Wednesday, April 3rd. More Albertans Arrive!
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We woke up this morning with eager anticipation! Our friends Dave and Pat will be arriving on AC966 with the arrival time for around 2 pm. My flight tracker app told me they will be arriving about 1/2 hour early.
We had our new chariot delivered in the morning. The new "Blue Lighting" , a Toyota Vitz, was newer than the first but about the same size. The Vitz definitely has more "get up and go" and, (BJ, Yoyo, Dan, JT, Shannon) there is no "hesitation" on the acceleration! An inside joke that our friends will get!
Dave & Pat's flight got as the app predicted, about 30 minutes ahead of the ETA. We got to the airport at about the time they were taxiing up to the gate. It was about another 30 minutes for them to get their bags and clear customs. I do so enjoy picking up friends at the airport, especially when it is on a tropical island! When you first step off the air-plane and and that hot, humid air whacks you in the face, you know you aren't in Alberta anymore! So far all of our friends who have flown in from Alberta, 1st, BJ & Yolanda, then Dan, then JT & Shannon, before Dave and Pat, all the boys, were wearing pants! Dan remedied that in the parking lot! Dave, however arrived ready to go! Good on you Dave!
Our ride from the airport to Fitt's village was without incident and not really a new experience to Dave and Pat. They have travelled extensively worldwide so driving on narrow roads on the "wrong" left side is not new to them! Although, with all of Dave's globe trotting, he has not been to the Caribbean! He has been on every continent with the exception of Antarctica!
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It was an early night, understandably, as the red eye from Edmonton takes its toll on you,especially if you struggle with sleeping on an air plane! So far all of our visitors have followed similar routes down here, Edmonton (red eye) to Toronto, Toronto (8am ish) to Barbados. You end up being up for close to 24 hours!
Thursday April 4th, 2024 Harrison Point Lighthouse
With a good night's rest everyone was recharged and we took our first tour. We headed north up to Speightstown. After a drive through the town, we stopped at Heywood's Beach. This is the beach across from the Caboose Seafood. We were going to have a beverage, but unfortunately it was closed! I had a chat with the owner, he was doing maintenance and said he wouldn't be open until next week.
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| Harrison Point |
From Heywood's, we took a drive up to the lighthouse at Harrison Point. Even though it was our second time up there, it was still a pretty cool spot. The view from the top of the lighthouse just doesn't get old! The visit gave Dave an opportunity to bring his Canon to bear on the surrounding vistas and shoot! Dave is quite the photographer. He modestly insists he is just an amateur. But I've seen some of his pictures from his world wide travels, they are spectacular! In my humble opinion, they match up to many "professional" photographs out there! Dave likes nature shots, so the majority of his pics are not marred by "people" in the shots! You know how artists can be, maybe a bit temperamental, maybe a tad "quirky"?
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| 104 steps up! |
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| Inside the "lantern" room! |
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| Outside! |
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| What a view! |
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| Hello down there! |
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| Chillin with her Kindle! |
Dave loved the view and vista and his Canon barrel was red hot from all the shooting!
From the lighthouse we took a drive up to the Salmond area just past Crab Hill. There's a villa there that we wanted to look for maybe a future stay here!
Google showed it as Sunset Point and there was a restaurant beside it called "Catch 22". As you can see from the map shot, you can't get much farther north on the island! If we were to stay up there, we would most definitely look at getting a car! Still, the drive to the airport would be around an hour, nothing for Albertans who look at an hour drive as not a big deal! People often spent double that commuting to work!
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| Catch 22, what a view! |
We stopped for a beverage at the Catch 22.
There was a cement path and steps that led down to the sea. Dave, Pat and I took a walk down to have a look. It was pretty cool!
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| The view! |
While we were taking the steps down to the sea, Munchie was busy taking "steps" towards our possible future stay here on Bim! She met the property manager of the Sunset villa, Jerome! He graciously offered to show us the units! They were great! Nice open 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom units! Although, no AC, the constant breeze was quite cooling! The view, the pool, the fact I could ride my bicycle safely in the area, were the pluses offsetting the negatives of the remote location!
I will keep you posted on our quest to return for a longer stay here in Barbados!
On our way back to Fitts, we made a pit stop for a nibble and refresher at the Little Bristol in Speightstown.
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| Sunset 2 for Dave and Pat |
We ended off the day with another Bajan sunset!
Friday April 5th, 2024 Oistins Fish Fry!
We spent most of the day chillin' as the evening plan was to have Dave and Pat experience the Fish Fry!
Rather than fight the crowds for a table at Oistins we zipped up to Holetown and had fish there at Just Grillin' ! The catch of the day was marlin and mahi mahi. We had a sampling of both and both were very good!
