Back to Barbados

Ah… Barbados. One of my favourite islands in the Caribbean, and the one that we have visited the most. Today would be our ninth visit. 🙂

We didn’t have any excursion booked today; we know the island quite well so we had our day planned out already.

Therefore, after an al fresco breakfast at the Pavilion Wellness Café, we returned to 8025 and got ourselves ready for a beach visit; I wore my tankini under my shorts and t-shirt and Trevor did likewise with his swimshorts. We also packed into the rucksack essentials such as factor 30 sun protection, hand sanitiser, credit card and plenty of US dollars, which are accepted in Barbados as well as the Barbados dollar. The conversion rate was easy; one US dollar equalled two Barbados dollars.

As we disembarked the Queen Elizabeth, we picked up two large “CUNARD” beach towels, which passengers are allowed to borrow for shore use.

We set off along the bright, sunlit dockside, making our way under the distinctive “PORT OF BRIDGETOWN” archway over the dock gates. Bridgetown is one of the busiest ports in the Caribbean, acting as a hub not only to cargo ships but also serving over 800,000 cruise passengers a year.

We had about a mile to walk to reach Carlisle Bay, where there is a wonderful, wide white sandy beach flanking the gorgeous, azure sea. Along the way, we were accosted every few yards by taxi and mini-bus drivers, wanting to take us on a tour of the island. Once we told them we had been here nine times and knew where we wanted to go, they left us alone. 🙂

It was hot walking in the sun, but at least we could take it slowly and easily as we had all day; in fact, the Queen Elizabeth was due to remain in port until 10.30pm tonight.

On the way to the beach, we called in at a supermarket as I was running short of moisturiser. We didn’t find any suitable face cream, so we went to see if they had any wine so we could replenish our cabin fridge (!) but they only sold beer, not wine. We therefore left the shop having enjoyed, for a few moments, the air-conditioned bliss. 🙂

As we walked along, we enjoyed looking at the boats in the marina; Bridgetown is such a lively, colourful town and, to me, is the essence of the Caribbean.

Soon we arrived at the beach at Carlisle Bay. There was an area where you had to pay a few dollars if you wanted sun loungers and a large parasol, as well as the use of the floating, inflatable “climbing wall” we could see further out to sea. 🙂

However, we explained we were going further down the beach and didn’t need a sun lounger or parasol. I kicked off my shandals and walked along, barefoot, in the powder soft sand. Finding a suitable place, we spread out our beach towels on the sand, and I stripped off my t-shirt and shorts, down to my tankini, and ran down to the water’s edge.

The waves were pretty lively, and the sea was cooler than I had expected it to be. The warm tropical breeze caressed our skin as I slowly walked further into the sea until it came to the tops of my legs. However, I didn’t get the choice of whether to go in further or not; a big rolling wave came seemingly out of nowhere and crashed against me, soaking me to the shoulders. 🙂

I swam out for a short way, watching out for the waves, and hurriedly swimming away from them if I saw one building up! Once I was able to stand again, I stood and braced myself against each subsequent wave.

Trevor only went so far into the water, and from here we could see people using the inflatable climbing wall, climbing up so far before joyfully jumping into the sea. Other people sped by on jet-skis, and here and there small sailing boats and catamarans glided along further out.

Back on the sand, I dried myself off and then sat and let the sun do the rest; it didn’t take long in the 28°C heat. Making sure I was liberally coated in factor 30, we sat for a while and tried to imagine (briefly!) what we would be doing if we were at home. 🙂

Once my cossie was merely damp, I donned my t-shirt and shorts once more, and we set off in search of a bar and a freezing cold Banks’s beer. We knew where we were going; a little ramshackle bar at the rear of Fairchild Street bus station, often frequented by off-duty bus drivers. However, as we hadn’t been to Barbados for nine years, we wondered if the bar would still be there, or what might have changed since our last visit.

When we found the bus station, we set off eagerly in the direction we remembered the bar being in. However, when we got there, we saw that there were several new buildings, offices and shops where the bar used to be. 🙁

Nevertheless, nearby we saw a series of similar little ramshackle bars. They consisted of shutter-fronted kiosks; in front of each had been placed a gazebo to shelter any customers from the hot Barbados sun. There were folding tables and chairs placed under each gazebo, and as we looked around, we spotted a sign in front of the ‘bar’ in the corner, “Bonnie’s Bar”, offering five bottles of Banks’s or Deputy, the local beers, for $12.00. This was only half the price of the beer in the cruise terminal, so we approached the bar and asked for five Banks’s. 🙂

The proprietor, who we assumed must be Bonnie, unfolded a table and a couple of chairs and placed them in the shade for us, before going to an ice chest and getting two freezing cold bottles of Banks’s for us. As Trevor handed over 12 US dollars, Bonnie told him it was “too much” – the price was actually 12 Barbados dollars, not US! So that meant the beers were actually a quarter of the price of those we had seen in the bars in the cruise terminal! This was excellent news indeed. 🙂

We sat and enjoyed our cold beers and people-watched. Trevor and I were conspicuous as being the only white people in any of the ‘bars’. The locals all seemed to know each other, and there was plenty of banter in their incomprehensible local dialect. One of them joined a table where there were no spare chairs, but he just sat on an upturned beer crate instead, much to the chagrin of the proprietor.

