Barbados
Caribbean Dreams 2001
As part of the no-summer program at EA, I started a tradition that would change my life. Since I couldn't enjoy summer in my city, I would go enjoy other cities summers. Get out and travel at least once or twice a year. Since we had just finished another version of NHL, and we were heading into winter, we were looking for somewhere tropical, somewhere Caribbean, somewhere I could use my air-miles. Well, Barbados was available... add on a couple jumper flights to the nearby islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent with BWI (British West Indies) airlines, and away we go.
The fall of 2001 was crazy times in our world, at the beginning of September, I was sent to Sweden, Finland, and Germany to promote the newly completed NHL 2002. On September 10th I arrived back home in Vancouver from Germany. The next morning all hell broke loose... 9-11, driving in to work I heard the news. F-15's were forcing planes to land at our airport, and the skies were shut down. I missed a complete airline shutdown by less than 12 hours. Over the next few weeks complete fear set in, nobody wanted to fly, vacations were cancelled, plans were changed, it was probably the least busy and safest time to travel. That didn't make us less nervous to fly.
Barbados
With a brief stopover in Dallas/Ft. Worth, we arrived on the most easternly island in the Caribbean chain, the island of Barbados. We squeezed into a small van and got dropped off at the Sandy Beach Island resort, a nice although slightly dated tropical resort. Our room was ok, the food was ok, the pool was ok, but the beach was fantastic. With most people canceling their trips or afraid to fly, we had this huge white sand beach almost all to ourselves.
Barbados is a fair sized island, so we would need to find a way to get around and explore. Mopeds were not recommended due to the driving habits of the tourists and residents, so we found the next best thing. They have these little open air cars called minimokes, they were cheap to rent, hardly used any gas, and provided a fun dune-buggy-like way to drive around and see more of the island. Of course no trip is complete without something weird happening, as we were driving from the beaches to the peak of the island, I assumed the noise I was hearing was the 'little engine that could' straining to get us up the hill. It wasn't until someone passed us and pointed out the flat tire that I realized what was causing the noise, ooops. That would need a change.
When we finally reached the peak at Gun Hill Signal Station, we came to realize several things; just how lush this tropical island was, and just how bad the signage was to get around this island. We really got to test the reverse and tight turning radius of our little minimoke, as we often had to backtrack to find where we were supposed to be going. It made it that much more rewarding as we looked across the island at the sugarcane fields, valleys and beaches below.
One of the highlights of Barbados we checked out was Harrison's Cave, a network of crystallized limestone caves chock full of brightly coloured stalagmites and stalactite's.
On a whim, we decided to check out the Barbados Wildlife Reserve, an free range park inside a mahogany forest. We are let inside the gates and are free to roam amongst the Monkeys, Flamingos, Brocket Deer, Guinea pigs, rabbits, and Patagonian Maras.
There is a huge collection of birds and reptiles, including Parrots, Pelicans, over 300 budgies, snakes, caiman, turtles and various types and sizes of Iguanas.
The highlight of the reserve is definitely the Barbados Green Monkeys, a population of about 20-30 monkeys are free to come and go inside the reserve, and we spot them all around the park in family clusters. They are very cute as we watch them groom each other, we see the young ones playing with each other. We understand they are wild creatures, but they seem so happy-go-lucky as we wander down the trails in their space, we realize they are WILD CREATURES when they bare their teeth, snarl at us and take a swipe towards me when I get just a little too close while trying to pass by them on the trail... Yoiks! Maybe it's time to go?
From the hills of Barbados we glide our minimoke down to the Eastern shores. Our first stop is an area known as Cattlewash, It is a scenic beach locale with crashing waves, golden sand, and dark blue waters. The riptide is supposed to be very strong here. Apparently it got it's name from the cattle that used to wander down the hill and into the surf... better watch where I step.
The next eastern beach area is known as Bathsheba, a collection of pools, and massive boulders that are chunks of rock formations broken off from the coral reef. There is a very popular surfing area here known as the Soup Bowl, but today it is deserted.
A big old crab tries to prevent me from going to the beach, but I can easily side-step him. We spend some time relaxing by the shore, and wind our way back past the historic churches and buildings of Barbados, and to our resort before packing up for our puddle-hopper flight to St. Lucia.