Hello from Sunny Barbados. About 10 degrees north of the equator, formerly British, and fantastically warm.
This vacation is simply wonderful. We’ve spent the last 2 days doing . . . well . . . anything we wanted at any time we wanted. We ate lunch yesterday at 2pm. We stayed out until 1am. We made vacation friends at a club. Today, we jumped in and out of our rental car about 50 times. I took a shower at 5:30pm without rushing to get done and get dinner by 6:00pm. Traveling without the baby is like going on a honeymoon all over again.
I mentioned that we rented a car today – and I must say, our driving experience has certainly been unique. As I mentioned, Barbados was once British, which means that a lot of “Brittish” habits have stuck. That includes driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road.
We rented a bright blue little Jimmy with AC and no top. In order to drive the little bitty Jimmy in Barbados, we had to get a temporary license . . . naturally, I wanted a license to drive, and so did Jim. So, two licenses were obtained. I would soon learn that my license was a waste of $10 Barbados (also know as five bucks US).
We got the keys to our ride, promptly put the top and windows down, and jumped in for our choose-your-own-adventure day tour of the island. We headed north on the left side of the road . . . traveling along the cost. Jim was driving, and getting used to the ‘backwards’ nature of driving here seemed to be going well for him.
Before we knew it, we were in Bridgetown – the capital of Barbados – and had somehow ended up going down a one way street FULL of locals wandering about doing their Saturday morning shopping. We got so twisted and turned around, we ended up at a dead end, looking at each other with big eyes. What the . . . .? How did we get here?
Lucky for us, Barbados is full of friendly people. A local flagged us down and pointed us in the right direction. We were off again.
Driving on the wrong side of the road looked much harder to me now that I was sitting in the passenger side of the car with Jim on my right. He was doing a GREAT job – he was able to make right turns and negotiate the car through narrow passages with little effort. I, on the other hand, did not drive with this same sense of confidence.
Jim and I stopped for some pictures at a local beach, and when we returned to the Jimmy, I thought I’d take a turn at driving. I wanted to be able to say that I’d driven on the left. But, from the second I got in on the right side of the car, I knew I wasn’t going to like it. It was so HARD. So much harder than I thought. Just getting out of the parking lot was a feat for me. Thank God our return to the main road involved a left turn . . . I don’t know that I could have turned right. I had to literally say out loud each move I was going to take . . . “Okay, I can turn left here . . . just stay left . . . watch out for the curbs . . . “ My knuckles were white as I gripped the wheel. I drove about 5 miles, found another beach and parking lot, and handed the keys over to Jim.
My big strong Jim. HE can drive on the left. HE is way cooler than I.
The rest of our adventure was great. We found some lunch at a local restaurant, and I got yelled at for taking someone’s picture. We cruised up to the north point on the island and found Archer’s Bay. The view was breathtaking – and we were the only people there (maybe because it was off the beaten path and off-roading was necessary to get there). We found our way to the east coast of the island and drove along the coast some more. It was great.
We did see some cows, goats, chickens, and monkeys on our drive. Cows on the left, monkeys on the right. It was fantastic.
Today we will head out on a catamaran for the day. Somewhat of a ‘booze cruise’ with some snorkeling mixed it. I’m just glad to say that I won’t be doing any more driving.
More later . . . once we return to the real world. And get our baby back. I miss the hell out of her.
This vacation is simply wonderful. We’ve spent the last 2 days doing . . . well . . . anything we wanted at any time we wanted. We ate lunch yesterday at 2pm. We stayed out until 1am. We made vacation friends at a club. Today, we jumped in and out of our rental car about 50 times. I took a shower at 5:30pm without rushing to get done and get dinner by 6:00pm. Traveling without the baby is like going on a honeymoon all over again.
I mentioned that we rented a car today – and I must say, our driving experience has certainly been unique. As I mentioned, Barbados was once British, which means that a lot of “Brittish” habits have stuck. That includes driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road.
We rented a bright blue little Jimmy with AC and no top. In order to drive the little bitty Jimmy in Barbados, we had to get a temporary license . . . naturally, I wanted a license to drive, and so did Jim. So, two licenses were obtained. I would soon learn that my license was a waste of $10 Barbados (also know as five bucks US).
We got the keys to our ride, promptly put the top and windows down, and jumped in for our choose-your-own-adventure day tour of the island. We headed north on the left side of the road . . . traveling along the cost. Jim was driving, and getting used to the ‘backwards’ nature of driving here seemed to be going well for him.
Before we knew it, we were in Bridgetown – the capital of Barbados – and had somehow ended up going down a one way street FULL of locals wandering about doing their Saturday morning shopping. We got so twisted and turned around, we ended up at a dead end, looking at each other with big eyes. What the . . . .? How did we get here?
Lucky for us, Barbados is full of friendly people. A local flagged us down and pointed us in the right direction. We were off again.
Driving on the wrong side of the road looked much harder to me now that I was sitting in the passenger side of the car with Jim on my right. He was doing a GREAT job – he was able to make right turns and negotiate the car through narrow passages with little effort. I, on the other hand, did not drive with this same sense of confidence.
Jim and I stopped for some pictures at a local beach, and when we returned to the Jimmy, I thought I’d take a turn at driving. I wanted to be able to say that I’d driven on the left. But, from the second I got in on the right side of the car, I knew I wasn’t going to like it. It was so HARD. So much harder than I thought. Just getting out of the parking lot was a feat for me. Thank God our return to the main road involved a left turn . . . I don’t know that I could have turned right. I had to literally say out loud each move I was going to take . . . “Okay, I can turn left here . . . just stay left . . . watch out for the curbs . . . “ My knuckles were white as I gripped the wheel. I drove about 5 miles, found another beach and parking lot, and handed the keys over to Jim.
My big strong Jim. HE can drive on the left. HE is way cooler than I.
The rest of our adventure was great. We found some lunch at a local restaurant, and I got yelled at for taking someone’s picture. We cruised up to the north point on the island and found Archer’s Bay. The view was breathtaking – and we were the only people there (maybe because it was off the beaten path and off-roading was necessary to get there). We found our way to the east coast of the island and drove along the coast some more. It was great.
We did see some cows, goats, chickens, and monkeys on our drive. Cows on the left, monkeys on the right. It was fantastic.
Today we will head out on a catamaran for the day. Somewhat of a ‘booze cruise’ with some snorkeling mixed it. I’m just glad to say that I won’t be doing any more driving.
More later . . . once we return to the real world. And get our baby back. I miss the hell out of her.
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