Blogs from Barbados, Central America Caribbean - page 10

I like walking around. I especially like walking around when I am traveling, never knowing exactly what is going to be around the next corner. I took the attached photos walking around the south coast of Barbados between Bridgetown and Saint Lawrence Gap. I’ve also included some bits of information to help puts things in context. • Green monkeys are native to Barbados. They roam freely around the island, and while they are fun to look at, they can be quite a nuisance. On my morning walks, I’ve seen them trying to break into parked cars, rummaging through garbage cans, and stealing fruit from backyard trees. (Kind of like juvenile delinquents.) They can be quite devastating to farm crops, and farmers regard them as troublesome pests. I still think they are kinda cute. • Barbados gained ... read more

To start the new year in style and reconnect after my time abroad, my family decided it was time to visit and surf the island of Barbados! Barbados is in the West Indies and is apart of the British Commonwealth. 'Barbados' means bearded, due to the long roots of the trees on the island. From a traveling perspective, Barbados has something to offer everyone; white sandy beaches, coral reefs, palm trees, caves, monkeys, and of course world class surfing. Our hotel, the New Edge Water, is situated right above Soup Bowl, a heavy right hand wave thats claimed to be one of Kelly Slater's favorite waves in the world. Soup Bowl is on the East Coast and breaks over shallow reef. The whole East Coast is crazy, really rocky, underwater caves, and bad currents. Every ... read more

Every year on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, the Barbados Turf Club hold some of the richest horses races of the year at the Garrison Savannah. Sponsored by Diamonds International and Audemars Piguet, this meet often boasts some pretty nice horses. But the best part of the day isn’t always the horses. As its name implies, the Garrison Savannah is the former parade ground of the British troops that were once stationed in Barbados. The British are gone, but the garrison still remains, though now it houses the Barbados Defense Force. The Garrison Savannah is also home to one of the largest collections of antique cannon anywhere in the world. The cannon ring the race track around the last turn, and I always wonder if that gives the horses any extra incentive to get the ... read more

BARBADOS 20.-21.9.2009 Voisiko ero kahden saaren välillä olla suurempi kuin mystisen, tunteellisen, aistillisen, hulvattomasti eri kulttuureja sekoittavan mutta köyhän St. Lucian ja erittäin englantilais-keskiluokkaisen Barbadoksen! Kuten kuvista näette; täällä on aika minimalistisen litteää ja laakeaa; tyystin eri tavalla kaunista kuin St. Luciassa. Geologisesti Barbados ei kuulu lainkaan Karibianmeren saariin, vaan se on pelkkä korallisaari. Poissa ovat tulivuoret ja sademetsät - englantilaiset uudisasukkaat hakkasivat metsät parissa vuodessa 1630-luvulla viljelystensä tieltä pois. Barbados on Karibian saarista englantilaisin, koska se ei koskaan tullut Kolumbuksen löytämäksi eikä ranskalaisten valloittamaksi. Se oli yhtäjaksoisesti englantilaisten hallitsema aina vuoteen 1966 asti, jolloin saari itsenäistyi. Ennen englantilaisen tuloa 1630-luvulla, asumaton Barbados tarjosi... read more

A BARBADIAN GEMSTONE A lush and verdant niche of singular positioning on the Barbados east coast is where I spent a delightful evening, entranced by a precious piece of property and its people. Standing on a risen platform, gently graded upward, I was at one with the panorama that surrounded me and engaged with its sweep of nature. In quiet nascence, it spread a blanket of vegetal green over muted mounds of lightly sun-braised virgin land, touching, hesitantly, in all its innocence, the raging Atlantic, breeze-swept and strong, offering frantic, frothy embraces to the myriad shoreline coves, and then retreating, un-requited, to dissipate into the hazy distance, dazed, over the endless eastern horizon. Meantime, every highlight of the Barbadian east coast bears witness, or tries to: from a long dormant lighthouse on a southern promontory to ... read more