http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Barbados en-us Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:36:11 BST Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:36:11 BST 645AM We landed around 130pm yesterday. The flight to Bridgetown Grantley Adams airport was much more comfortable than the flight from New York to Miami and just as quick. The customs process was equally painless. I changed 40 USD into 80 BDS not enough and we were soon looking for a taxi which we found as soon as we walked outside. Our driver Kelvin gave us some tips about http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-333801.html The following entries are a reposting of my handwritten journal that I kept during the trip.913AM Miami Airport The flight here was horrible but quick. Are plane seats getting even less comfortable The adjustable headrest only serves to put your neck and back out of alignment. We still slept through most of the flight. I thought Alice would wake up with the worst aches from the way she wa http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-333791.html Day 5 September 6thAs 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 GBOAE or Alpha Echo for short was opened to http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-322563.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-322552.html Day 4 Sept 5thToday 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 southeastern 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-322121.html 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 830 or so and drive to Bridgetown to hop on your boat.From the start the crew was incredibly http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-321796.html 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 16401641. But successive churches were badly damaged by the hurricane of 1675 the Great Hurricane of 1780 and finally destroyed by the http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bathsheba/blog-321751.html 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 especial http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bathsheba/blog-321382.html The name Barbados comes from the islandrsquos 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 o http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-321340.html ... 1 Woche Barbados all inclusiv .... http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-280205.html 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 ldquomy culturerdquo. 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 entrep http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-274655.html 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 happeni http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-248025.html 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 sometimesSO lots has happened over the last little while...My mom and friends came onboard and we all had a great time. WHil http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-245393.html Apparently one tour wasnrsquot enough for me today because after going on the snorkeling tour with my teens I went back to the ship showered ate and left again. This time I went out with Logan and Allison and we headed to The Malibu Rum Distillery and Beach Club. To our surprise the distillery was likely within a decent walking distance from the ship just in the opposite direction from http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-243896.html Even though my teen count this week is the lowest itrsquos been since I signed onto the Destiny I had three sign up for the tour This weekrsquos adventure the Carlisle Bay Shipwreck Snorkel tour. It was stellar. Irsquove done plenty of snorkel tours but none of them even fall into the same category as this one. Absolutely awesome.What was mindboggling to me however was where this s http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-243893.html well this is my first blog and im pretty excited. I went to Barbados looking for some fun and sun and believe me you can find it there. Though the airport was pretty crowded as expected in the peak of the winter season it was a very nice experience. The local workers called red caps waited eagerly to sweep away my bags on their carts for a small tip. Upon arrival at the very lovely Port St. Ch http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Holetown/blog-238835.html Monday we were in St. Thomas where Terri I are doing our scuba dive certification course. While we started it a month ago our studies have been on a bit of a hiatus. Between my medical disembarkation immigration issues I had after returning to the ship both Terri I being on port manning duty and all sorts of other things we haven't been able to get back out there. But Monday we got in http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-235657.html Yesterday was a good day. After my explorations of Roseau I went back on the ship and called home. Alexis Kevin hosted everyone yesterday. I got to talk to Alexis Mel Lee Mom. It was so good to talk to them all hear their voices. I got emails from Brooks Mich Kristin Kristi Aunt Renee. I feel the love from home. Thanks.Dinner in the mess was really good for once Roast turkey http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-231107.html Our final port of call and southernmost stop was in Bridgetown Barbados. An independent Caribbean island nation Barbados gained it's independence from Britain but still retains much of it's British charm. This island is best known for it's white sandy beaches rums and for being a playground for the wealthy especially along it's western coast. Our excursion that we chose for the day was a http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-230916.html One of my really good friends from my last contract on the Legend was Ben the fitness instructor from Australia. Like so many friendships made on the ships when we said goodbye it was so sad not knowing when if ever wersquoll see each other again when we live scattered all over the globe. Another guy I hung out with a lot on the Legend Darnell is here with me on the Destiny too. Itrsq http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-229853.html I know the blog has been pretty quiet this week. Last Sunday I was getting things all organized to write about a wonderful rendezvous with a friend from Keating the lovely Sandra Perdeaux in San Juan and I was getting the ship's address for you and I was going to post everything Monday. But then drama hit. Monday I was in ridiculous pain. Abdominal pain so bad I couldn't walk without pain. http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/Bridgetown/blog-227691.html Today we're in Barbados and Ashley invited me to join her and some other Entertainment staff on an adventure to Blue Monkey Beach.One of the popular tours to do in Barbados is to go snorkeling with sea turtles. I love turtles. So when I'd read about that tour I was excited to go on it. But then thanks to other crew I learned a tour isn't necessary. We hopped in a taxi and went off to the bea http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-224047.html We are booked to fly at 1855 on BA2152 so today we got up packed a little more and then went to Folestone where the Marine Reserve is as we wanted to use the other underwater camera.Folkestone is quite nice and used by quite a few locals it is also roped off so the nutters on the jetskis cant get to you though they still circle the edges trying to entice tourists on board.We swam out with so http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-196962.html We had booked Horse Riding today so we were all up early to be there for 8.30. Nice place like riding stables worldwide seems to have a certain element of rundown mode built in. We arrived early about 8.15 and were there before the owner turned up just a couple of stable hands getting the horses ready.We weren't the only ones on the ride there were 3 other people as well. They would go down http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-196959.html We got up today and it was overcast still hot but raining. We needed some other things from the shops so we went back to Cave Shepherd in Holetown and bought some bits and pieces. We then headed upto Oyster Bay and it was absolutely lashing it down. Some people wouldn't even get out of the carWe went back to the Villa and decided to go and see the Sunbury plantation house httpwww.barbadosgr http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-196947.html On Saturday the 18th we tried to swim with the turtles at Paynes bay but they weren't there or we couldn't find them. The water was also very cloudy with the after affects of Hurricane Dean and you couldn't really snorkel we also went to Oyster Bay and managed to lose Eleanors snorkel and mask so we ended up going home and lazing around the pool.. then out for a quick dinner at the Lucky Hor http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-196942.html It was grey and overcast when we got up today but it was still warm and Matthew was in the pool even though it was lashing it down with rain.As it was raining we went shopping to Cave Shepherd in Holetown which was surprisingly good and then went up the West Coast to see if we could find the bay where the harbour master had stopped. On the way up we missed it so we went to North Point and got s http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-196932.html We've packed and are just about ready to go.The animals have been cleaned the plants watered and the relatives phoned.Checked in for our flights at 11.20 tomorrow and got our boarding passes. This year as we are flying from Gatwick we've decided to let the train take the strain. We have a taxi booked for 6.30 and will go via Marylebone tube to Victoria and then Gatwick Express from Victoria. Gla http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-195717.html Went to have a look at St. James church in Holetown when the maid arrived and then did some shopping at Cave Shepherd. Afterwards we came back to the villa and drove over to the East Coast it was quite rough as they are predicting the tail end of Hurricane Dean will pass quite close to us. Lovely scenery but we decided to go back to the Crane.It was raining when we arrived at the Crane and they http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Barbados/blog-193462.html