Things We Learned

General

An opportunity of this type, by its nature, results in activities primarily oriented to travel. It should be used to scout out destinations where you may want to spend more time on the ground and activities in which you wish to participate at those destinations. You may also find some destinations to which you have no need to return. For those which you do want to revisit, when you go back spend more time seeing the sights and meeting the people, not planning where you’ll fly to next.

Colombia

• Distances may be longer, the terrain more rugged and the roads more primitive than you had anticipated. This will result in a lot more travel time than you would ordinarily estimate. It may take 18-24 hours by bus from one major area to another. Flying is relatively cheap and fast and can save a lot of bus time.

• If you are a bike rider, try to be in Bogota on a Sunday. During the “Ciclovia,” which runs from 7am until 2pm, several of the major thoroughfares are closed to auto traffic and open to bicycles, roller blades and pedestrians, and the locals really turn out. It’s quite an experience! Bogota Bike Tours will rent you bikes.



New York

• The subway may take longer than you expect. Especially on weekends.

• The hop on/hop off bus tours are a great way to see the city. The subways are a great way to get around and they appear to be clean and safe.



Puerto Rico

• Public transportation is difficult. Busses are reasonably priced and run throughout San Juan but bus route maps are unavailable. Taxis are exorbitant. Consider renting a car or other vehicle (e.g. moped) or you will waste a lot of time asking people about bus routes.

• San Juan’s Old Town is quite spread out and would be difficult to cover on a walking tour (plus it is hot and humid). However, there is a free hop on/hop off trolley that goes to all the major sights. Good deal!

Jamaica

• You must have a room booked before you will be allowed to enter the country. There is a travel bureau to the left, before you enter immigration, which can help you find lodging.

• There are taxis, “route taxis,” and “coasters” that take you almost any place you want to go for a reasonable price but it is very difficult to find out exactly which transportation goes where. Without luggage, it is fairly easy to walk around the bus yards and find out which coaster goes where but with luggage, it is difficult. The easiest way is to talk to your hotel or hostel manager and have them tell you exactly which connections to make.



Barbados

• Another place where you need to declare on entry where you’ll be staying. The Barbados Travel Agency is at a counter to the left of where you enter customs. If you don’t have a reservation they can help you with that as well as arranging for car rentals.

• Car rentals at the airport are much more expensive than in town.

• Taxis are fairly expensive. Buses are B$1.50 per person anywhere you go for each bus (i.e. no transfers, etc.). Exact change is required. “route buses” or “zone taxis” are the same price but will give change.

• To get a bus at the airport, go to the Coca Cola sign outside the airport. Remember that you are southeast of Bridgeport and traffic flows on the left.

• Although we experienced a certain amount of terror polishing our skills at driving on the left, Barbados is a country where renting a car is a viable option. It is not terribly expensive and drivers appear to drive fairly carefully and are very polite and tolerant. The roads are narrow and winding but, outside of the cities, the pace appears relaxed.



Everywhere

• Do not expect that cab drivers and bus drivers will know the locations of your residence/hotel/ restaurant/attraction or address
  
• In most countries, if you are not fluent in the language, write the name and address of your destination on a piece of paper and hand it to the taxi driver or bus “auydante.” When we booked hotels we printed several little sheets of paper with their name and address and any important cross streets (thanks to Mamallena in PC for that tip).
• Try not to arrive at a destination on a weekend (Friday afternoons through Sundays). Rooms that may be available the rest of the week may be booked. Also, on Sundays many things, including restaurants, transportation etc., may be closed.
• Take all directions solicited from locals with a grain of salt: they may get you to the right area but not necessarily exactly where you want to go.
•  The “best” hostel, restaurant, rental agency etc. recommended by a local is often one operated by a family member and may have no relationship to how good it really is.
•  In many places, if you ask a specific question you may get a very short and inadequate answer, but if you pursue the question and engage the speaker, they will be more than willing to help you.
•  Be skeptical of advertised “wireless internet” availability. Frequently it is unavailable for long periods of time and may only be available in the lobby of the hotel or hostel. Also, the hotel managers may not have the knowledge or access to the router to reset it, which seems to be necessary on a regular basis.
• Do take public transportation when you can- it gives you the opportunity to meet people in their environment; share your experiences and learn about theirs. 
•  We took a Steripen with us to sterilize water. It uses ultra-violet light and provides better sterilization than filters. It is wonderful to be able to stop by a cool mountain stream and in less than a minute render it safe to drink. We found that the Steripen is unobtrusive enough to use everywhere and allows us to get away from the plague of plastic bottles. 

