Well, our time in Barbados is drawing to a close. Today is our last full day. It's been challenging on some fronts and rewarding on some fronts. Would we come back? YES! Would we change some things about the island visit? YES! It seems that, try as they may, the tourism bureau has not made navigating the island very easy without a car. Yes, the buses do come often, but they are often standing room only, the bus drivers seeming to ignore the posted sign for how many people should be onboard. Signs to get places are often non-existent to confusing.People giving directions from information areas such as the bus station don't give it in enough detail to be of any use. Several times, after asking someone to repeat what they had just said, I was told just go to number 12 and ask the driver, or just ask someone when you get off the bus where to go. This might seem like good information to the person who lives here, but to a stranger, it is just not comforting.
It's expensive here for an American. Canadians and the British get a higher exchange rate than do Amercians, which could be why we are the only ones who think that food is expensive.
They don't grow enough food here. We heard several reasons for this, from "the people are too lazy"," we don't have enough time" to "the salt gets on the leaves and kills the plants." Whatever the reason, this should be remedied. We expected, at the very least, to be able to buy local tomatoes, pineapples and oranges at a reasonable price. Instead, whatever was available was blemished and expensive.
The people are priceless. Almost everyone that we met was welcoming and friendly. We felt mostly safe here, the exception being when we were approached by drug addicts trying to get money from us in Bridgetown and at the beach in Worthing.
It's a great destination for getting close to the sun and experiencing summer every day. As the country develops more and the locals begin to grow and make more things that are actually Barbadian, we think it can't be anything but a stellar place to vacation.
Monday, 28 February 2011
Just when you think it's safe to take a shower....
Sunday was a very busy day for us here on the island. We got a wakeup call from a neighbor at 5:50 AM to go to church with her. Church starts at 7AM. We raced around getting ready, gulped down a cup of coffee and a danish and out the door with us at 6:30 AM. After church, we walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to town to see the agricultural fest, but the neighbor drove by and stopped and said she'd drive us there. $30 to get in and $1 for a map. The first thing that Gordon wanted was food, as it was now around 9AM and he can't go more than 2 1/2 hrs without food or...well, I'm not sure "or what" because I'm not sure that he has ever gone that long without food. So we found the "Plantation Breakfast" which was there on the grounds. The tent was crowded and we thought "oh, a buffet". This looks promising! The first appetite killer was the price..$25 each! Gordon said that was ok, because, with the cost of food here and "all you can eat" (not sure where he got THAT idea), that it was a fair price. So we plunked down $50 and got a red ticket that, ONE FOOT LATER, they collected in a white plastic bucket and gave us a plate and a plastic fork and knife wrapped in a paper napkin. First dish was scrambled eggs. I was given ONE TABLESPOON of these! OK, I thought, there must be more food ahead and they want to save room on my plate. Next up, FLYING FISH! OMG! What kind of maniacal mind came up with THIS for breakfast???!!! "No, thank you", I said and stepped to the next dish. "Salt Fish?" the kid asked me. "I keep from shrieking! "no fish", I said. But, inside, I was about to shout out, "are you people nuts??!!" Next was bacon. Yes! Bacon! They gave me 3 pieces of half cooked bacon, usually a turn off for me unless it's crisp, but Bacon! Next looked like scrambled eggs with stuff in it. More fish! And they disguised it in eggs!. I passed. Then there were things that looked like mini sweet potato torpedoes. "No fish in this?", I asked. They said no so I took one. Next there was curried chicken and they slapped a drumstick on my plate. Then curried lamb. All I could think about was "Mary had a little lamb", and here it was, swimming in curry. Ok, it wasn't fish, so I had a tablespoon of it. Then there was flour mixed with water and steamed into something almost edible. I got one of those. There was a bisquick biscuit of some sort with currants in it. I got one of those. And then there was HAM! Now, that was good, but I was given only a small piece of this. We got to the soup tureen and were told we couldn't have any for some reason that I could NOT understand, even after the boy said it 3 times, so we moved on to the drinks. "Sweet