When we got to the Fish Fry it was already hopping! We stopped by and said "hi" to Ronald, Denise and the girls were off island. We went by Munchie's favorite "bar". She says the lady there makes the best vodka sours! I think its because, not only does the lady use Grey Goose, but she also free pours! We snaked our way through the throngs and found an good spot to watch the show on the stage. The local dancers were again preforming to the DJ's music. I must say, these guys are in shape! Watching them was exhausting! And Pat got to see something she had never witnessed before, an illegal drug transaction! Just beside us was a young "entrepreneur" who made a "sale" while we were there watching the show! Pat was amazed and wondered at the brazenness of the young fellow seeming not to have any worries of being so open in his dealing! Although cannabis possession and distribution is illegal in Barbados, possession of small amounts is subject to a fine (about $200BB$ from what I have read). Trafficking, however carries much stronger penalties, making me also wonder at the apparent cavalier attitude of the young man! Brave or stupid? I shrug my shoulders here!
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After getting our fill of the entertainment at Oistins, we headed off to catch the live entertainers at Blakey's! Being Friday night, Jae Johansen and Gochita were playing. It was a nice way to end the evening!
Saturday, April 6th, 2024 Game night at Wendy's!
We spent the afternoon right here on our beach at Fitts! Dave tried his hand at boogie boarding!
Later on we went up to Wendy's as we were able to get them to stream some NCAA final four basketball games on one of their big screen! I think we got the game just because there were no rugby or soccer matches on at that time! We got to watch a young lady, Caitlin Clark, who plays for Iowa. She is hands down the best player in the women's NCAA at this time. Her stats are unbelievable! We got to see some of the men's game after Iowa played, but just about at the halftime break, Wendy's closed! It was still a great evening for us Bball enthusiasts. Thanks to Pat and Brenda for indulging us!
Sunday, April 7th, 2024 Horses swimming!
We were told about the race horses here swimming in the early morning down at Pebbles Beach. They are said to go from about 4:30am to about 9am, depending on the surf conditions. So, this morning B&E (bright and early!) we departed our lodging at 05:45hrs and drove down to Pebbles Beach.
When we arrived there were already a few horses swimming and playing in the surf! Even though we thought we were up early, there were lots of people already there! It was a wonderful way to start our day! It looked like the horses were really enjoying themselves!
This young lady also seemed to be enjoying the experience!
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| Sunbury Plantation |
In the afternoon, we took a drive over to the Sunbury Plantation north of 6 Roads in St. Philip. The house was first built about 300 years ago! It is billed as being the only plantation house on the island where you can view all the rooms. It was a pretty cool piece of Barbadian history! Munchie loved the dining room! With seating for 22, it would just about accommodate one of her family dinners!
We had a guided tour and our guide, Dante, was a wonderful young man with a great sense of humour! After the tour we had a beverage in the court yard. A nice way to finish the afternoon!
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| Dave at work! |
On our way back to Fitts, we took a little detour and went over to Bottom Bay. Dave had his Canon and needed to do some "shooting"! We were hoping Ash would be there, but no such luck. Dave was able to satisfy his photo "jones" with some shots of what is described in quite a few Barbados info sites as the best spot on the island for pictures of palm trees!
For his "perfect" shots, he did venture out into the surf, fortunately he was quick enough to avoid being swept out to sea!
And although, as we know, he prefers not to "clutter" his scenes with people, he will take some shots with his favourite model posing for him, Pat!
Tuesday, April 9, 2024 Wendy's football (soccer) and Blakey's!
In the afternoon, we went up to Wendy's to watch Champion's League Soccer! Man City vs Real Madrid and Bayern Munich vs Arsenal. There were quite a few british expats and locals there to take in the matches! At times it was quite raucous! Munchie enjoyed that there was a pool, unfortunately, she pulled the score 2 nil for Arsenal. The game ended up with a 2 2 draw! The other match also ended in a 3 3 draw!
After the games we zipped up to Holetown and picked up Marcus (from the TBQ). He had stayed on another week solo after Natalie, Kendal and Paul all went back to Thunderbay on the 5th. He had found an Airbnd that was a studio created out of a sea can which was just perfect for one person! It was just north of Holetown. Marcus had been doing a lot of spear fishing, snorkelling and swimming! We thought he might like to join us and hang out with some old farts for bit at Blakey's. We were meeting Kim and her friend there. A musician from Canada was supposed to be playing, however, when we got there we learned, there wouldn't be any entertainment that evening. Too bad. But we did get to meet Kim's friend Tammy. Tammy was from Edmonton, Alberta! She had recently moved here! It was a great evening!
Tomorrow, Dave and Pat will have been here a week! It's been busy.
I will be posting more of our adventures soon!
Cheers to all!
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