The Island

Hello everyone!

We've done a bit of touring over the last few days, our rental car goes back today...I'm not too happy about that.  We'll see how it goes...! 
(Although, the supermarket is just ten minutes away so it's an easy walk.  A couple of beaches aren't too far away either.  I think walking to Accra Beach would only take us about twenty minutes, and to Sandy Beach about 30 minutes.)  

We'll be using the bus system quite a bit I think. Fares are cheap on the buses - $2 Bajan ($1 CAD) one-way to anywhere.  Bus stops either say, "To City" or "Out of City" meaning Bridgetown.  If you have your directions correct, you really can't go wrong.  (Although I'm sure many have said that...!)

The ZR buses, privately owned mini-vans that will stop anywhere to pick you up or drop you off, are a bit more tricky to actually get on and off -- they pack the people on and it can be quite uncomfortable.  Some play incredibly loud reggae music or gospel music, both of which can be extremely annoying.  I think we'll stick with the public bus system.

In the past week, we've done a bit of sightseeing around the island.  

One day for lunch we drove to Holetown and had lunch at Zacchio's.  We had our first flying-fish cutter and I had my first rum punch, delicious!

View from Zacchio's

Another day for lunch we went to "Chicken Rita's", a local rum shop that has THE best fried chicken -- I'm sure we'll be visiting there again!

Lots of children in the area walking about as it was still the Christmas holidays .  This little boy was holding his sister's hand all the way to wherever they were going.  He didn't look any older than 7.

After, we headed for a beach and since we were close to Silver Sands area we thought we'd try the beach there.  Located on the very bottom of the island,  the wave action proved too strong for us.

 

We drove along the coast and ended up at Enterprise Beach.  The water was lovely, and we had a "sea bath"-- what the locals call it -- sitting in the water, bobbing about and chatting.




We visited Andromeda Gardens on the East coast, and because we were there quite early in the morning, we were the only ones in the garden. Beautiful!

Earlier, we'd gone to Brighton Market, a lovely outdoor market that sells local produce and home baked goods, as well as jewellery and crafts by local artisans. 

We carried on driving north towards Bathsheba.  A local fisherman on Bathsheba beach shared his stories with B, while I splashed a bit in the shallow pools.   

 We stopped at the Roundhouse restaurant for a drink, and then drove back to Oistins to buy some fish.

At Oistins fish market, we bought a barracuda for $18 Bajan, and had it filleted by a worker for us into 4 pieces, so enough for a couple of dinners.  We also bought 2 kingfish steaks for $6 Bajan.  Bought some local limes as well -- they are about the size of a golf ball.  We'll need those for preparing the fish -- limes are used in almost all fish recipes here.

Thanks for visiting.