tea", I said. I might as well have been speaking alien talk because he looked at me very strange and I repeated it. He said "lemonade?", so I said ok. Then we found our seats. When Gordon went back for soup after foraging through the things on our plate, he was told he couldn't have any because he didn't have a ticket! Remember the ticket that they collected right after collecting our 50 bucks? Well, I complained to our table girl and she got us a bowl of "crab soup". We knew that it was crab soup because it was BROWNISH YELLOW and had a crab claw floating in it. OK, maybe the brownish yellow didn't scream crab soup. Gordon had 2 spoons of it and said "it must be an acquired taste". He tried to get coffee to wash it down, but the coffee pot was always empty, so we moved on. We walked around for several hours, our colons trying hard to process the $50 food fest we had just subjected them to. We finally found a bathroom where we found out that this food can be just as bad going as coming. We caught a bus to the bus station and another bus home. We got nice and crispy around the pool for 2 hours and then back to the apartment to lay in the ac where I watched a race for awhile through the miracle of technology on son's tv thousands of miles away. For supper, I stir fried some vegetables and chicken and added local seasoning that we picked up at the supermarket. It tasted like a raisin sauce. I did the dishes and decided to turn off the race and get a shower. It was already dark and I was tired. I got undressed, got both feet over the side of the tub and got the shower water on when everything went black! "Gordon!", I shouted. "Stay where you are", he shouted back. "It's a power failure". "I'll get the flashlight". I heard drawers opening and then he shouted "where's the flashlight?". "Locked in the safe" I shouted back. Probably not the brightest idea I've had here, to lock the flashlight in an electronically locked safe. "It belongs in the drawer!", he shouted back. Well, this was no time for an argument over who has the bigger brain, so I felt my way along the wall to turn off the water and to gingerly step out of the tub. "Follow my voice" he said. Ok, I did that and ended up on the bed to wait out the power failure. It was getting hotter by the minute with no fans or ac and we couldn't open the doors and windows because of,mosquitoes, so I got the brilliant idea of turning on the battery operated laptop and carrying it to the bathroom where I managed to shower by the light from it. Luckily, the screen saver didn't take it to black during the hasty shower. I was drying off when the lights came back on and then I got the flashlight out of the safe for him. I'll bet the power stays on for the rest of our vacation now that we're ready for it.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Everyday's the 4th of Juky
On the 4th of July, the weather is wonderfully hot and humid and nobody is in a hurry to get anywhere or do anything. That's island life every day. The people here make frozen molasses in January look speedy. I watched a worker at the supermarket putting 12 packages of Jello pudding on the shelf. She would place one, then study it, rearrange it and stand back and look at it. Then she would rest, then reach for another one and repeat this. She got to 3, then put one back and rested some more. I think I've seen corpses in caskets move more than this! By the time we were ready to leave the store, she had still not finished, so I guess she probably took a lunch break.
The store was hopping today. They had gotten maple syrup in! Only $48 for a small tin! No thank you, ma'am!!! We managed to get out with only spending $128. Found out why we complain about the prices and the Brits and Canadians don't. We get a 1.98 BDS to the US dollar. The Brits and Canadians get much more. No wonder we feel poor. Gordon's in mourning because beer went up a dollar. Guess we'll have to cut back on the food because you'd die here without a cold beer. At least that's what he tells me.
The store was hopping today. They had gotten maple syrup in! Only $48 for a small tin! No thank you, ma'am!!! We managed to get out with only spending $128. Found out why we complain about the prices and the Brits and Canadians don't. We get a 1.98 BDS to the US dollar. The Brits and Canadians get much more. No wonder we feel poor. Gordon's in mourning because beer went up a dollar. Guess we'll have to cut back on the food because you'd die here without a cold beer. At least that's what he tells me.
"This breakfast was almost civilized"
It looked like rain but then the sun came out. Now it's clouding up again. We have no plans for today except that we have to finance the supermarket so that they can meet their payroll this week and we can have orange juice for breakfast.
