Travels with Irene

My legs still ached the day after our first port stop in Bridgetown, Barbados on Jan 8.  We thought we had planned the day out so well, but the last half took its toll on me!  Looking back now a few days later, I smile because the pleasant memories blot out the memory of the difficult walk back to the ship in high heat and humidity. 

The day started out so well. Because of our cabin location on the first deck, the walk to the gangway was short, just a stairway down to Deck A.  A blast of hot air was my welcome to Barbados.

I walked through the port terminal and found the bus for my tour:  Natural Wonders of Barbados.  It’s always a pleasant experience to meet a seat mate for the bus tour because of the intermittent conversations I know will occur.   The bus headed northeast around the island, with a skillful driver and a knowledgeable tour guide who described the early history of the island, its sugar cane industry, and the changes over the past two centuries.   

Where plantations of sugar cane once stood there were now housing developments and office buildings.  Tourism has replaced the exportation of sugar, molasses, and rum as the financial engine of the island country. 

The island is 21 miles long by 14 mile wide with beaches and villages around the coast, and small hills in the interior.  There is still a lot of British influence on the island, like driving on the left side of the road, since it only became independent from The Commonwealth in 1966.

When we had traveled about an hour halfway around the island, we stopped at Bathsheba Beach, a “postcard view” complete with the Mushroom Rock jutting out of the water.  I carefully walked on the rocky beach, only looking up at the view when I knew I was standing on a safe area. 

Next stop was Andromeda Botanical Gardens.  If you know me, you know I love taking photos of flowers.  The problem here was the uneven brick sidewalk that meandered throughout the gardens.  Memories flashed back to last April when I tripped on such a pathway while taking flower photos at the Mayan Ruins in El Salvador, and ended up falling hard and getting a concussion.  It was a challenge to keep walking, tying to enjoy some of the 600 species of trees, plants, and flowers.    But I did stop and look and marvel at the beauty of God’s creation!

We arrived back in Bridgetown around lunchtime, and ate fish tacos at a local outdoor eatery near the port.  And that’s when we tried something that didn’t turn out as we had planned.

My niece and I planned to walk back into the town, about a mile away, and tour the UNESCO Historic District.  We thought we had downloaded Google Maps on our phones, but we weren’t able to access the app.  We thought we had gotten sufficient verbal directions, but we ended up getting lost, really lost.  The temp was in the mid 90’s and the humidity just as high.  We finally found someone that looked trustworthy who directed us back towards the cruise port. 

Fortunately, we had plenty of water along, but walking in that tropical heat with only spotty shade available drained me.  I held onto my niece’s arm the whole way, and it was with great relief that we spotted the ship and knew we could make that last tenth of a mile.  What a blessing that staff from the ship were waiting by the gangway with rolled-up cold washcloths to cool us off.

Lesson learned?  Pay for cellular data when in ports where we need access to Google Maps.  And don’t over-plan and try to do everything that sounds good in a port.  Be realistic, accept the limits of our bodies, and recognize we can’t see everything on this trip.  A valuable lesson for the next 128 days!