#370 Barbados

(long post; lots of pics!)

I feel like writing about our two nights in Barbados, so I will.

We arrived in Barbados around 9:30 pm on February 19. This sounds crazy, but I didn't pack a pen that was easily reachable, so I couldn't fill out the customs and immigration forms on the plane, and the flight attendants were not helpful in any way about sharing a pen. As a consequence, I filled out the paperwork when we arrived at the airport and we were the absolute last people through customs and immigration. That's ok.

A driver was waiting for us, holding a sign with our name on it. I know it's nothing that special, but we felt pretty cool! There were two other people in the cab with us (it was a van), so we chatted with them. They were going on a Windstar cruise, and their son had gone to high school in Idaho. Small world.

MT asked our driver, Barnes, how much it would cost to be driven around the island the next day. He said $30 US/hour, so we asked him if he was available. He agreed to pick us up at 9:30 in the morning.

Our hotel was the Allamanda Beach Hotel. The lady at the front desk wasn't very friendly. She gave us the key to our room and a guy led us up to it. Keep in mind that it's about 10:30 on a Friday night in a little beach town just outside of Bridgetown. People are out walking around, there's music playing, we can hear the ocean splashing very nearby. We've been up since 3 am and we're pretty tired, we're hungry, and we're amped up about being on vacation. We put our suitcases in the room and head down to the bar we can see from our balcony to have a beer and maybe find some food.

There were two bars at the hotel. One was right by the beach, so we went there first, but no one helped us. We were sitting at the bar, but the only bartender was over chatting with some people and he didn't pay any attention to us. The other bar was right next to the front desk. We went over there and a guy asked what we wanted to drink. MT asked what kind of beer he had. The bartender said something, but we didn't understand anything, so we just said, "OK, give us one of those." The guy laughed and gave us two bottles of Banks beer. It's the official beer of Barbados, I think. (Every island has their own beer and their own rum and their own style of drinking the rum. More on that later.) Banks is very good beer.

We took our beer and decided to stroll down the boardwalk. Right next to the hotel was a KFC - yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was quite the hot spot on this Friday night. There was a group of young men drinking beer and eating chicken and flirting with some girls who were doing the same thing at another table. KFC smelled good. We continued to walk along the boardwalk, which appeared to be a bit of a lover's lane. There were couples sitting on benches, drinking, smoking, cuddling, chatting. The temperature was wonderful, probably in the 70s. It felt great.

We passed a couple of eating places. One looked like a locals only kind of a place. It had a big BBQ and music was playing and people were drinking and eating. The tables were just tall stand-up tables - no seats that I remember. We also passed a great looking restaurant that was packed. It was called Tapas. We wanted to go in, but the kitchen was closed. They were just serving drinks. We walked to the end of the boardwalk and back, then ended up at KFC. That's right! We ate KFC on our first night of vacation.

I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open, so we went to the room. Unfortunately, there was a club right next door that was playing very loud music MC'd by an obnoxious DJ. He'd play about 30 seconds or so of a song, then yell, "Yo yo yo!" into the microphone and change songs. MT was going nuts. I have the gift of sleeping like a rock and I fell asleep pretty quickly. MT ended up going out on the patio and laying in a lounger until around 2 when the club closed. He wasn't happy.

In the morning we discovered that the toilet didn't flush well and I couldn't get any hot water in the shower. MT was cranky and insisted that we try to get another hotel.

When Barnes came to get us, we asked him to take us to the Allamanda's sister property, the Amaryllis. There, I asked the front desk if we could transfer to the Amaryllis and was told that since we booked through an agency, we'd have to arrange it through the agency. I called the local agency and was told we'd have to arrange it through the hotels. I told MT that it was only for one more night and we could handle anything for one more night and that I was ready to enjoy my day in Barbados, so deal with it and let's have fun. So we did.

Barnes took us all around his island. The first stop was Gun Hill Signal Station. It's a high spot in the middle of the island and there were great views of the Caribbean from there.


The next stop was St. John's Parish Church. Barbados is divided into parishes, and each one has their own church. The church in St. John's Parish is really old; it was originally built in the 1600s. It was damaged by a hurricane in the 1800s and repaired. I thought it was great.


There is a cemetery behind the church with an amazing view of the east coast of the island. The cemetery has graves dating back to the 1600s. That's cool!

