Honeymoon: Barbados

8.24.11: Barbados
Stewart and I hadn't planned anything for our day in Barbados.  We decided to just wing it and see what the island had to offer.  We had put out the room service request for breakfast that morning and it showed up nice bright and early at 8:15am.  We got ready for our day and put on our swimsuits and coverups.  We had planned on just heading towards a beach and relaxing some more.  We headed off the ship and took the obligatory first picture of the day ....

We saw a pavilion with a sign that said taxis and island tours.  Stewart and I thought that an island tour sounded fun so we headed over.  There was another couple in line who were from LA.  We chit chatted with them about what they were going to do, and they seemed to be on the same page as us - not really sure.  A lady called us over and asked us what we wanted to do.  The girl in the couple asked about shopping and this lady said that she should save her shopping for later.  We looked at her and were like well what do you think we should do.  She suggested Harrison's Cave.   We said sure and headed off.  Turns out she's a taxi driver.

We head off to the cave in her taxi/maybe personal car too? and she talks to us about the island and we chat with the other couple some more.  When we get to Harrison's Cave, we find out that the next tour isn't for an hour.  The taxi driver instructs us to buy our tickets and she'll be waiting for us when we're done.  We look at her and ask why.  She says that we won't be able to get a taxi out here and she's our driver for the whole day.  Ok ....... The other girl in our group asks if there's somewhere we can sit or eat while waiting for our tour to start.  We're told there's a coffee bar "out there".  Out there turns out to be down an outdoor elevator into a gully.  I've never been in a gully before and keep thinking about the movie Ferngully trying to remember anything about it but all I'm coming up with is this ...

The coffee bar also turns out to be an outdoor stand.  It's okay, there's shade.  The other three all get something to drink and I wander around looking at all the trees and greenery.  Luckily, Stewart had packed a deck of cards in our bag so we decided to pass the time with a game of Hearts.

When the cave tour began, it was a bit funny to those of us who have been on previous tours.  We rode in a little tram through the cave - no walking!  It was the laziest cave tour we have ever been on.  It was neat to see the cave though and watch the informational movie about how Barbados was formed.  One of the big differences that I noticed in this one compared to other cave tours is that it was raining water consistently throughout the cave.  At one of the points where we stopped to look at what the guide was talking about, the other girl and I were getting rained on as if we were outside in a light shower!  The other cave tours would have occasional drops but this one was a lot more.  The other guy in our group was pretty wet by the end of the tour.

After our tour, we met up with our taxi driver who asked if we wanted to go eat at a restaurant and have some local food.  Stewart and I were definitely up for this and were glad to see that the other couple was as well.  As we drove towards the restaurant, our taxi driver talked some more about the island and pointed out different things along the way.  Some of the biggest things were driving on the opposite side of the road and random goats and cows tied to trees in people's front yards.  We went to a place on the beach and sat at a table in the sand.  Stewart and I ordered the locally spiced flying fish which was really good.  Stewart also tried a local beer, Banks, which he said was good.  We had a photo op on the beach before heading back to the ship ....

From Stewart: Back on the boat we read some more of our book 'Help', watched 'Water for Elephants' (Review: a palatable chick-flick) and got to bed early for the island ahead: St. Lucia.