Day 6: Wandering around Barbados

Wednesday, Feb 4, 2015

Tired from yet another late night it feels really early when the alarm goes off. We're a bit more comfortable with the whole process now, so we're only giving ourselves 90 minutes to eat and get ready.

When we walk out onto the lido deck the sun has just risen and we can see Barbados in the hazy morning light.

I head straight for the omelet station for another yummy arugula, bacon and cheese omelet, but this time I supplement it with a container of yogurt (not my favorite) and a piece of french toast. With of course ice cream for desert.

I get hungry just looking at this picture ... I miss my daily omelets!

We timed it just right, except we didn't take into account that you can do this cruise as a loop from Barbados too and clearing customs is going to take a while. Two long lines run all the way around the corner and into the corridor. By the time the line starts moving shortly before 8:30 I'm getting really nervous: somehow we need to debark, pick up the rental car, figure out how to drive on the wrong side of the street without getting killed and find the Surfer's Cafe in Oistins ... all by 9:15.

The tiny office for Courtesy Rental Cars is right at the exit of the terminal and after about 15 minutes Sandy receives her official one-day Barbados driving permit -- I'll admit; I'm kind of jealous I didn't get one.

Our ride for today is a sporty blue Hyundai with a big H on the tag to alert other drivers to our likely incompetence and erratic driving behavior. 

Time is running out so I direct Sandy towards the exit while trying to simultaneously set up the GPS and remind her to keep left, left, LEFT! Sandy meanwhile keeps chanting. “Left, Sandy. Left, Sandy. Left,” and we manage to make it out of port unscathed.

To make matters worse, the steering wheel is also on the other side of the car and the oncoming traffic makes Sandy want to move over to the left side of the road until we are so close to the curb that we are driving through roadside shrubs. My knuckles are white from clutching onto the seat and I may have yelped a few times. Still Sandy is convinced we aren't over that far, until finally, we hit the curb pretty hard ... things improved after that.

Anyway, the GPS can't find Oistins no matter what parish I search under and to make matters worse the internet on my phone doesn't work. We have no phone number to call, no address, no working GPS … nothing. We do have a rudimentary map, but given that we don't know where we are to begin with, and streets are poorly marked if at all, that doesn't help much.

At this point, we are completely lost and my eagerly anticipated surfing lesson was supposed to start a while ago. Is it even worth trying to get to the meeting point? Should we just head back to the terminal while we still have some idea which direction we came from?

I browse the pre-programmed options and settle on the airport since it's in the same general direction as Oistins and will get us out of downtown Bridgetown traffic. I have great hopes that things will improve once we get on the highway, except the highway turns out to be a poorly marked back country road with roundabouts every mile or so and if there's anything Sandy can't stand while driving it's roundabouts.

Lucky for her, Dutchies can navigate roundabouts in their sleep and I'm able to talk her through it. Except for hitting the turn signal instead of the windshield wipers ... we never quite mastered that lol.

Unbelievably we happen upon a turn off for Oistins, followed by some more aimless driving around as I call Verizon technical support to try to fix my internet access, which turns out to be an easy fix.
Except we're in a dead zone so we're still clueless to our whereabouts.

Defeated we head back to the gas station we'd passed earlier and beg the security guard for help. He has never heard of the cafe, but he's more than happy to look them up in the phone book and call for directions. He also hands us a Barbados tourism booklet, that happens to have the phone number for Boozy's Surf School in it.

It's now more than thirty minutes past the agreed upon time and I'm embarrassed to even call, but amazingly he has waited for me. A few minutes later we meet up and follow his truck down to Freights Bay.

Not a bad place to walk up to.

View over the neighboring yard

Christian is fan-tas-tic! Seriously, the best surf teacher I've ever had. We do a quick refresher of the basics on land as well as identify some of the issues to work on, then we walk the boards down the steps to the surf.

He starts off by pushing me into some waves and getting some GoPro footage with it mounted on the board. Next, he shot some movies of me paddling into waves as he surfed next to me ... so cool!

Surfing together ... look how quiet that line-up was!

Towards the end of the lesson Christian went back up and brought out a shorter 9' board for me. Still longer than the one I usually surf at home, but this one was narrower and it took a few tries to get the hang of it.

Sandy, meanwhile is enjoying the sun at the top of the hill.

Freights Bay is a beautiful place to surf and at times giant sea turtles would pop their heads out of the water just a few feet from the board. So cool! We also saw a school of green garfish.

With arms like rubber bands I manage to catch one last ride all the way into shore. The perfect end to the perfect lesson.

Of course, I made sure to take some pictures of the bay before we left.

  

Already, I love Barbados more than St. Thomas!

