Barbados Day 9 – The best time of the day

The best time to drive in this country is during the half hour before sunrise when it’s still only half light and even the shabby buildings look good with the silhouettes of the palm trees behind them. We drop Sam off at the radio station at 5.15am and head off to Oistens to watch the sunrise and get a few photos taken. As we pass Garrison Savannah, the grooms are walking the racehorses along the road to take them to the beach, these are young ones, two year olds playing up, in the half light you just see their shapes, and the detail is obscured. At 5.30 Sam is reading the news bulletin, and then says hello to us.

We arrive at Oistens and get the pictures taken as the sun comes up and Barbados comes alive, people appear waiting for the first buses to take them to work, the traffic volume increases, a man swims out to his boat in his underpants with his snorkeling gear and his fish spear ready to start his day, a guy is sweeping around the front of a shop, a pointless futile task as he sweeps the same 3 pieces of rubbish from one side to another and then leaves them there. Give a man a broom and we can conquer unemployment!

Some chickens wonder up to the door of Debbie's rum shop, lunch is walking itself to the table this morning, a young dog appears and starts rounding the chickens up but they take no notice and congregate around the car pecking at the dirt.

In the fish market there are a few people, probably waiting for boats to come in so the catch can be gutted. There is a sign on a tree saying that the fruit is poisonous and do not sit or stand under the tree as any water dripping off will cause blisters. There is a table and two benches positioned under its branches, only in Barbados…….

Later we go into Bridgetown and I decide I’ll walk back along the beaches; Carlisle Bay is magnificent, last year I saw it from the sea sitting eating lunch on a catamaran. I get down to Coconut beach and see Ed and Lou sitting there, they were at the bar the first time I went there and had also joined us at the Rooster so I sat and drank through the lunchtime happy hour in the rain with them. Ed’s moved from the Rum to the Bank’s beer over the past few days, a wise choice. Another young woman comes up and starts talking in a animated way about how she had been to Mojo’s the night before and spent the night partying with what sounded suspiciously like Garvey and his friends, they had been playing there last night. She had quite a smile on her face. I just smiled inwardly.

I picked up some more beers from the Tigermart and a liver cutter for my lunch and got back home just before the next bout of rain unleashed itself on the Island.

Well my holiday this year is nearly over, I guess I’ll just have to start planning next year’s trip to Little England.

One Love. Easy Man.