 What happens will happen, will happen, if it happens. This applies to everything from transportation to events.

Well,we are home and unpacked, so here are the last two days of our journey!!

October 7-Wednesday


Hard to believe that a month is gone. We leave Barbados this afternoon, spend the night in NYC and leave NY tomorrow evening. We will post our photos as soon as possible and we hope to be able to post this blog tonight (but didn’t make it).

The day began with a drive back into Bridgetown to return Dick’s swim fins and we stopped for coffee at a little marketplace. Then we returned the car to Fred who agreed to taxi us to the airport at noon (for the standard fare).

I(Nancy) took my snorkel and mask to the beach and snorkeled around the beach for a while –no coral but lots of small fish, mainly loaches, a few wrasses and other assorted silver fish. The reef is not far out, but it’s still a good swim and we never made it out there. Guess we will have to wait for the next trip.

The Maraval Guesthouse proved to be a good choice for us, inexpensive for the area ($45 USD per night with private bath and comfortable beds), communal kitchen, right on a fabulous beach and conveniently located. We were a bit surprised by the prices of restaurant dinners in the areas- $30-60B ($15-30 US) -considering that it was off-season but, as noted, we were able to find roadside stands with great food for $15B and less and out of the city prices were more reasonable.

Got to the airport in plenty of time- practically no one at customs or security. When we got to the gates, we found that the plane had been delayed coming out of New York due to weather, so they said. We noted that was the first real delay we had experienced. Not many people on the flight- probably the majority were people on the last leg of their Jet Blue pass. We compared notes and everyone had nothing but good things to say about Jet Blue, other than the necessity of returning to the states after each leg of the trip.

Arrived in NYC at 9:30pm, cleared customs and immigration quickly and took the Super 8 shuttle to the AAE hostel, the same place we stayed our first night in NY. This time we were in small room with one set of bunk-beds. It also served as a hallway to another similar room. A young German woman who had been touring Nova Scotia and a young German man who was touring NYC were also staying at there. They were from different parts of Germany and met at the hostel. I’m sure it was a relief to them to be able to chatter a bit in German although their English was very good.


October 8th- Thursday

Our plane leaves at 7pm so we have a little time to explore before we head for the airport at 5pm. Decided to go for the shuttle again since roundtrip added only $3 to the $7 each we had already paid –a true bargain in NY. The subway, two blocks away from the hostel to the air-train to the terminal was $7.25.

This morning we hiked to the subway stop and set off to see some of the things we had missed, starting with Rockefeller Center. The ice rink was not yet open but will be opening in a couple of weeks so they were working on the framework for that. We were able to get some pictures and walked up to the entrance to the Top of the Rock observation deck but they were booked and we didn’t go up. However, we did see the beautiful Swarovski Crystal waterfall chandelier.

We had heard about an exhibition at Grand Central Station Transit Museum that was supposed to show pictures and provide a tour of the infrastructure of the NYC subway system. Since we both are fascinated by the underground world of cities we set off to view it. However, once we got there, we found that it was really just propaganda for a new extension of the subway that they are building to connect two parts of the existing line, and was not nearly as interesting as if it had all been historical. We also found that the subway tour is held only on Wednesday afternoons, so we missed that, too.

A hike to the 2nd Street Deli yielded a good lunch and enough left over to provide sandwiches for our flight back to California. Thanks to the subway system we easily made it back to our hostel, then caught the shuttle to the airport. The flight home was uneventful except where a line of thunderstorms made it a little rough. When we reached the Sacramento airport, First Class Shuttle was there and waiting for us. After all of our nation-hopping it seemed strange to get off of a plane and not have to clear customs and immigration.

It’s always mixed feelings at the end of an adventure like this. We’re glad to be home at last, though dead-tired, but sorry that it’s over. All-and-all the trip has been great: flawless flight connections, good lodging, eerily marvelous weather, spectacular sights and wonderful food. Most of all, meeting and interacting with wonderful people in places very different from ours, whom we would never have met were it not for this unique opportunity. Thank you, Jet Blue, for making this Great Adventure possible!!

We will be posting both a “Things we learned” and “Raves”, special things we want to mention as well as a representative set of photos of the various areas we visited. Hope you all have enjoyed our trip.

October 7-Wednesday

Hard to believe that a month is gone- we leave Barbados this afternoon-spend the night in NYC and leave NY tomorrow evening. We will post our photos as soon as possible- hopefully we will be able to post this blog tonight.

Before we left we drove back into Bridgetown to return the fins and stopped for coffee at a little marketplace. We returned the car to Fred who agreed to taxi us to the airport at noon.

