Travel Tips

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Our window from the outside deck

The ship was to dock in Barbados at 7 am, and it did so. We went up to the dining room about 7:30 to eat. I've decided that I don't like the buffet line, so wanted to give the dining room another chance. (Last time it took us an hour to get food)

I had eggs Benedict, while Bob and I debated what the loading hoppers were there to load. They are most often used in the US for things like coal or gravel. Later Leif said they were for sugar. There were several small ships out on the dock including a large sailboat.

As we were going back to our room, we saw the crew on the deck doing training on one of the 12 person life-rafts. I took a picture of our window, which reflected the building across from us - you can't see in the window in the daytime.

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Restricted Area sign

I had made an arrangement with Leif, a guy that I've corresponded with on the internet who is Norwegian married to a girl from Barbados named Petal to meet him with a car he would rent for us at 9 am. He said that he was bald, so when the other taxi drivers asked us if we wanted a tour, I blurted out that I was looking for a bald white guy.

This time there was a whole steel drum band at the pier and we also had to wend our way through the pier shops and out to the gate. Their Leif was waiting for us as promised. I wanted to take some photos of places that I had missed before, chattel houses etc, and also some photos of the four lighthouses. So we drove out the west coast with me snapping photos from the car.

We saw the first lighthouse in the distance (Harrison's) but couldn't find a road to it. After several wrong turns, we came to a restricted area, which turned out to be a prison. The road toward the lighthouse was blocked, so we asked some ladies, and they said they didn't know that they had come off (I assume to visit someone at the prison) without an island map. We asked the guard at the gate, and he said that if I walked down the road that was blocked, I would be shot. So I decided discretion was the better idea.

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Can you find the monkey?

Then we drove over towards the east coast, and St. Nicholas Abbey, which Leif said he had not visited before. But it was closed on Sunday. We saw a spider monkey cross the road and I tried to get a picture of him sitting on the ground under the trees, but he was pretty well camouflaged and I can't see him in the photo.

Incidentally in the daily bulletin that we get, there were strict warnings about wearing any camouflage gear on either Barbados or St. Kitts.

We came across to Cherry Tree Hill, and Leif bought us a coconut - the vendors said that coconut water was good for your health. We also ate the jelly that was inside the coconut.

Then, the fuel light came on in the car, so we had to backtrack to a gas station because there aren't any on the east coast. He just put $20BD in the car. It was about $BD2.21/litre. (A Barbados dollar is 1.8 to 1US$)

Then we drove along the rest of the east coast, past the Edgewater where we stayed before and past Bathsheba where they were surfing. We stopped up on the hill above Bathsheba. A police car stopped there too. I mentioned to Leif that the car registration had expired last month, and he asked if the police had said something, and I said no.

He stopped at a little house to get himself something to drink (people sell stuff our of their homes). We also stopped for a little bit at old St. John's church and then passed Codrington the first seminary in the western hemisphere. Now we could see Ragged Point lighthouse in the distance.

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Bob's Gourmet Burger

As we approached, there was a large sign that said "Public Notice - Visits to Lighthouse are Free. If Harassed Call Police. Tel-211 423 7141"

There were signs on the houses on each side that said "Ragged Point - Private Property! No Entry! Beware of Dogs. The Owner". We got out and walked around and took photos anyway (Top photo). Both Harrison's and Ragged Point are white lighthouses of similar structure

The Barbados Museum was also closed so we couldn't do that so we continued on down the coast, but it was now getting towards lunchtime. We told Leif that we'd treat him to lunch, so he stopped at the Barbecue Barn. You order your meal and they cook it and you pick it up.

I got a quarter chicken, macaroni and corn chow and juice, and Bob and Leif both got the Gourmet Burger which was half a pound and too much for either of them to eat. The total was 77.50 BD$ We also used the bathrooms which were spotless.
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South Point Lighthouse

Now we were closing in on the South Point lighthouse - this one was red and white striped. We took a somewhat circuitous route to it, but we got there eventually. Bob and Leif both played with some puppies that were there

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"Road" to the lighthouse

We went on past some of the beaches that the Bajan's use (Bajan is short for Barbadian), heading for the last lighthouse which was in front of the Hilton. We could see the Hilton but could not see the lighthouse - that was because the Hilton was much bigger than it was.

There was a guard at the gate and he told us to go down a road - Leif at first thought the road (between stone walls topped with chain link fence) was too narrow, but the guard insisted that it was OK.

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Needham's Point Lighthouse & the Hilton

It took us down to the Hilton beach, and there in front of the hotel was the lighthouse, which has been rebuilt.

On one side of the narrow road that we drove down to get to the lighthouse was a historic cemetery. I took photos of that. After that Leif drove us back to the ship through Bridgetown

TOmorrow we go to St. Kitts