14 Mar 2017 – Barbados

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Hello from the island of Barbados. Let’s correct an error from a couple of days ago. We have only now gotten to the Caribbean Sea. Barbados is the easternmost of all the islands, and the east coast is actually on the Atlantic side with the west coast being on the Caribbean. So only now have we actually gotten to the Caribbean Sea.



We got up at 7:00 and had breakfast biscuits & pastries in the cabin, while the ship arrived in port. Although the original inhabitants were driven away by the Portuguese the British founded the first real settlement in1627. Over the years the island developed and reached full independence in 1966. In early days sugarcane was the main export product with many plantations surrounded by little villages of laborers. These days sugarcane exports have dwindled substantially. They use much of their sugar to distill rum, which is a $100M export product. The next largest income comes from tourists, although “the busy season” only runs from October to April.



We had an excursion which was scheduled for everyone to meet in the terminal at 9:15. When they cleared the ship for passengers to disembark we headed to shore. Unfortunately we were tied to the outer breakwater and nowhere near the terminal. They were running a couple of shuttle buses back and forth from the ship to the terminal, but the road was clogged with passengers trying to walk and other vehicles trying to make deliveries to the ship. There did not appear to be anyone in charge of trying to manage the buses, but eventually we caught one and were dropped off at the terminal. We arrived at our bus at 9:30, which when the bus was supposed to leave. But there were still a couple more to join our group from the throng of people slowly flowing past. Finally we were underway at 10:00.



Our tour was focused on driving to some photogenic locations around the island and having a professional photographer as our guide. Along the way he told us a lot of interesting facts and brought us to several unique places. So rather than our normal type of “city tour” we had a different slant today. Everyone was supposed to bring their own camera and associated equipment and some people had pretty impressive cameras. Janet even had a camera today, but unfortunately it did not produce any pictures.



Barbados is not a volcanic island like so many in the area, so it is relatively low, although there is at least one region where tectonic pressure forced the coral/limestone island up into ridges. Barbados is only 14 miles wide and 21 miles long. The Barbados dollar is only worth about half of a US dollar, so imports are very expensive. For example gasoline costs $13 per gallon ($6.50 US per gallon). A 6-pack of beer costs $30 Barbados dollars. The import tax on automobiles is 110%!o(MISSING)f the cost, so a Camry costs about $80 US. On the “human development scale” Barbados is rated as 27^th out of 190 countries. They provide free medical and education for everyone, which is partly why the taxes are so high. Until a couple of years ago, even 4 years of college was free, but now Barbados residents have to pay 20%!o(MISSING)f the cost (foreigners pay 100%!)(MISSING).



Since the island is mostly limestone, rainwater runs along gullies and collects in pools which seep into the ground and then is pumped from wells into large cisterns. They also have a desalinization plant which produces about 1/3 of the island’s water requirements. They are building 2 more such plants for the future. They make a great effort to use green energy, with many houses having solar hot water heaters, since there is usually plenty of sunshine here.



Along the way today, our guide gave us a short photo lesson about the best way to compose a picture. At our first stop outside the Strong Hope Plantation, we were given some pointers for how to take better picture when shooting toward the sun. The view here was a long pathway of tall palm trees leading to the main plantation building. This was probably the most impressive plantation we saw all day – many of the others have been at least partially subdivided into residential or commercial lots ad sugar is not sufficiently profitable. But the one we stopped outside of must still be doing pretty well.



Our next stop was along a chattel house. In the old days, if a worker lost his job on a plantation he moved somewhere else. But what’s unique is that the houses were built to be able to be taken apart and carried away to another location. They are certainly small and compartmentalized houses, with add-on additions as the family grew. We stopped and took some pictures of this high-pitched roof modular house (best defense against strong hurricane-force winds). While there, we were given a couple more tips about composing foreground and background elements of the photo.



The next stop was in a section of Barbados called the Scottish Highlands where the bus went up onto the main ridge of the island, overlooking the Atlantic Coast. While we were there the guide explained that the air is fresher than most places in the world. The breezes are consistently out of the east and the last piece of land is Africa – about 3000 miles away. The air has no pollutants at all. People up in this area live very long lives. Besides the clean air, they get lots of exercise walking up and down the hills, they eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits from the area, and they primarily have fish instead of other types of meat. He showed us a picture of himself and his mother (who was nearly 90) and she looked younger than him. There are 114 people in that area who are 100+ years old. Anyway, this location was called Cambridge. We took more pictures here.



Then we drove down the ridge to the coast where there was a rest-stop. We had about 15 minutes and had good photo ops along the beach at Barclay’s Park. This area is no good for swimming because there are coral reefs and always strong waves breaking onto the shore. It’s what he called a “walking beach”.



We drove further up the coast and past an area where they grow most of their bananas. They do not export them but instead they are grown for consumption on Barbados. The final stop was where there were a series of boulders along the coast. There was a seaside bar there that we were given the opportunity to purchase a glass of Rum Punch. It was delicious. They gave us the recipe – 1 sour, 2 sweet, 3 strong, and 4 weak, along with a couple of other items. David knows how to translate that into real ingredients and he plans to make some punch the next time we have people over for a party (assuming they are over 21). The location was called something like Basha Bar. We had time for some photos in addition to the punch, and then we drove back to the terminal.



We wandered through some of the shops in the terminal area but did not get much. There was a large “duty free” store selling Barbados Rum, but we did not get any. Instead we were able to catch a shuttle back to the ship without much hassle and we returned to the ship. It was almost 2:00 by this time so we went straight to the International Café and got some sandwiches, desserts, and drinks.



After lunch Janet went to the cabin to rest her sore foot and David went up to the top deck to take a couple of pictures of the port. It really is not very photogenic after what we had seen earlier, so he didn’t stay very long. Instead David changed to his swimming suit and went to the pool. It was about 85 degrees today and mostly sunny, with just a couple of small passing showers earlier in the day. Janet was going to watch an old movie but took a nap instead.



We changed for dinner and went to Club Fusion to meet up with Debbie and Craig. They had gotten a couple of photos we had sent them via email. Tomorrow they are scheduled for a snorkeling excursion and Craig wasn’t feeling well, so he was trying to talk us into going instead. We have something else planned instead. Then we went to dinner. Janet had shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad. David had Swiss dried beef and gazpacho soup. For our entrée we both had Cog au vin. For dessert David had a piece of apple strudel and Janet had her pot of tea. As we have been reminded – this is Pi day (3.14) so the strudel is as close as we came to having a slice of pie.



This evening we have gone back to the cabin to do the blog and get some rest. Last night Janet had stayed in the cabin and watched La-La-Land on TV and David went to the movie under the stars and watched the remake of Ben Hur. It wasn’t bad but did not measure up to the original at all.



It looks like there may be about 10 pictures from today. Anyway, this was a fun day today.

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Photos

Golden Apple Tree
no fruit or leaves this time of year

Looking at the port in Barbados
5-masts of Club Med-2