Gordon said his breakfast was "almost civilized" this morning. I made a cheese omelet for him with substandard cheese and eggs that only took a 1/2 hr to break the shell. He made a sandwich of it on a hamburger bun with ketchup, figuring that ketchup can cover almost any taste.No meat again this morning. Can't wait to get off the island and get a decent meal with meat and real cheese and potatoes that don't have black spots in them and fresh fruits and vegetables..all of the things that an island SHOULD have but this one doesn't.I had a crumpet and juice because I cannot face another plain egg or another bowl of oatmeal. To say that we have been lacking in delicious meals is an understatement. Flavor has been an illusive goal here. We have settled for just trying to get nutrition, though I think we missed the goal with the crackers and warm water for lunch at the cave! If we were willing to sign over our life savings for a delicious steak meal at a restaurant, we wouldn't be able to complain, but what fun would that be:) Can't even imagine how much that could cost, when the Indian lunch with about 4oz total of chicken split between us, was $100.Some things you just can't buy, no matter how much money you have, like maple syrup and avocados, unblemished vegetables and good hamburger.
We have classified the birds, which means we've been here maybe too long. The black ones are "men in black" and are the most vocal birds I've met. The little ones are "walnuts with wings" and are as cute as little baby chicks, but doesn't prevent me from screaming, "hey..get off the bed".."hey, get out of my kitchen", "hey, get out of my house". It is a constant battle when the doors are open. I could record these statements and..OMG! I just had to chase one off the rug inside the front door as I was typing this!
We see baby doves all of the time. Never saw baby doves before. These adult doves have been mating since we got here. Must be the full moon and the romantic tropical breezes.
Well, I must stop and wash the dishes and pans (crime instruments) and get on with the day. My dreams these days are of everything I see on the Food Network, what I now call my porn channe
Gordon said his breakfast was "almost civilized" this morning. I made a cheese omelet for him with substandard cheese and eggs that only took a 1/2 hr to break the shell. He made a sandwich of it on a hamburger bun with ketchup, figuring that ketchup can cover almost any taste.No meat again this morning. Can't wait to get off the island and get a decent meal with meat and real cheese and potatoes that don't have black spots in them and fresh fruits and vegetables..all of the things that an island SHOULD have but this one doesn't.I had a crumpet and juice because I cannot face another plain egg or another bowl of oatmeal. To say that we have been lacking in delicious meals is an understatement. Flavor has been an illusive goal here. We have settled for just trying to get nutrition, though I think we missed the goal with the crackers and warm water for lunch at the cave! If we were willing to sign over our life savings for a delicious steak meal at a restaurant, we wouldn't be able to complain, but what fun would that be:) Can't even imagine how much that could cost, when the Indian lunch with about 4oz total of chicken split between us, was $100.Some things you just can't buy, no matter how much money you have, like maple syrup and avocados, unblemished vegetables and good hamburger.
We have classified the birds, which means we've been here maybe too long. The black ones are "men in black" and are the most vocal birds I've met. The little ones are "walnuts with wings" and are as cute as little baby chicks, but doesn't prevent me from screaming, "hey..get off the bed".."hey, get out of my kitchen", "hey, get out of my house". It is a constant battle when the doors are open. I could record these statements and..OMG! I just had to chase one off the rug inside the front door as I was typing this!
We see baby doves all of the time. Never saw baby doves before. These adult doves have been mating since we got here. Must be the full moon and the romantic tropical breezes.
Well, I must stop and wash the dishes and pans (crime instruments) and get on with the day. My dreams these days are of everything I see on the Food Network, what I now call my porn channe
Monday, 21 February 2011
Trying to board a bus with souvenier money?
We walked the 1/2 mile to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited and finally a Bridgetown bus came. Got to Bridgetown where we got conflicting advice from some "information" person, which is a laughable title. If they don't know, they just make up stuff. We were told to buy tokens to get on a bus to take us to the OTHER bus station, where we would be given a transfer to go to the cave. We took a transfer bus out of the main terminal to go 1/4 mile( which took forever). After 20 min of riding and numerous stops, we passed within sight of the original bus station and later we found ourselves at the other bus station where we caught a bus called some weird name that started with an S that was not on any map that we have, but yippee. Many, many bumps later, after having careened through small villages where abandoned cars on blocks took up almost ALL of the available road space, and yet the bus squeezed through, we were at the cave.
We made our way to the ticket window and the woman said "$120 please". Gordon said "WHAT?? DOES THAT INCLUDE LUNCH?" "No mon", she said, "no food available here". Well, I got out two $50 travelers checks (USD) and she said that I would have to pay $3 to cash them! Ok, graft is alive and well in Barbados.