 One of the many drive-by shots I took today

I decide to do another “navigate by approximation” and point us towards Harrison's Cave in the hopes of ending up at Welchman Hall Gully. Somehow it works, but we've missed the reason for going: the feeding of the monkeys. We really wanted to see wild monkeys, but it's hard to be upset after the great lesson I just had. We'll just keep going ...

Where San Juan was a city of cats, Barbados is an island of goats.

The hill of a hundred goats

Somehow the "fence" isn't keep the goats away from the highway.

A bunch of tour buses are pulled into a semi-circle lot off the road and ever curious I ask Sandy to pull in also. Two camouflage clad officers with assault rifles so tall they nearly hit the ground are policing the area. Peculiar and a bit unnerving. The view is nice though.

We are now close enough to Bathsheba that I am able to locate Bathsheba Park through the “Near Me” feature. Our drive leads through fields of sugar cane and banana plantations; sleepy little towns with goats tethered in the yards; and windblown pastures as far as the eye can see.

I asked Sandy to pull over so I can get a picture of the St Joseph's Parish Church. These days it is no longer in use because of hazardous structural damage, as you can tell by the obvious cracks in the facade.

Gagg's Hill Rum Shop ... Barbados is famous for its rums.

We accidentally pass the turn off just before we reach Bathsheba and it takes a good 10 minutes before we start to question just how long 1 kilometer could possible be, but this time my phone comes through and I'm able to use Google maps to lead us the rest of the way there.

The rock formations of Bathsheba are as rugged and wild as the ocean crashing into them.

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The white rocks dotting the shores are actually large chunks of coral, intricately patterned up close.

It's on our way back that the unexpected happens: a green tail monkey darts out of the bushes and crosses the road before our eyes. “Pull over,” I gasp, as I fumble to switch to my zoom lens.

When I bolt out of the car, at first I don't see it, then I find it quietly observing me from a barren branch with several members of its troupe moving through the leaves behind it.

"OHMYGODITSRIGHTTHERE!!!" I screech not entirely un-monkey like, and with that the whole lot of them disappear deeper into the woods before I'm able to press the shutter.

I begged. I pleaded. I clucked. I cooed. I pouted. I threw my banana in the clearing ... All to no avail. Oh well. At least we saw them.

Upon re-entering the port, we are momentarily stopped by customs, but after a quick glance at my sign & sail card we are allowed to pass through. The person next to us was less fortunate and was denied access because of some problem with his footwear. His requests to speak to a supervisor fell on deaf ears ... not a good situation.

It's about 3:45 when we drop off the car, which I think is pretty much perfect timing. Any later and we would've worried about getting lost again and missing the ship.

Mileage for today: 87

The only monkey picture ... one of the gift shops inside the terminal.

There's the ship.

There's no ID check to get back aboard today, just a check-in with our sign & sail and going through the metal detectors, but still there was a line.

After dropping off our bags, we pick up a few yummy slices of pizza from the Pizza Pirate, followed by another soft serve. I'm glad I brought a lot of things with elastic waistbands. 

We sit for a minute to let the food settle, as we listen to the guy playing his guitar on the lido deck. He's pretty good.

I've been wanting to try the slide ever since we came aboard and today I finally got to try it. It's not super fast, but very smooth and long. 

Many people complain that the shower is too small and there is some truth to that, but it's not horrible and the water is instantly at the perfect temperature. There's also a pull-out clothes line to dry your bathing suit. They really make great use of the space.

Not wanting to get stuck waiting to be seated today we are ready right at 5:45 and a couple of minutes later we are seated in another cozy corner by the window. This time with a view of the setting sun! 

Just watching the water is so relaxing. Add the gentle swaying and you have both of us struggling to stay awake.

There are lots of good options for appetizers today so we split the chicken quesadillas that strangely were filled with rice and beans. I didn't care for them, but Sandy really liked them.

Sandy loved the prosciutto melon ruffles. I gobbled up the melon, but I found out I'm not a big prosciutto fan.

Finally, the sushi sampler. Compared to some of the other appetizers this one is tiny and I liked it so much we ordered a second one to share.

For the main course, Sandy orders the penne maricosa and I try the Sicilian chicken. Neither one of us really cared for these dishes. We end with a piece of New York style cheesecake with strawberries for Sandy, and a pineapple sherbet for me. Both were ok, but not great.

Stuffed to the gills we walk up to the Pixels gallery and admire yesterday's glamour shots. Heavily retouched we look quite lovely! 

I was so good yesterday and starred all the interesting on board activities for today, but I have to admit that we were total party poopers again, barely conscious by the time we finished dinner. On our next cruise (yep, I said it -- next cruise) we will have to pick one with more sea days so we can take advantage of all the cool stuff going on on board.

Goodnight frog

Tomorrow we will explore St. Lucia!

♥

Breakfast: Lido Deck Buffet and Omelet Station
Lunch: Pizza Pirate
Dinner: Lincoln Dining Room