Arrivals......Part 3!

 Wednesday, April 3rd.               More Albertans Arrive!

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!  

Once back at our place, Dave and Pat got settled in, and changed into more appropriate attire for the climate!  We walked over to the beach so Dave and Pat could dip their toes in the cool green waters!  We took in a sunset and then ended up at Il Tempio for pizza!  

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.  

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"? 

Up we go!

104 steps up!

Inside the "lantern" room!

Outside!

What a view!

Hello down there!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

Alone in Bim!

 Monday March 25th, 2024         Farewell to Shannon & JT!

We woke up to another gorgeous morning, however the anticipation of saying farewell to Shannon and JT did put a melancholy damper on it!  We enjoyed our last morning together with Munchie making us "perfect eggs" for breakfast!  I don't recall if I've ever mentioned the "perfect egg" thing before on any of my posts, so at the risk of HIB (heard it before) : Even though many of our friends may challenge this statement; I can be a bit fussy on certain foods!  In particular, eggs!  I prefer mine over easy.  That being said, my Munchie does them to perfection, hence "perfect eggs"!   Producing perfect eggs abroad presents some challenges for Munchkin, in particular, her culinary equipment.  In her St. Albert kitchen she has all the tools she needs to easily whip up perfect eggs.  She even has a dedicated frying pan for eggs!  While travelling, she is at the mercy of the pans available!  I must say, she rises to the challenge and shows that although good equipment can make things easier and more convenient, its the skills and ability that are key!  Back in Alberta, perfect egg day is usually Sunday.  This week, perfect egg day was Monday!

At BGI, saying farewell!

Shannon did get an alert from Westjet advising the flight leaving Barbados was delayed.  This created a bit of stress as they already had a fairly tight connection in Toronto.  On our drive to the airport, they got another alert that now showed their connecting flight was delayed 2 hours!  So no more worries about missing the connection, but instead of arriving in Edmonton at 1am, it would be closer to 3am!

On our drive back from the airport, Munchie spied a roadside vendor with produce!  We zipped in to pick up some supplies as when we got back we would be turning the chariot back in.  We opted to be car-less until Dave and Pat arrive on April 3rd.  We planned on using the local buses and see how that goes.  Munchie scored at the vendor and was happy with the produce she picked up, which included beets!  Munchie has been trying to find beets for quite some time as she wanted to make beet borscht for JT!  

Sorry JT, borscht just

wasn't in the cards for you!  On the plus side, I get borscht, and that is a bit of a story as well.  I've never been a fan of beets or beet borscht.  You see I can be a fussy eater!  However in Hawaii 2022, Munchie made beet borscht for JT. Both Shannon and I were not fans of it, but it did look so good, that we both tried some.  We both were taken a-back, it was quite tasty!  Well now I'm hooked! 

Tuesday & Wednesday March 26th & 27th, 2024  Sunsets on Fitt's!

We pretty much stayed close to home for the next couple of days.  We went down to the beach to catch the sunsets.  It was very serene and peaceful.  And, sailboats sailing across the setting sun provided some great photo ops!

Tuesday, March 26th.

On Wednesday, again, the "cats" were cooperating for more great pics!

Wednesday, March 27th.

Thursday, March 28th,               Yellow Bus to Bridgetown!

Today, we tried out the local bus system!  There are "options"!  The big blue buses are the public buses.  The yellow buses are public/private.  Then there are the ZR buses!  All buses have the same fare, $3.50 BB$.  No transfers, no passes (exception: residents over 65 and students)!  The blue buses are by far the most comfortable (unless you are travelling at peak times then its packed like a can of sardines!)  There are far more yellow buses on the road.  These guys motor!  It amazes me that any of them have side mirrors.  It is pretty obvious the drivers are very experienced and know how much room they need (we're talking within mm!) when meeting oncoming traffic and getting by parked vehicles!  Again, they pack in the passengers!  All you need to do to catch a yellow or ZR is wave at the driver and he will pull over for you! 

The ZR are mainly on the south coast, between Oistins and Bridgetown.  These guys are white with a red stripe 15 passenger vans.  I have seen some of them with closer to 20 (or more) crammed in!  The ZR's always have music rockin' and they will signal with their "la cucaracha" horns as they approach a stop or just a group of random people walking!

Typical ZR payload!

Our yellow bus ride to Bridgetown is best described as being on a roller coaster!  Fortunately most roads in Barbados, and particularly the ones nearer to Bridgedown don't allow for high speed travel. So although it felt like the bus was about to get airborne, in actuality, we likely didn't get much above 60kmph!  

On our ride, Brenda had a seat a row ahead and to my right, I was in a rear seat on the left.  Brenda sat next to a wonderful fellow, Adrian Rollins.  Brenda and Adrian soon discovered they both had a passion for cooking and Adrian was one of the cooks at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion in Holetown.  Adrian had learned his craft on the NCL cruise ships and is now an established member of the Fairmont culinary team!  I also had a bit of a connection with Adrian, his father was a police officer with the Royal Barbados Police Force for over 30 years!  And Adrian's brother is a serving member of the Force currently!  As it turned out Adrian was getting off at the stop we needed to get off at.  We had told Adrian we were heading to Pebbles Beach at Carlyle Bay.  Without hesitation, Adrian insisted he guide us through the downtown to be sure we got to our destination without getting lost!  Once he was certain we were on the right track, we parted company.  Adrian had gone out of his way to help out complete strangers!  He is another example of the Bajan people's character of kindness and caring!  Traits we have consistently found with the Bajan people we have met!

