Idyllic beaches, tropical drinks, kind locals, good deals, tourists welcome…. Wrong. Add four to six foot mounds of red seaweed along all the beaches and you know you have misjudged your timing and can’t control the world’s ocean currents.
And so it begins:
Try rude people, very expensive everything, tourist traps, record high red, stinking sea grass on every beach – and you have a taste of our experience. Normally we can take Air B&B to the bank with great experiences in London and Georgia. But in typical Barbados fashion, we ran out of the luck.
The booked apartment showed ocean views, swaying palms and air conditioning. Important as we are in the Tropics in June! Reality: no windows, just slates that open to the ‘cool’ breeze, one room with AC that was barely working, a sliding door that did not lock to a pool than could not be used. And the view… dirty back yards, unfinished construction, disorganized electrical wires and running chickens about 3 blocks away from the ocean. And that was the first hour.
The management company for Air B&B came through for us. At a price. Make that 3 times the original investment but by then we were pretty punch drunk and miserable. The exclusive White Sands Beach Villas was just the right tonic to smooth flustered minds and bruised egos. Right on a small beach – with little sea grass and white sand.
So what to do? Discover public transport: yellow buses (private, mobile karaoke mini-vans), blue and yellow buses (public transport on island time) and taxis. Yellow buses = $2.00 anywhere on a local route. Catch a blue and yellow bus from ‘going to town’ or ‘going out of town’ bus shelters for $2 as well. Cabs = $30 minimum for 5 to 20 miles.
The second hour went even further south. ‘Walking distance’ to a grocery store became an ordeal on a narrow road with no pavements for almost 2 miles. With buses and mini vans blowing horns and scream rude remarks to Kyla and Rylin. A cab and 3 bags of groceries later – not to mention almost $60 – we started hour number 5 in ‘paradise’.
Once in Barbados, you start to shop. With your eyes that is, as most items are beyond a reasonable price for the average family. The exchange rate is fixed to US$1:B$2. But seeing that most food and consumables are imported, you pretty much pay double. For example, a gallon of fresh whole milk = US$8. Sames goes for breakfast ($12 – 16pp); lunch ($18 – 25pp); and supper ($27 – 35pp). Times four people and you look at $200 – $400 a day.
The main reason for our trip was the Dye wedding: Nick and cousin Kerry Lee invited Kyla to be part of their wedding party at the all inclusive Sandals Resort. We have often contemplated a stay at one of these resorts and it is nice. But you can only eat and drink so much. The wedding party decided on a traditional ‘fish fry’ at Oistins. Advertised at $25 per head. All said and done it was $80 a head with a few beers thrown in. Mediocre fish, shrimp and tons of rice with beans. The only highlight was ‘Banks’, the local beer.
Sandals is a nice place as mentioned but we were thrown out – twice. Long story but we made the wedding. Should have started at 4:00pm but ended up starting at 6:00pm with an officiator that no one could hear and four rain squeals – having everyone running for cover with their plates of food. Will I spend $300 a night there? Hell no.
Barbados covers only 166 square miles and has some beauty in parts – if the beaches are ignored. Cricket is part of life and you can watch a match almost every day of the week somewhere. GDP runs around $4.3 billion – about what Bill Gates make in a year. The capital is Bridgetown and the population is less than 400,000. Diversity is rive as many Jamaicans and folks from Trinidad have settled on the island. Famous for their ‘first daughter’ Rihanna, the island falls under British rule but self management.
Will be go back? Probably not. After verbally reprimanding men making rude and vulgar remarks to the girls for the third time, the after taste of the island is just a little bitter. This might sound like a bitching session about money and prices and to an extend it is. We always budget per day for any travel and missed this one by a long mile. The local cricket matches whoever, was free!