People came and went as Trevor and I each enjoyed a second Banks’s each. When it came to our last one, we decided to keep it and take it back home; I used to work with a guy who was of Barbadian heritage, and I decided he’d probably appreciate a bottle of Banks’s beer to remind him of ‘home’. 🙂

Since the five beers were only half the price that we had expected them to be, we decided to order another five; this time we would give the Deputy beer a try. While we sat and enjoyed them, someone at one of the other kiosks started playing some loud music from a massive ghetto blaster; this was the Caribbean! We saw other white people, obviously off the ship, pausing and looking at these ramshackle little drinking places, and one couple did come in and sit down, ordering themselves a Banks each.

After that couple had gone, two other couples from the ship arrived. The men saw the price of the beers and were keen to indulge, much to the disapproval of their wives who looked around at the mismatched tables and chairs, and the crates of beer stacked up with disdain. The two guys ordered their beers while their wives sat at the table with their arms folded and their lips pursed. 🙂

Once we’d finished our beers, we thanked Bonnie and left, around 12.45pm, taking a slow stroll back in the direction of the ship. I was still looking for somewhere to buy my moisturiser, and we spotted a supermarket-type shop which had a pharmacy section. I was therefore able to buy my face cream and some nail base coat, a bottle of blue nail varnish (to match my dress for tomorrow’s formal evening) and a couple of lipstcks. It was only about 45 Barbados dollars for the whole lot, so less than 20 quid! 🙂

We arrived back at the cruise terminal around 1.30pm, and decided to go and have a light lunch in the Lido self-service buffet. Then it was back to 8025 for a post-luncheon power-nap, before I decided to get showered and freshened up. I didn’t wash my hair this time; I had noticed that the seawater earlier on (which had now dried) seemed to have given my hair some extra volume, so I just went over it with my hot brush and it looked pretty good, which made a change, as my hair never holds a style for long. 🙂

We didn’t do a lot for the rest of the afternoon, just wandered around the ship and pottered around. We did contemplate going in the pool, but it would just mean our cossies (and my hair!) getting wet again. Instead, we sat out on our balcony, read, relaxed and enjoyed a glass of fizz from the ‘stash’ in our fridge. 🙂

Dinner time rolled around once again, which we enjoyed in the Britannia Restaurant with Mervyn and Alice, exchanging chat about what we had got up to today. We explained to them that the first time we ever came to Barbados, in 2003, was special, because we were privileged enough to have flown back on the very last Concorde out of Bridgetown. Mervyn was very interested and asked lots of questions; he was fascinated when I said that the usual subsonic flight into BGI took around eight hours, but coming back on Concorde reduced the flight time (in our case) to 3 hours 44 minutes! 🙂

The entertainment in the Royal Court Theatre tonight was excellent. It was called “Duo Distanza” and consisted of a husband-and-wife team of aerialists and acrobats. As they performed, a backdrop explained how they had met by chance in Paris when auditioning as circus acts; she was from Liverpool and he was from Columbia. Their long-distance relationship thrived, and eventually he came over to Britain and settled, and they married. It was a really enjoyable show with a lovely little story.

Afterwards, we did what we usually do – went along to the Golden Lion for the quiz, which we didn’t win once again. We enjoyed a cold pint of Guinness each while we were in there, at $7.00 a pint (plus the 15% service charge) it was not too badly priced, especially for Cunard. 🙂

When we left the Golden Lion we noticed that Queen Elizabeth was on the move again. We decided to return to 8025 and sit out on our balcony under the balmy, star-studded sky. I was puzzled because I could see The Plough constellation, but it looked upside-down. I knew that the constellations appeared upside-down in the southern hemisphere, but I was intrigued here.

I looked it up on Google and it said that because the Caribbean is located much closer to the equator (roughly 14º–20º N) than the UK, the Northern sky constellations appear much lower on the horizon. Observers in the Caribbean often see the Plough’s bowl hanging downward and the handle pointing upward, essentially acting as an upside-down saucepan rather than sitting right-side up, particularly at certain times of the year.

As the Plough rotates around the North Star, it means it can appear in different positions (including on its side or upside-down) depending on the season and time of night.

Well, you learn something new every day! 🙂

It was about 11.45pm when we settled down for the evening. We had a sea day again tomorrow, and we looked forward to whatever the day would bring.