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.