We got the elevator down to the $120 cave and found that we would be riding a tram through it. This cave was so commercialized. Seemed to be dug out by people rather than natural and the roof dripped on us for the entire 35 minute trip.
We disembarked and commenced to go to the exterior of the building. There were a number of small vendor huts. Gordon said maybe we could get food there (fool that he is). No food there. The woman was right. Gordon was getting hungry and ugly. We made our way up to the exit and were told the bus came every 1/2 hr to go to town and it would be there in 20 min. No problem. After an hour, we decided to eat some crackers that we had packed and have some warm water to wash them down. (for breakfast, all we had was crumpets and coffee and juice thinking that we would eat a good lunch. NOT!) After 1 hr and a half, we thought that we might be spending the night in a cave (if we could scrape another $120 together to get back in). About the 2 1/2 hr mark or so, the bus finally came. It was a school bus, as we would soon learn, as we picked up hundreds (OK, maybe thousands) of school kids at every bus stop we passed. We were packed in so tight that it made us appreciate the spaciousness of former bus rides when we were only packed in like sardines. By the way, we noted that little school kids don't sweat as much as adults, making them much less non-stick.
Finally, we arrived at a stop where a mass of humanity exited the bus. Ah! Our ribs can expand at last! But wait! There's more. Physically challenged people with walkers and wheelchairs were waiting at the next stop. Drat. Must we really give up our seats? Nah! If fetuses are on their own, so are the lame.
We see a very white couple..whiter than we used to be when we got here, ask where to get off for Oistens. Somewhere in the melee, we saw them exit in a very questionable part of the island that we would never exit a bus at. Obviously the wrong stop for them. We never saw them again. May God rest their soul.
We finally got to the terminal (the alternate bus terminal) where we were given bogus information about which bus to catch for the main terminal. This was supposed to be a shuttle bus where we would only pay one time. Forget that. After underway, the driver told us he doesn't give transfers, that we would have had to get the shuttle (which we thought we were on) and we would have to pay again at the next terminal. By this time, I was down to an American $2 bill, legal tender all over the universe EXCEPT with the next bus driver who accused me of trying to pay with a souvenir bill and he demanded that I put 2 one dollar bills in real money in the collection box. I refused, explaining to him that I already paid him $2 American which equals 4 dollars Bajan which is the bus fare. We were at an impasse. He would not let us pass and we would not let anyone else on the bus. Long lines were forming and tempers were rising. People were shouting "What is the problem, mon?". I shouted "The problem is that this man won'rt accept valid US currency for the fare"" The bus driver tried to hush me, but I would have none of it, so he called the only other white woman on the bus forward and asked her "Did they start using $2 bills again in the US?". She said "What;s the problem?" (she was not even American, rather, French Canadian) She told the driver that they use this currency all of the time, so he held up the bill as if he were a currency expert, and gave us 2 receipts. OMG! They drive buses and handle money every day! He was sure that it was a souvenir bill. The topper was when Gordon told him that he might want to save it as a souvenir! I'm surprised that we didn't go to jail!
We finally got to the main terminal where we waited in line for 20 min for a bus and then were told to get on a different bus for some unknown reason my a local expert in buses perhaps? Anyhow, this bus was standing room only after we got the last 2 seats and we arrived back in our town about 3/4 mile from home. We got off the bus early because we noted that people walking were making better time than this bus in traffic.We made our way to to the supermarket via a shortcut through the gas station parking lot and bought the essentials..beer and rum..oh, and mayonnaise. Then we started to walk the road of death (no sidewalks-rush hour) up the rocky path uphill all the way to home, stopping traffic with my cane when necessary to get to whatever sidewalk remains from all the traffic crushing it for years. We felt fortunate that this trip took so long, because at this point in the walk home, we would be burning up in the afternoon sun. Because this took so long, we had cooler temps in which to drag our sorry asses home and take stock of the day.
We didn't kill any goats today but it was close.
