Saturday night:
Pastor
Tom came by to pick us up and drop us at the airport. Our flight for Barbados was supposed to leave
at 7:30, but of course LIAT was late. As
we waited, we froze in the airport. I
don’t know why, but it was freezing in there.
By the time our flight actually left, we were supposed to have been in
Barbados already. We arrived in Barbados a good hour late, but oh well
everything is good! We made it! We
stayed at Oceanspray Beach Apartments and my first impression of the hotel was
that it could have been cleaner. It was
not dirty enough to find a new place, but just not as clean as you’d expect a
hotel to be. Oh well! Here is where we
are staying for the next 4 nights. I am
really impressed though by the view. The
water is literally right next to the hotel.
You can feel the mist from the waves crashing against the rocks. The view is spectacular! I know where we will be spending our
nights!
Sunday:
This
morning we woke up and headed for breakfast.
The hotel serves a continental breakfast in the morning. The food was pretty good, but my favorite
part was the juice and the view! If only
I could wake up to this view every morning!
The waves are rolling in and hitting the rocks. A perfect morning to enjoy God’s
creation!
After
breakfast we went to the front desk where the helpful lady showed us a map and
explained how to take the bus as well as where to get it. We headed back to the room to finish getting
ready and then headed out for the day.
Today we left thinking
we were going to go spend the day a place called the Boatyard. We left the hotel and headed in the direction
of the nearest bus. Because we take bus
in St. Lucia, we knew it was cheaper and were told we should be fine as long as
ask where we are going. Well we got to
where we thought the bus would pick us up and waited. Not before too long did a guy come and let
us know that we needed to hop the bus a short walk away. No problem.
We got on the bus and were surprised at how easy it was to ride. A bus ride is 1 U.S. or 2 Barbadian. So cheap compared to a taxi and so worth it! We headed to Boatyard and realized that it
was very similar to Reduit (our beach in St. Lucia) and decided to leave. We then walked towards Bridgetown and found
the bus station to take a bus to Crane Beach.
For 2 U.S. we traveled on a big blue bus for about 30 minutes to Crane
beach and it was gorgeous! So worth the
time it took to get there. The view was breathtaking! We walked along the rocks, laid out for a
bit, ate some food at the beach restaurant and then headed back to wait for the
bus. Our timing was incredible. We were thinking
we’d have to wait for about 30 minutes before our bus would show up, but after
about 10 minutes of waiting the blue bus came rolling around the corner and we
quick ran across the street to get on.
We got off at Oistens (closer to our hotel) and went to the ATM and gas
station to get some food and juice. We
walked across the street to another beach and sat down to enjoy a shandy before
heading back home. On the way home we
stopped at Chefette for dinner. This is
basically Barbados’ version of McDonalds, but in my opinion 10x better than McDonalds! My broasted chicken sandwich was amazing and
I got a second in case we don’t get food tomorrow after our day tour. We caught bus 11 to get back to our hotel and
the guy on the bus again helped us to find our stop. Taking bus is pretty easy here and I’m glad
we’ve decided to use this as our means of transportation. After arriving at the
hotel we took it easy and then enjoyed some drinks under the stars at our
hotel.
I’m very proud
of us. With many questions we were able
to get around all day, no problem! First
impression of Barbados has been good.
The people are extremely helpful and friendly and the sand is the
softest sand I’ve ever felt! More to
come tomorrow!
Monday:
This
morning Abby and I got up at 5:45 for the sunrise. While it wasn’t the best sunrise I’ve ever
seen, it was pretty spectacular watching it come up over the ocean (something
we don’t get to do in St. Lucia).
Because we were up so early and had to leave early for our day tour, I did
not fall back asleep after that. Instead
I drank some coffee, watched a show, and went to breakfast with the girls. We got picked up at 7:45 in the morning and
left for Harrison’s cave. Our driver
that was taking us around for the day had a little bit too much energy for so
early in the morning and therefore some of the things he said sounded
crazy. However as the day wore on he was
filled with facts and we learned a lot about Barbados and its history.
Our
first stop was the Harrison’s cave and it was really cool. The cave is pretty big and the whole tour was
done by tram. Seeing the stalactites,
stalagmites, pillars, pools, ect. was really cool and amazed me. Again I could see the power of God in his
creation. After the cave tour we drove
nearby to a Wildlife reserve where we watched green monkeys being fed. The monkeys were not caged and roam freely
throughout the area, however the only time we saw any was during feeding
time. The swarm of monkeys following the
bananas was insane! We started to walk
down the path to see if we could see any more wildlife, but about halfway
through it started to rain in the forest.
I was very glad that I brought my rain jacket as it helped keep me
dry. We then turned around and headed
back to the lookout point until we headed back onto the bus.
Next
we drove a bit until we reached Bathsheba.
Bathsheba is a rock formation on the coast. It was beautiful! While a short stop, it was one of my
favorites to see. After about 10 minutes
we left and had about an hour drive south where we went to a place called
Pirates Cove for lunch. Our Bajan lunch
was delicious! Barbeque chicken,
macaroni pie, rice, stewed meat, corn, salad, plantains, and cooked vegetables
all were on my plate and I can say all were gone by the end of the meal.
Following
lunch we boarded a pontoon which took us to the turtles. This was by far my favorite part of the
trip! The turtles were AMAZING! Some literally came within inches of me. We spent a good 30 minutes swimming with the turtles
as the captains of the boat threw food into the water to keep them near
us. I can’t even begin to describe to
you how cool this experience was. It is just something you will have to experience
yourself some day! The turtles were so
cool we tried taking underwater pictures with Tanya’s underwater camera. Unfortunately the camera didn’t last long
though and took on water. Downside the
camera might be toast, positive side is that she was able to capture about 5
pictures before it died. Our friendly driver actually went to the local store
and bought Tanya some rice for her camera to sit in. After the turtles, we headed back to Pirates
cove where we were given chairs to relax on for the last hour of our day. With our free drink in hand, we enjoyed our
chairs and the view.