I took my snorkel and mask to the beach and snorkeled around the beach for a while –no coral but lots of small fish, mainly loaches, a few wrasses and other assorted silver fish. The reef is not far out, but we never made it out there- guess we will have to wait for the next trip.

The Maraval Guesthouse proved to be a good choice for us, inexpensive for the area ($45 USD per night with private bath and comfortable beds), communal kitchen, right on the beach and conveniently located to restaurants, stores and the bus line. I was a bit surprise by the prices of dinners in the areas- $30-60B considering that it was off-season but as noted we were able to find roadside stands with good food for $20B and less, and, when we got out of the city areas prices were more reasonable.

Got to the airport in plenty of time- practically no one at customs or security. When we got to the gates, we found that the plane had been delayed coming out of New York due to weather. We noted that was the first real delay we had experienced. Not many people on the flight- probably the majority were people on the last leg of their Jet Blue pass. We compared notes and everyone had nothing but good things to say about Jet Blue, other than the necessity of returning to the states after each leg of the trip.

Arrived in NYC at 9:30pm and cleared customs and immigration quickly. Took a shuttle to the hostel. Two people from Germany were there, a young woman who had been touring Nova Scotia and a young man who is touring NYC.

October 6 Tuesday

Woke up to stormy skies but no rain. After breakfast, we headed north up the middle of the country. Very soon after we got away from the city, we began seeing farmland, mainly sugar cane but some other crops. We also came across some large and grand plantation houses. Summer homes for the R&F I guess.

Another thing it is easy to forget is that this is a very small country, 21 x 13 miles, so you feel like you are going to be wandering for hours and boom you are there. We started at Grenade Hall Signal station in the center of the country. This was one of six towers erected on the island in the 1800s that provided line of sight view to the other towers allowing for communication using flags or semaphores. Now it provides line of sight for cell towers-not sure if there is any significance in that.

On the same grounds is the Grenade Hall Forest which is a mahogany educational forest which provides information on the importance of conservation as well as information on various flora used for medicinal purposes both historically and currently. Beautiful walk on stone paved paths. Unfortunately many of the markers showing which plants the signs referred to were missing but it still was very interesting.. As we were leaving the forest, a group of two adult and two baby green monkeys came running down the path.

Across the parking lot is the Barbados Wildlife Reserve. Although most of the animals that we currently see on Barbados were introduced at some point of time (it appears that the Caribe Indians, the indigenous tribe, ate most the native animals) there are many animals that roam the island. The zoo is set up so that the only animals that are caged are the Cuban endangered iguanas, a reticulated python, some macaws and other parrots, and a few other exotic birds. One wanders through brick paths shared with huge tortoises, agoutis, deer, peacocks and green monkey tribes. Although basically wild, the animals are accustomed to people and it is easy to photograph them. Who would have thought that tortoises like to have their noses scratched? At one point we were walking up a path under a small overhang. A monkey’s tail was hanging down from the overhang and Nancy touched it. Suddenly this monkey turned on Dick and bared his teeth. We backed away quickly. It was a fun place to visit and we probably stayed a couple of hours. On our way to our next destination, we observed several mongooses which inhabit the island. No pictures, they are too fast. What you see are very long brown furry critters scurrying across the road, usually in groupls of two or three.

We headed north to the Animal Flower Cave in St. Lucy, which was another beautiful drive through the hills and fields. We had sandwiches at the little café at the entrance to the cave-good sandwiches for a very reasonable price on outdoor tables on the point. The views around the caves are spectacular with multiple caves dug into the limestone cliffs by the waves. We walked down into the cave ($15B per person-guided tour) via a long steep staircases. The caves have some great views through holes in the rocks but there were only a few very small anemones (which give the cave its name). This area is the point furthest north on the island, and is on the Atlantic Ocean.

We continued down the back roads to an area called Little Bay, one of the most spectacular areas we have seen. The huge waves of the Atlantic are smashing into the shore and yet there is a very protected swimming hole in the rocks where you can leisurely float to the sounds and sights of the big waves. We climbed up to the cliffs and as far as you can see north and south are limestone cliffs, some ending in pounding surf and others in protected coves. There is a warning for the entire east coast that dangerous undertows do exist in many areas. What a incredible end to our Barbados vacation time- this is definitely an area I want to come back to and maybe spend a week exploring all the little coves. While we were there a bus did come by so it is possible to see even the remote coves by bus.

We returned to the guest house, had dinner at the little beach bar and retired.

