Initial thoughts in Barbados

I woke up at an ungodly hour to fly out of DC to make my connection flight in Miami to Bridgetown, Barbados.

Needless to say, I spent a significant amount of time on the plane catching up on sleep. But I did wake up now and then to take these beautiful shots.

It took me longer than others to clear Immigrations. I guess it’s not everyday they get travelers with a Ghanaian passport by way of the US. Actually, when I arrived at the bed and breakfast in St. Lawrence Gap that I had booked, the owner told me Immigrations had called to verify that I was indeed going to be staying there for the duration of my visit. The odd thing is they called after I had already cleared both immigration and customs.

My accommodations are quite homey. I’m in the boys quarters, so to speak,, so I have a self contained studio with kitchen and bath. The advertisement reads free wifi (so-so) and cable TV. It took me quite the minute to find the 14 inch box TV perched in an alcove in one corner of the room. Suffice it to say if my mission here was to watch TV all day long this would not work!  That’s want you get for budget travel (~$50/night) but at least it is not a hostel.  Plus, it’s a few minutes walk to the white sandy beach and a short stroll to the exciting nightlife, or so I’ve been told.

Starving, I went out on a food finding expedition. American Airlines offered no inflight snacks! Sigh! I passed quite the number of elderly sunburnt and rubbery skinned Caucasians about. Surprisingly a good number of locals of both genders had locs. Nice! I succumbed to my hunger at Ocean15 only because I couldn’t last any longer. It seemed like a nice place.

From here I made my way to Dover Beach Hotel‘s oceanfront (or was it Turtle Beach Resort’s?, they are so close together) where I sat on the rocks and took in the sounds of the waves rushing to shore and the scent of the ocean. A man walking the shores offered to show me around. When I declined the offer he exclaimed he was a gentleman! Oh, ok!

While I was sitting on the rocks Captain Sam came to talk to me and offered me discount watersport lessons. He reminded me of Old Man except he has freeform locs. He introduced me to the rest of his friendly crew in case I were to return in his absence. Hmmm, I may just have to go jet-skiing while I am here!

I ended my night at the Reggae Lounge. Buy one get one free drinks. Umm, so yeah, I’m building up my alcohol tolerance. The crowd became decidedly younger as the night progressed so that was a plus. But I had to leave them to rest my pretty head while listening to the natural tropical nighttime song of frogs croaking, crickets chirping, and cricket (the game)-watching humans cheering.

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