I was happy that Barnes took us to Gun Hill and to the church. I like the history of the islands. It's so old compared to the US! The view from the church area is really nice. This is the Atlantic side of the island.


MT really wanted to go to Bathsheba. We'd been told how beautiful it is and that there is surfing on that side of the island. Although we weren't planning to surf, we thought it would be fun to check it out.

It is great! Barnes drove us right down to the beach and we got out and walked around a little. The waves weren't very big that day, but there were a couple of people with surfboards and high hopes.



We liked Bathsheba. I bought a bracelet and a beach towel from a friendly lady there. I'm wearing the bracelet right now. I don't think I've taken it off since I got it. It makes me smile when I look at it.

From Bathsheba, we headed back up into the hills. We stopped at the top of Cherry Tree Hill and looked back over the coast. It was a beautiful day!

We headed back in the direction of Bridgetown. We had talked about going to the Malibu rum distillery because there is a restaurant there and a private beach where we could hang out, but Barnes had another idea for us. He told us about a place called Weisers. They were having a buffet lunch and had a locker where we could put our stuff and they'd set out chairs for us on the beach. I was starving so I was eager to get there.

We got a couple of Banks' and got some food. I had delicious pork chops and mac and cheese, Caribbean style. Marty had chicken and okra and veggies and I don't know what else.

One Banks led to another and another and another and we didn't go sit on the beach. Too soon, Barnes was back to collect us and take us back to the hotel. If we had been in Barbados another day, we may have gone back to Weisers. The beach looked great.

We've been to Barbados twice on cruises and both times we did the same excursion. We passed this little stretch of beach. I'm glad we got to see the island this time around. It was wonderful.

I have to say that our driver, Barnes, was a great guy. At first he seemed a little worried about the amount of his time we were taking, but MT assured him that we wanted to see all of the island and we'd pay him for his time. When we were so excited about Gun Hill, I think he loosened up. Not many people go up there, and I think Barnes really likes it and liked that we liked it.

Barnes took us back to the Allamanda. We decided to run across the street to a gas station and buy some water and a Coke for MT. On our way out, the front desk lady stopped us to find out if we had any plans for the night. She was really friendly and made a couple of suggestions. Did the people from the Amaryllis call them to say we wanted to leave? Is that why she was so nice? No matter, I was buzzed and happy about Barbados in general.

After we got our drinks and a little snack (chocolate!) I sat on the balcony reading and watching the sun set. Gorgeous!


That night we wandered back to the bar by the beach. This time the bartender talked to us a lot. We drank pina coladas (!!) and chatted with Gideon, the barkeep, and his wife Rose. They encouraged us to have dinner at the hotel and recommended the catch of the day with mashed potato and salad. OOOH! Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. The fish was "dolphin" not Flipper, but some other fish that I don't know the name of. It was delicious. I had some great food that week, and that dinner in Barbados ranks right up there in deliciousness.

A note about rum drinking in Barbados. Their main rum is Mt. Gay rum. (I haven't found anyone there who drinks Malibu.) Rose told me that she likes to drink rum with coconut water. Coconut water comes from coconuts that are not yet ripe, so the liquid hasn't turned into milk. She suggested I try some because that's how they drink rum on Palm Island, she told me. I'd had three (or four) pina coladas by then, so I figured what the heck? I tried it. I didn't love it. It's not sweet. It's not really anything but wet and rummy. There wasn't a lot of flavor. MT said, "It's a sipping beverage." I sipped it, but I didn't care for it. Little did I know that it wouldn't be my last experience with coconut water and rum that week.

After dinner we strolled the boardwalk. It was a lot quieter on Saturday than on Friday. Another good thing is that the club next door wasn't open, so we got a great night's sleep! And we figured out how to flush the toilet. You had to prime it a little: flush, flush, FLUSH! I also managed to get hot water out of the shower. I just had to keep turning the knob until hot water came out. I wouldn't have wanted to spend a week at the Allamanda, but two nights was fine.

In the morning we relaxed on the patio until it was time to check out.
We decided to have lunch at Tapas. For the life of me, I don't know why I didn't take a picture there. I had my camera. I probably won't get back there and it was such a cool place. I'll try to describe it. Imagine a two story building that is open on the front side, facing the sea. You can hear the waves pounding on the rocky beach and feel the breeze coming in the open windows. We had a wonderful lunch of tapas: albondigas, calamari, croquettas, salad and a flourless chocolate cake for dessert. Yum.

Barbados is good.