Day #4 - September 5th After my horseback ride, I had some choices for that afternoon. I could go to Bridgetown and browse the shops or I could go to Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary. I wasn't interested in buying more "dust collectors" for the house, nor am I into jewels. So, the better choice was the Sanctuary. Wise choice! The sanctuary sits on over 35 acres. It has the island's largest inland lake along with ponds and wading pools, swampy marshes and mangroves, observation huts, horticulture exhibits, and two enormous walk-through aviaries filled with brilliantly colored parrots, macaw [View Full Entry]

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Day #5 - September 6th As they say, "all good things must come to an end". I got to go to all of the places that my little heart was content to go. There was an exception to that, and it was a BIG surprise for me. I found out that the Concorde was on display in Barbados! I was excited - I had always wanted to fly on the Concorde. British Airways Concorde G-BOAE or Alpha Echo for short, was opened to visitors on April 16, 2007. Studies began in 1959 to design the Concorde. The plane was developed in [View Full Entry]

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Day #4 - Sept 5th Today, I look forward to my horseback ride. First things first, I chowed down on some breakfast. As I walked back to my room, I snapped a picture of a lizard. I was picked up at my hotel by Bernard, owner of Ocean Echo Stables. Our ride would be on the south-eastern part of the island. The ride that I was going on is Bath Beach Riding Tour. It is a 1.5 hour ride leading down to the Atlantic coast. Once Bernard and I saddled up, we were on our merry way. We manage to see [View Full Entry]

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Day #2 - Sep 3rd. Our next stop would be St. John's Church. St. John's Parish Church is the first church of St. John that is presumed to have been a simple wooden building, but its date is unknown. The parish along with St. George, was carved out of St.Michael in 1640-1641. But successive churches were badly damaged by the hurricane of 1675, the Great Hurricane of 1780, and finally destroyed by the Great Barbados hurricane of 1831. The present church building (the fifth) was built is 1836, and the chancel added in 1876. It is the prototype of the restrained [View Full Entry]

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Day #3 - Sep 4th. One of the things that I looked most forward to was swimming with the turtles and snorkeling over some ship wrecks. It was suggested that I go on a Catamaran instead of a regular powerboat. I took this cruise with Cool Running Catamaran Cruises. They will pick you up at your hotel around 8:30 or so and drive to Bridgetown to hop on your boat. From the start, the crew was incredibly friendly: cracking jokes, getting everybody on board a cocktail, and allowing us to take over the boat. It was not too crowded -- we [View Full Entry]

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Day #2 - Sep 3rd I can't say enough words to describe Bathsheba, it's a drive that you personally have to take. The giant rocks seemed to have grabbed my attention. If only our driver would've stopped there for a few minutes for even more grander picture taking. Our next stop was at Andromeda Gardens which are located in Bathsheba. There, we spent over an hour. It's a well worthwhile stop, especially for those who are plant and flower lovers. One could almost say that these gardens are "chained" to rock. The gardens were started in 1954 by Iris Bannochie. The [View Full Entry]

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The name Barbados comes from the island’s Portuguese christening of Los Barbados, named after the bearded fig tree, which grew abundantly on the island at the time of its discovery in the 16th century. This tree is unusual in that it sends aerial roots from its branches, thus giving the impression of being bearded. The early history of Barbados goes back to 1620 when British soldiers landed on the island, what is now called Holetown. The island was uninhabited. It is believed that Arwak Indians may have lived there at one time. One fascinating piece of history, George Washington visit [View Full Entry]

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So for a long time I thought about what I would write for this premier blog and I thought about how I could really capture the total essence of “my culture”. The more I thought about it the more abstract and confusing my thoughts became. I saw my culture as a black woman, I saw my culture as a student, I saw my culture as a community worker, a youth advocate, a global citizen, a entrepreneur, a young person etc etc. I listed and listed and did not see an end in sight. Each time my pen hit paper and i [View Full Entry]

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Final day in Barbados. I've spent so many fraustrating days here in Barbados during my time on the Destiny. It's been nice the final few weeks to just be able to enjoy the island. Life on the ship is busy. Doing my handover with my replacement. Socializing with friends while I still can. Packing in every moment still possible with Jody. Plus there are all of these safety inspections happening this week which means extra drills and training and meetings and things. All this leaves little time for rest. But I'm determined to still get out this week for some final [View Full Entry]

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hey everyone! WOW this is long long long overdue.. I actually dont know where to start its been so long! and Im sorry for that but there has been a lot going on here on the GEM, and keeping up with emails, and facebook its hard to keep in touch with everyone and everything sometimes! SO lots has happened over the last little while...My mom and friends came onboard, and we all had a great time. WHile they were here I got to do something I HAVE ALWAYS wanted to do and that was swim with the dolphins...it was amazing, I [View Full Entry]

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