Barbados, November, 2020

Barbados was once populated by the indigenous people who probably came from Venezuela. The first Europeans to reach Barbados were Portuguese and Spaniards. They completely wiped out the local population, made the island uninhabited and left.

The British settlers appeared in 1625. They turned the land into sugar plantations and brought slaves from West Africa to work on them. As the result, about 90% of all Barbadians are of Afro-Caribbean descent. The island remained British until 1966 when it became an independent state and a member of the British Commonwealth. English is the official language, and Barbadians drive on the left side of the road, another legacy of the British Empire.

Greece to Barbados

Nurses at the quarantine facility called me a taxi since I did not have anyone to pick me up. Half an hour and $30 later, I was at my Airbnb. US dollars are accepted well on the island with the exchange rate of 1 USD to 2 Barbados dollars.

My Airbnb host agreed to push back by 2 days the beginning of my stay at her house. We did not do this through the Airbnb site, just discussed that informally and she did not mind. The room was vacant anyway.

After being on a diet at the government quarantine, I wanted a nice lunch. Normally, cafes are plentiful in the beach area. I went in this direction assuming that I’d easily find there a place to eat. Well, the pandemic changed everything. Bars and restaurants were closed. I kept going toward the city center until a white young man stopped me and asked if I saw an open café somewhere.

Thinking that I met a fellow hungry traveler, I complained that I had the same problem. The man then changed his tactic and said that he was short on cash. Would I have any money to spare? I did not help him with this either.

I turned back and walked until I saw an open restaurant. Masks were mandatory in Barbados anywhere indoors except while actually eating. At the restaurant, they also wrote down my name and phone number for contact tracing if needed later.

The food was generally good. Some restaurants charged $15 USD for a meal, others $50 and I did not notice much difference in quality. Eating out was a serious issue. If a place was open one day it was closed the following day. I bought some groceries from a local store so I could at least have breakfast at my Airbnb room. The prices were reasonable but the selection of food was limited.

The sand was fine as flour; the Caribbean Sea was too warm to move in it actively. Like the few locals there, I simply soaked myself in its waters.

The wet season was not over. A quick rain poured down several times a day. Thick dark-gray approaching clouds were a sufficient warning for me to take cover.  I rarely got drenched but my swimsuit was always wet. There was never enough time for it between rains to dry.

The humidity in my room was as high as outside because of wire mesh in the windows instead of glass. As the night descended, so did a cacophony of sounds. Chirping, chirming, croaking, and crowing continued until morning hours. It felt like being outdoors all night. Oddly, I slept well despite the noises.

With everything shutdown due to the pandemic, I could not enjoy the usual tourist activities. In fact, I did not see any other tourists. Perhaps, those who stayed at the all-inclusive hotels could book an approved tour to the caves or to dive to see the shipwrecks but there was little to do for a solitary traveler like me.

The capital city of Barbados, Bridgetown did not look impressive. There were many derelict buildings like the one below.

The main square featured a statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson to commemorate his victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Striving to break with the colonial past, the administration made a decision to remove the statue as Nelson was known as a supporter of slavery. The decision was prompted “by the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer in May this year”.

Barbados to St. Lucia