October 5-Monday

Early morning walk was interrupted by an early morning rainstorm, so I started off wet. Dick began calling around to the various car dealers when Fred, our landlord came in and offered to rent us a car(Red Cabrolet convertible) for a few dollars less than the quotes we were getting. We noticed that bait and switch appeared to be the rule- they advertised for as low as $45 a day all inclusive but that car was never available, however for only $80-$120 we could rent a different car(same make, model and size).

We decided Fred’s deal was the best we were going to find and loaded up and set off for our next adventure. We found that two of the things we wanted to do, the Harrison’s Cave and the nature center across the street from us were both closed for renovations. But, we had heard how beautiful the eastern coast was and, with a vehicle, we were off and running. There are buses that run everywhere in Barbados and you could get around without a vehicle but, there are no printed schedules and although it is $1.50B per route, unless you are traveling from one major population center to another, it is likely that you will have to take more than one bus and may a.) have trouble finding the connection and/or b.) have to wait for the connection. Although worlds better than Puerto Rico and Jamaica, it is a factor when you are trying to get somewhere. (“ take the Brighton bus to the 2nd gas station; walk up the road to the big tree and wait about 5 minutes to a half hour and take the XX bus to XX; behind the blue building you catch the xx bus which…. you get the idea). So though not essential, a car is nice.

Since neither of us had much experience driving a left hand vehicle, we decided that we needed to stay out of Bridgetown for now and take the back roads. We shared driving and the other person was responsible for navigation, reminding the driver to drive left, alerting the driver if too close to the moat at the side of the road and negotiating round-abouts. Round-abouts are an interesting experience especially while learning to drive on the left and follow which of three or four roads out of the roundabouts that one wants to take. However, once we got the hang of them we thought they were wonderful since traffic does not stop, just slows for the connections.

We managed to get on the right road through the center of the island which is lush and green with hills and rock outcroppings surrounding pretty little villages. As we approached the Atlantic Ocean side, the geology became more rugged and just before we reached the coast, we came across and old church set on top of a hill with a spectacular view of the surrounding area and the coast. We dropped down into the town of Bathsheba, reportedly so named because the surf reminded the settlers of milk and Bathsheba was known for taking milk baths??

The east coast is a surfer’s paradise with huge breaking waves but unsuitable for swimming since the pounding surf has undertows and rip tides. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful coasts I have ever seen. All along the beach are huge coral boulders and the town of Bathsheba is set in cliffs and gullys along the shoreline. We had lunch at the New Edgewater Hotel since the traditional Atlantis Hotel was closed for renovations. The hotel’s dining room sits on a cliff above the “Soup Bowl” area of the coast, a prime surfing spot due to its huge regular breaks. We had flying fish sandwiches and fish cakes both of which were yummy.

From Bathsheba, after driving north along the coast for a while, we decided to cut across the island on some secondary roads to do some snorkeling on the westside. We passed through the central valley part of the island past fields of sugar canes and other crops. We did have to stop and ask, “Where are we?” on several occasions and people were more than willing to help. Sometimes the roads were so narrow, there was barely room for our little car and the potholes where deep enough to absorb it but the pace is leisurely and other drivers very tolerant. We were very impressed by the politeness of the Bijan(localized name for Barbadians) people. They do not drive like maniacs, stop to let cars cross the road and if you stop by the side of the road to look at a map, invariably someone will come up to help you find your way.

We ended up getting too far south (it is easy to get off on the wrong leg of the round-abouts) and had to take the coast road back up to Holetown to the Folkestone Marine Reserve on the Caribbean side of the island. The area is divided into several zones including an area right on the beach that has several shallow reefs to explore. We were not charged an admission price and snorkeled for an hour or two. The reef is not in very good shape, though there are some areas that are recovering and we saw some fans and stag horn as well as brain and other surface corals. However, the number and variety of fish were impressive. In addition to the normal parrotfish, sergeant majors, tangs etc; I saw several fish I had never seen before as well as an eel, a small water snake and several cucumbers and anemones. We snorkeled until just before sunset and began our journey home.

We headed south on the coast road, managed to navigate Bridgetown without incident and headed for Oistins east of our domicile. There is a huge fish market and on Friday nights there is a community-wide fish fry which unfortunately we missed. We stopped at the grocery store for breakfast items and asked some people where to eat, they directed us to the little cafes (“across from the KFC”-primary direction in all small towns). When we had entered the grocery, it was not raining and the roads were dry. When we came out 10 minutes later, everything was flooded though it was no longer raining.

