An Island of contrasts...........

Bridgetown, Barbados. Wed 27/04/2011

An island of contrasts......

After docking at Bridgetown we hired our local taxi for our sightseeing tour around the island. With a population of 265,000 Barbados is the biggest of the Caribbean islands. It gained independence from England in 1966 and is successfully governed by a parliamentary government. The only highway on the island(which they are very proud of! ) is named the ABC Highway after three very popular Prime Ministers (each letter the beginning of their surname) who all did great things for the development of Barbados as an independent country. Rum and Sugar are the main industries on the island. Cattle farming for meat is popular in the central areas of the island -  the land is provided by the government and the cattle are tagged with each farmers individual tags so they can identify their cattle. 

As we travelled out of town and up the west coast we passed the Rum factory which exports its rum to England and Europe, as well as the Kingston Stadium where the cricket is played. Again Barbados is the home of many of the world’s greatest cricketers - Sir Garfield Sobers, Wesley Hall and Frank Worrall all hail from here.

The poorer inner city housing areas lined the road heading north but amazingly across the road they had the beautiful local Brandons and Brighton Beaches! 

Only a bit further up the coast we arrived at the exclusive area of Sandy Lane in the St Thomas Parish where the luxury homes and hotels line the beaches of the Caribbean Sea. 

Such a contrast! As we drove through the immaculate Sandy Lane Golf Course we were lucky enough to see the cute Barbados Green Monkey - some where shy but the cheeky one who was game to come down scored a banana form one of the taxi drivers.

This Sandy Lane area is popular with celebrities. Rhianna, and David Beckham and family, have homes in this beautiful parish of St Thomas.Tiger Woods was married at the luxurious Sandy Bay Hotel.

We passed through busy Holetown and visited the St James Parish Church (1626) which is the oldest church in Barbados.  From there we headed inland through the verdant fields

of the farming communities to Mt Hillaby- the highest point on the island at 1,300 feet, where we had a great view back over the rolling green hills to the coast. Unfortunately we struck our first bit of rain in this lush area and so the visibility was diminished a bit, and it certainly didn’t do much for the humidity!  Many of the poorer people in Barbados live in the inland areas. 

As we headed back into the St Michael Parish we travelled through the sugar cane fields and a beautiful plant nursery which grew magnificent red and pink ginger and other tropical plants which are prepared and sent to London for the Chelsea Flower Show each year.

Our last stop before being deposited in Bridgetown was the most popular beach in town, Carlisle Bay, where lots of tanned bodies were enjoying the silky white sand and the enticing green water of the Caribbean!  Bridgetown is quite a big, busy city and the Barbadians, many dressed in their business attire where busily going about their daily work and activities. Some of the back streets showed a bit different side to the city with its markets and street stalls and some “shady” looking nightclubs. 

We enjoyed exploring the bit of Barbados we saw but being bigger and more advanced than the other islands we have visited we didn’t find it as exciting and or as dramatically beautiful. No doubt with more exploration of other areas of Barbados and the eastern coastline on the Atlantic Ocean our first impressions probably would change.

Accompanied by a beautiful sunset we set sail on course for our last port of call on the cruise - St Kitts. 

A busy, fun night of entertainment  - what to do???  “The Phat Phunny Man” with Dave Heenan; magic with Magician Greg Gleason; and/ or American Graffiti Revisited with Jose and Patti!    Dave Heenan, and Jose and Patti!