Thank you again Adrian!

We spent the afternoon on the beach and it was a great relaxing day.  

Back at home, it was banana harvest time!  Our host, Sherry handed me a knife and then pointed out where to cut and "bob's your uncle" we had a lovely bunch of bananas!  Thanks to Sherry for her generous gift!  She wanted to get the bananas before the monkeys did!  

Max mag on my phone!

After the harvest, we hit the beach for another sunset!  The Wind Star made an appearance, even though it may be hard to notice in the pic without the indicator!

Friday, March 29th,                      Oistin's Fish Fry

We took another bus ride today!  This time we hopped the blue bus.  It was quite a bit different from the yellow bus experience!  There was no transfer required!  We took the "Airport" bus as one of its stops was right at the Oistins Fish Fry.  The ride was not a white knuckle affair!  It could almost be described as tame, when compared to the yellow bus ride the day before!  Again, though, kudos to the driver's skills to operate these full sized buses on narrow, busy, congested roads!  

Brenda had ordered a pair of sandals from Denise, whom we met on day one of our Barbados adventure!  Munchie had described what she was looking for and Denise delivered!  Regardless of what else that was to transpire, Munchie was happy with her new shoes!

We walked down to "Surfer's Cafe" for a bite to eat.  It's a nice little restaurant on the beach just on the west side of the Oistin's Fish Market.  

After our meal, we headed down to the bus stop to catch the blue bus home.  Well this was not as quick and easy as the ride down!  We ended up waiting nearly 2 and a half hours for the bus!  While waiting we met a local gal, Sherri, who had been waiting for about 40 minutes when we walked up to the stop.  Sherri was a tad annoyed with the Barbados Transit Board, as being a holiday, Good Friday, they reduced the number of blue buses running.  Also, no yellow buses were running on the holiday!  Sherri, became our bus foreman, and with Munchie and me, plus 4 other visitors, a couple from Texas and a mom and teenaged daughter from England, Sherri led us down the road to the Oistin's bus terminal explaining given the infrequency of the buses, we may not get a seat one stop away from the terminal!  Sherri was right!  When the bus finally arrived, it was already half full and it was all we could do to get everyone on board!  Well, the ride home was not as comfortable as the ride down!  The bus made a number of stops along the way, and one passenger would exit and 2 would get on!  Packed like sardines does not adequately describe the inside of that bus!

  We finally made it home after 11:30 pm.  

Thanks to Sherri for her help and guidance!  (Another Bajan, looking out for random strangers!)  

Sunday, March 31st             Munchie feeds new arrivals!

Being Sunday, it was again "perfect egg day"!  My Darling Bride did not disappoint!  It was a fabulous way to start the day!  That and some games!  We enjoy all kinds of games, and play a card game called

Play Nine pretty much daily.  Sometimes multiple times throughout the day!  Another favourite of ours is Spades and our old stand by Yahtzee.  We have been playing Yahtzee together since 1977!  After perfect eggs and coffee, we whiled the morning away, chillaxin', reading and more cards!  I know, we are real live wires!

Original!      New Look!

Late afternoon, two young couples arrived in the AirBnB just above our place.  We share the driveway.  Being the introverts we are, Munchie and I started up a conversation with our new neighbours.  We invited them down for a beverage!  Kendal and Paul and Natalie and Marcus had flown in from Toronto then hopped a blue bus from the airport to Fitts.  Natalie and Marcus are actually from Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory in Canada.  Kendal and Paul are from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Being a holiday we knew none of the grocery stores were open.  Munchie asked if they had any food for the evening and they said they had some trail mix!  Well that just wouldn't do, so Munchie invited them to join us for supper!  Munchie also put together a breakfast package for them, homemade bran muffins, homemade banana bread, apples and some coffee packets!  

We chatted for a while with Brenda and I trying to provide some insight into what to see and do here on the island.  They did not have a car so would be taking the bus mostly.  

We told them that we would be taking in the sunset on the beach again and they said they would be headed down there for their first swim!  By the time Munchie and I got down to the beach The Thunder Bay Quartet (TBQ) were already out in the water!

After the sunset, we went back up.  The TBQ  were still enjoying the evening swim.   Munchie got busy in the kitchen and with limited provisions available,  produced oven fried chicken pieces, garlic shrimp, garlic bread, and potatoes and broccoli.  

We gathered around our table outside and had a great meal and conversation with our new friends!

Monday April 1st                        Munchie's Birthday!

It was Munchie's birthday today!  All day long she received happy birthday messages and thanks everyone for the calls, texts and emails!

For her day, we hopped a yellow bus and zipped up to Holetown.  The bus ride was seamless!  And our driver did not appear to be concerned about making up time!  We still made the trip in about 8 minutes (Google maps says its 10 minutes by car!).

We had a great birthday brunch at the Cafe Bar Carizma.  And then to top off a great birthday morning, we took a stroll through the Massy!  A stroll through a store, any store is enjoyment for Munchie and so it capped off her birthday morning well!

We caught another spectacular sunset to cap off Munchie's day!  

On Wednesday, Dave and Pat arrive!   Look for some more posts after that!

Cheers!