We had a wonderful dinner of lamb stew, rice and beans, and a salad for about $8.50 USD each and headed off down the road. At some point, we got off on the wrong leg of the roundabout and ended up in Bridgetown. We went through a couple of heavy rainstorms as we made our way home but when we got there it opened up and dumped. We sat on the outside verandah and watched the carwash effect –with cascades of water coming down to the serenade by the whistling frogs. The guest house has a tin roof and when the rain storms passed on and off all night, it was like a freight train running through the house.

October 4-Sunday

Woke up fairly late this morning (for me) and went down to the beach. The reef is maybe 100 yards from the beach which gets my snorkeling juices flowing. It was a beautiful morning. We decided to walk to Lawrence Gap just east of here for breakfast. You cannot walk long distances on the beach because of breakwaters and rock outcroppings so we took to the road. There are few sidewalks and areas on the main streets where the roads are narrow and shoulders non-existent so you find yourself either waiting for traffic to pass or crossing to the other side of the road. All part of the experience.

The restaurant we were looking for had changed its name and there was not a lot open on Sunday morning but we finally landed at the "Flying Fish" restaurant overlooking a pretty little harbor. After breakfast we walked back by way of the market which was, of course, much further away than we expected. We looked for a place to rent a scooter or a “mokie”(like a golf cart) but again, nothing was open. Returned to the guesthouse.

After a swim, we decided to go to an ice cream parlor I thought I had seen on the way in. The bus driver had no idea where it was and he dropped us off at the boardwalk, a very nice, newly installed wooden walkway east of Worthing. We walked along it for some time and finally found a lady who knew where the ice cream parlor was, on the other side of the road in the Quayside center. “Cool Moos”. Great ice cream with various add-ons like nuts and fruit. Like the Coldstone Creamery in the US.

Took the bus to the “Boatyard” in Bridgetown. This is a beachside recreation area which rents various sport related items and we were able to rent fins for Dick. There is a snorkeling area where you can see wrecks not far from there but there was no place to leave our packs.

We decided to see if we could do a circle bus tour of Bridgeport, we got directions to the terminal-“up that road-nah fa mon” and, of course, got lost and took almost an hour to get to the terminal. By the time the bus came we had made two decisions: one to try to rent a vehicle for the next two days and two, we did not have time for the city tour and would return to our guest house and tour Bridgeport the next morning.

It started raining as we left Bridgeport but by the time we got to the guest house and dressed for dinner, it had let up so we walked to Lawrence Gap for dinner. We were shocked at the dinner prices- $12USD for a hamburger and $22-30 USD for full dinners- even at the places that the guidebook had advertised for $7-12 USD. As we were walking along, we came across a small street side stand and purchased dinners of charcoal grilled Marlin and rice and peas (we would call it rice and red beans) and macaroni and cheese casserole for $10 USD. As we started back to the guesthouse, a rainstorm blew through and we were soaked before we got home. The rainstorms do not last long but they come in with a vengeance and you are soaked in minutes. Fortunately it is warm enough that it is no big deal.

Good morning New York- We are on the last leg of our trip- Since I have internet at the hostel I will catch up this am.

October 3-Saturday

Today is a travel day starting with a 5 am+/- subway ride to the airport. It worked out all right but we did not get to the airport until 7:45am which cut their three hour time level to 2 hours. We had decided to mail some more things back from NY, and had gone to the post office to pick up a priority mailer and postage. When we got back to the hostel last night, we packaged up the Columbia book and some t-shirts and had them ready to mail since JFK airport indicated they had postal services at the airport. Even though we were running late, we decided to sprint to Terminal 4(we were leaving from Jet Blue’s International terminal 5) to mail the package. When we got there (return to the air train and a long concourse), we discovered that although they do have a post office, they do not accept packages. We ran back to Terminal 5 and got there a few minutes before they began boarding. Dick talked to a young lady at the gate who agreed to mail the package for us (it had gone through security).

We arrived in Barbados at 2:15 pm, managed to get through immigration and customs and found a nice lady at the Barbados Tourist agency who helped us book a room at the Maraval Guest House in Christ Church. Initially the bus driver took us almost into Bridgeport and dropped us off at a hotel with a similar name. We caught another bus back, however, that driver did not know the guest house either. We were dropped at Merryvale Guest house. Luckily, one of the guests there knew where the Maravale was and took us there. It is an older house very close to the beach with huge verandas all around the outside. The room was fine. Met a couple of girls from Australia who were staying there.

After a dip in the ocean on a beautiful white sand beach, a rum at the local beach bar and flying fish and cou-cou (made with corn and okra) for dinner, we retired, absolutely exhausted.