After
the tour our driver dropped us at Buffy’s, a small local store close to our
hotel. We wanted to get juice for the
night. We then walked the rest of the
rest of the way to the hotel where we chilled for a bit before we went out and
walked down around a path on the coast. Watching the waves and how they form
and build off of each other is really cool.
The power in just one wave incredible.
Anyways we headed back before it got dark and the tide came in. After a long packed day we were all pretty
tired. We relaxed for a bit and
showered. I bought an extra Chefette sandwich
the day before, so I ate that for dinner.
We finished off the night with a drink under the stars and went to bed.
Tuesday:
We started off
this morning chilling in the room and having breakfast. Around 10 we left for the bus and headed
towards Rockley Beach. It was very
relaxing. All the different shades of
blue that you see in the water still amazes me! So beautiful!
We spent maybe
an hour or so on the beach. I went in
the water and felt like I was in a wave pool, except for there was obviously
real waves and salt water. It didn’t
take long before I was tired and came back to dry off on my towel. Around 12 we headed for lunch. Across the way we found some food and
shops. I ate pizza before heading to
shop for some souvenirs. We then took
the bus back to the hotel. I am really
amazed at how smooth this bus system is.
In St. Lucia we just have the bus driver, but in Barbados many buses
have the driver plus a person in the back who takes the money. It really seems to keep things moving. It’s also really nice for us as we don’t know
where we are going so we tell them exactly where we want to go and they take
care of it.
We didn’t have long
at the hotel before we were picked up for our sunset boat cruise. We had a lovely time aboard El Tigre where we
stopped twice to snorkel and then headed out to watch the sunset. Swimming with turtles is definitely the
highlight of this trip! While aboard we
were served a bunch of delicious finger foods and we were able to try the local
rum and beer. I would say both of fairly
similar to St. Lucias. While I loved the
sunset cruise, I was a bit bummed. My
favorite sarong blew off the boat and is now most likely on the bottom of the
Atlantic Ocean. I hope they have another
that I can buy when I get home.
Following the
cruise, we had our driver drop us at Oistens.
This is an area that is known for its food and entertainment on the weekends. I’m not quite sure what we were thinking but
each of us got food plate of food. I
have never seen so much food in my life- well maybe that’s just my eyes saying
this because I had already eaten on the boat.
Anyways we got some local food, but none of us were able to finish
it. I guess we’re going to have
leftovers for tomorrow! We took the bus
back home and enjoyed a drink under the stars before heading to bed for the
night.
Wednesday:
I can’t believe
our last day in Barbados is over. It has
been a great vacation! This morning we
all got up not feeling the greatest. I’m
not sure what happened exactly, but we’re thinking it may have to do with
something we ate last night. So much for
leftovers today, I do not think I will be eating them! None of us slept well
and all of us had this uneasy feeling in our stomachs. Despite all of that we got up, packed up our
bags, and headed for breakfast. We then
went back to the room to grab our things.
We left our luggage in the office at the hotel, as we would not be back
for checkout time, and met our surf instructor who came to pick us up. Yep that’s right. I am going to try to surf!
Upon arrival at
Barry’s Surf School, we paid and then headed to the beach for our lesson.
Barry, Simon, and Ben were our surf instructors. Because there was only 5 in the group, we had
lots of individual help. Surprisingly
our lesson on land was about 5 minutes long and before we knew it we were
hitting the waves. “Knee, foot, up,”
were our simple direction on how to stand on a surfboard. My first wave came and I repeated to myself “knee,
foot, up.” All of a sudden I was standing.
What?! I rode my first wave in
all the way to shore! So exciting! Paddling
out was way harder than I expected and therefore a huge workout. It was really cool though and I would
recommend to anyone who has ever thought about surfing to give it a try. Your eyes may burn from the salt water and
your legs might get fried after 2 hours of being in the sun, but its worth
it! Yes I will admit I did get a bit
sunburned. I lost track of time and
about 45 minutes before our time was up, I went to reapply, but by then it was
too late. Oh well! I’m glad its our last day and I won’t have to
deal with a burn and wanting to be at the beach tomorrow.
After surfing,
we stayed at the beach for a bit longer and relaxed on some chairs. We then went off to find food, but instead of
going to a restaurant we popped into the local supermarket. Boy was this such a good decision! Bajan’s have donuts and not just any donut,
sprinkled donuts! I of course had to buy
one and I got Hershey’s cookies and cream milk to go along with it, all of
which was reasonably priced for an island.
Could I not have chosen more Bajan food?
Yes, but in the moment the American food was what I wanted and I could
not have been happier. We then went back
to the surf school where Barry drove us back to the hotel. We enjoyed our food there. I can’t believe our time is coming to a
close. We spent our last hour and half
sitting in chairs and watching the waves roll in. Tanya and I were able to take quick showers
in the extra bathroom before our taxi showed up to take us to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, I got
Chefette one more time before heading through security. I really am going to miss Barbados! Teacher Liz was at the airport and on the
same flight back with us. We all almost
missed our flight back to St. Lucia because we were in the wrong spot, but made
it for the last boarding call. Back in
St. Lucia, Jen picked us up and we headed home to relax a bit before bed. It does feel good to be home, but I really do
miss Barbados!
