Munchie and I are here to re-connect with this wonderful isle! We were here in 1990! Spent the month of February on the island. We stayed at the then Welcome Inn (now the Barbados Beach Club) on Maxwell Coast Road, St. Lawrence Gap, Christchurch parish.
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| Mini Moke! |
On that trip we had a mini moke for our transportation and we got our money's worth. In our 28 days on the island we put on 512 miles on the little moke! To put that in perspective, the island is only 166 sq. miles! The island is shaped like a pear and is 21 miles (north to south) by 14 miles (east to west) at the widest. There weren't too many places that we didn't hit! Our friends from Brooks, Alberta, Tom and Lorry Nevison invited us to come share their favourite Caribbean islands. I think that adventure planted the seed for our desire to seek out sun, sand and surf in our retirement!
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| Barry and Cherie |
who spent three weeks with us! We also had a blast with Munchie's the Bergmans, Lorry (Brenda's cousin) and Bruce from Kelowna, BC. for 2 weeks after the McCurdys left.
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| Bruce and Lorry |
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| Mimi! |
We also got to see our "Hawaiian" grandbabies, Mimi and Demitri! They were absolutely fantastic! We even had the opportunity to have Demitri for an entire day as mom and dad were both working and they had some complications with the day care! I must say that was definitely a high point for me!
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| Demitri! |
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| The "Chariot"! |
We left Kauai on February 14th, and flew a red eye to Toronto (via Denver). Overnighted in TO, then flew direct to Barbados on the 16th. We touched down here just before 3 pm. Entering the country was smooth and seamless! We were met there by "Andre" the rep. from Corbin's car rentals who provided us with our island chariot (Nissan Note)!
We took the chariot and made the 20 minute drive without incident! Driving on "the wrong" side of the road is always a bit of a challenge to start! I did use the wiper lever to signal often! Again, things on the "wrong side"! I'm hoping my recent experience with driving on the left in New Zealand comes back to me quickly!
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| The view from our back door! |
We arrived at our AirBnB, the Seafront Caribbean Villa, located near Bottom Bay in St. Philip parish and met with our host, Janet. After Janet gave us the tour of the place and we unpacked a bit, we headed out and went to Oistin's Fish Market down on the south coast in Christchurch parish.
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| Oistin's, just heatin' up! |
Every Friday the Oistin's FM is happening! Music, dancing and food! We parked in the lot behind the KFC. As we began our walk over to the market we met Ronald Thomas in the parking lot. We started up a conversation and found out he is a local business man. He and his wife, Denise have the Caribbean Craft Creations. Ronald is a leather artisan and creates footwear, belts, bags, wallets etc and Denise runs the shop!
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| Ronald and Denise! |
Ronald pointed us the right direction to the stage in the centre of the market and told us to go to Mo's and ask for his daughter, Ronalda and she would take care of us for dinner!
What a great atmosphere! The hustle and bustle, the sites and sounds, the crowds, it was great!
As we walking over to Mo's, 3 ladies walked up to us and asked us if we were from Boston (I was wearing my Bruins Tshirt!) The gals were all from Boston and had all worked together, now Kim Hennessy had retired and moved to Barbados! We plan on getting together with Kim later and pick her brain about life on Barbados for expats!
The Friday night at the market runs until 2 am! We were pretty bagged from the last couple of days of travel and were feeling some jet lag so were back at the villa around 10 pm. It was definitely and great first day here!
Our first morning here we woke up to a fantastic view of the ocean! Palm trees waving to us in the breeze, beautiful sunshine warming the morning! Wow, it was awesome! Munchie was looking out at the vista and called me over as she thought the "rocks" out in the field were moving! The "rocks" were brown goats! Munchie didn't have her glasses on!
Once we got squared away we headed off to explore a bit and take care of some "chores", groceries and a local sim card! Our first stop was the Sheraton Mall, about 25 minutes by car from the villa. Being a mall, it was right up Munchie's alley! We walked around the mall and found a Dollar store and picked up some "essentials". We also found the Flow cell phone outlet and picked up a sim.
We drove over to Fitt's village to checkout our accommodations there, Anya's Place, another AirBnB that we move into March 5th. We will enjoy that side of the island as well! While the Seaview is more rural, and remote, Anya's is more "urban" with a lot more hustle and bustle happening all around! Anya's is also a 2 minute walk to the beach! Up at Seaview, we have about a 7 minute walk to the beach at Bottom Bay! However Bottom bay is on the Atlantic side and isn't the best for swimming, but the beach is gorgeous! The beach over at Fitt's is on the west side, Caribbean sea side and being on the leeward side of the island, is much calmer. Another perk that Munchie pointed out, there is a beach side restaurant/bar across the street from Anya's!
On our return to Seaview, we came upon a car pulled over on Hwy 6 with their hazard lights flashing and a couple attempting to wave anyone over. To me it was apparent they were in need of some assistance so I pulled over to see if we could help. Well, as it turns out the couple, Jeremy and Sarah, from Toronto, Canada, and their 2 daughters, Zyla (13yrs) and Dahlia (10yrs) had run out of gas! They had arrived on Barbados on Thursday and had been out exploring. They were on their way back to their AirBnB, which happens to be just a few minutes from our place! We gave Jeremy a ride to the gas station at 6 Roads where he bought some gas (and a gas can!) We gave him a ride back to Sarah and the girls and waited around to make sure all was well. It turned out to be a good thing we waited, their battery died in the car! So we loaded everybody up and gave them a ride to their accommodations!
I always like to find the positives in negative situations and if misfortune hadn't found Jeremy and Sarah, we would never have met them! So we are getting together here at the Seaview on Tuesday for appies, dinner and a visit! Munchie gets to cook for others, she is stoked!
So I spent my Sunday working on this post, taking breaks to help Munchie with hanging the laundry, being, as she says, vertically challenged, she struggled with reaching the clothes lines! I did get up and make coffee, one of the few domestic chores my Bride permits me to do! We also got a couple of games in as well. Just to have it on record, I was victorious at both Yahtzee and Play Nine!
Cheers!
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