enjoy the adjacent museum.

We enjoyed driving about the island and in particular driving on the left hand side of the road was lovely. The island is hilly, with lovely vistas around every corner. In a drive down the west coast, not far past St John Parish Church (lovely coastal views) we happened across a sign pointing to “Wilson Hill”. Wilson was my great grandfather’s surname. Wilson Hill turned out to be a small settlement around a couple of very large ‘mansion houses’ with a nice outlook over the surrounding countryside. We pulled up near a man who was waiting at a bus stop about a kilometre from the town. We asked him if he knew any of the town history and he directed us to a local lady, a little older than us. We knocked on her door and we had a chat. She shook her head and made a phone call. She told us, rather sadly, that no one living knows the history of the name of the town because the “old people” didn’t speak of old times ... too painful.

We stopped at one point to cut a piece of sugar cane, not as sweet as expected. Returning to the car we noticed a troop of monkeys cavorting. We drove on and stopped at the Soup Bowl - a famous surfing location. Here the ocean beat hard against the coast creating some unusual land forms and undercut rocks.

When you stay in one place for a while you need to work out the best place to shop and in particular where to buy your food. The local shops were fine for a night or two but we wanted a better range. We ‘discovered’ a large supermarket 15 minutes drive away and it was one of the better stores we had seen anywhere on our travels. I was doubly excited when Eileen pointed out a range of New Zealand cheese. It was delightful to buy some good old New Zealand cheddar. Yahoo! Cheese with flavour especially after all the tasteless plastic cr*p they call cheese in the Americas. I even bought some half decent crackers to go with it so I could enjoy the taste of home.

Every country we go to we try to taste the local cuisine. The night we arrived we bought takeaways at Scotties Convenience Store recommended to us by our landlady. I would recommend that others take a little more time and go to one of the many local restaurants for something not quite so greasy! We travelled up the coast to Oistins to try flying fish from the famous “Pat’s Place” adjacent to the fish market. We ventured inland, with sketchy directions, to find Souse. After asking directions three times, we finally made it to an authentic “souse house”. We got a virtual feast of souse, chicken and accompaniments. Souse is a boil up of odd bits from a pig, such as the ear, snout, trotter, etc. It is something that you try once for the sense of history, reflecting on times when this was all that was available to people.

Our last must do was to eat cou-cou made with okra. We went to “Sweet Potatoes” in St Lawrence Gap where we enjoyed the view and the fish more than the accompanying cou-cou.

We explored the east coast of Barbados, sometimes known as the 'platinum coast' because you need a platinum credit card to shop or stay. There was a range of up market shops with some of the most expensive brands from Europe, so we did not linger. Further north is Speightstown, a delightful town, more geared to locals and tourists of more modest means. On a couple of occasions we enjoyed a drink on the waterfront at the north end of town. Speightstown is a great place to relax and poke about.

One not to be missed highlight is swimming at picture postcard perfect Accra beach then strolling west along the boardwalk. From one of the stalls by the car park I bought a bright Barbados ‘island style’ (think Hawaiian) shirt.

Harrisons Cave is a substantial limestone cave that has been developed into a major tourist attraction. You can ride a cart or walk the route. We chose to walk and enjoyed seeing the sites of the cave system at our leisure. There is a good range of stalactites and stalagmites as you venture about a kilometre underground.

At the Oistens supermarket I looked around to see Eileen chatting to a young gentleman. It turned out he was from South Auckland, but has a Bajan father. He is now married to a lovely Bajan lass and has set up a pie manufacturing business, “Tiki Pies”. While we were loading our car with groceries he rushed up and gave us a couple of pies. They sure were good, so he should succeed with his business.

Bridgetown does not make the most of it's location as it does not capitalise on its coastal linkages. It is a nightmare to drive through because of the one way streets. For example the main street was one way in both directions outward from the centre. On the plus side, it is tidy enough and there is a good range of shops and local markets with all price ranges well catered for. I purchased some togs from a local department store.

No trip to Barbados would be complete without sampling the local rum. I worked my way through a couple of bottles while there (a tough job but the research was essential for the blog). Mount Gay is the most famous brand so we took a tour of the visitor centre and heard about rum production; naturally the highlight was sampling the rum! Following the tour we adjourned to the bar where Eileen purchased a tasting of Extra Old Special Reserve rum for me. I thought it was better than a fine whiskey and later I regretted not spending the $100 to take a bottle with me.

Like many places on our travels we wished we could have stayed longer in Barbados. At 16 days, it was our longest time in one place. I did feel a connection, they drive on the left side of the road and they speak English so it would have been an easy place to spend a lot of time ... years???

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