Bus fares: $20
Cave admissions $120
Lunch-crackers and warm water that we carried with us
grocery bill:$37
Experience: priceless
We are too tired to make supper and eat it. One or the other would work. Not both. So we had cheese crackers and olives and rum. Let's not forget rum.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Americans take so much for granted
After being here in Barbados for nearly a month, I can see how much we Americans take things for granted. Something as simple as food safety, for example. Our meat is inspected, trimmed, packaged well. We have a huge selection of meats and vegetables and fruits. Here, I have found that the meat is not great in quality or quantity. The hamburger is a coarse ground with too much fat in it. No markings on the package to tell you what percentage is fat. Lots of things are only available frozen. The prices of almost everything are very high. Lots of street vendors with questionable food. No guarantees on freshness or how it was stored or handled. I miss those things. No Canadian or Vermont maple syrup. A simple thing, but my pancakes went wanting for it this morning.
A punch in the nose and almost kidnapped
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Sometime in the middle of the night I was taking off my sleep shirt in bed and my hand slipped and I socked Gordon right in the nose! Why he was that close to me in a king sized bed is beyond me. He sat up and said "why'd you do that?". I said "that was for losing my car in my other dream". He was confused. I told him to just go back to sleep.
Yesterday evening he got a phone call from a man we'd never met (except he talked to him once on the 2 way radio) to go to the airport to watch planes take off (must be a man thing). Well, Gordon was waiting at the round about and this white van pulled up and the man jumped out and opened the sliding van door. Gordon said, "Mike?" and the guy said "Hi" and Gordon handed him his card and said "I don't think I can get in the back of the van over all of these tools", and the man said "You not supposed to get in the van mon..I fix your car". Gordon said "I don't have a car". He said "Have you been waiting long" and Gordon said "no" and the man continued to look at Gordon's card and Gordon finally said, "you're not the Mike who's a ham radio operator, are you?", and the man said "No mon, I just here to fix you car". Well, it turns out that the Mike Gordon was waiting for was not this repair man, coincidentally named Mike, who came to fix someone's car!
The "right" Mike finally came and whisked him away and I started to worry at once. Man we never met calling on the phone to take Gordon to the airport. Could be a kidnapping of a "rich American" for ransom! I tried to research the man's phone number on the internet and got the name of a Maurice..not Mike. Ok, I thought, I'll look up the number to call the police..211 here. I figured I'd wait till 1/2 hr past when he was due back and then I'd call the police and the American Embassy (fat chance that THEY'LL be in the night of the Oisten's fish-fry) So then I thought I'd have to get a cab to the fish fry and try to find some official looking people. Well, 3 minutes before the deadline, Gordon showed up with this man in tow. He was some tall, native man who had his kids with him and just wanted to show Gordon the commercial flights taking off and landing at the airport. Apparently that's a big thing here on Saturday nights. Hey, it's free. Good thing they didn't want ransom money. I wonder if kidnappers tale traveler's checks?
Yesterday evening he got a phone call from a man we'd never met (except he talked to him once on the 2 way radio) to go to the airport to watch planes take off (must be a man thing). Well, Gordon was waiting at the round about and this white van pulled up and the man jumped out and opened the sliding van door. Gordon said, "Mike?" and the guy said "Hi" and Gordon handed him his card and said "I don't think I can get in the back of the van over all of these tools", and the man said "You not supposed to get in the van mon..I fix your car". Gordon said "I don't have a car". He said "Have you been waiting long" and Gordon said "no" and the man continued to look at Gordon's card and Gordon finally said, "you're not the Mike who's a ham radio operator, are you?", and the man said "No mon, I just here to fix you car". Well, it turns out that the Mike Gordon was waiting for was not this repair man, coincidentally named Mike, who came to fix someone's car!
The "right" Mike finally came and whisked him away and I started to worry at once. Man we never met calling on the phone to take Gordon to the airport. Could be a kidnapping of a "rich American" for ransom! I tried to research the man's phone number on the internet and got the name of a Maurice..not Mike. Ok, I thought, I'll look up the number to call the police..211 here. I figured I'd wait till 1/2 hr past when he was due back and then I'd call the police and the American Embassy (fat chance that THEY'LL be in the night of the Oisten's fish-fry) So then I thought I'd have to get a cab to the fish fry and try to find some official looking people. Well, 3 minutes before the deadline, Gordon showed up with this man in tow. He was some tall, native man who had his kids with him and just wanted to show Gordon the commercial flights taking off and landing at the airport. Apparently that's a big thing here on Saturday nights. Hey, it's free. Good thing they didn't want ransom money. I wonder if kidnappers tale traveler's checks?
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