To begin with, Barbados is actually one of the largest and most populous islands in the Caribbean (if you exclude giants like Cuba and Hispaniola) and that fact is not really immediately apparent until you get there. To put it in perspective, this island is roughly the size of the City of Chicago though only about as tenth as many people live there as in Chicago: about 300,000 altogether. It is also somewhat flatter than other islands in the Caribbean and you'll find a lot of land under cultivation so it has more of an agrarian feel to it than a tropical feel--a fact we would soon discover on a cross-country that began with:
Renting a car! Why not? I have done it before in several other Latin American countries and actually found it to be quite enjoyable because of the almost total absence of rules. Well, except two maybe: 1) don't hit anything and 2) make sure you have a bribe handy for the police, if necessary. In my case, that has never been necessary, but you just never know...It turns out that renting a car in Barbados may not be the best course of action even for an experienced driver. While I had no problem with the right hand drive (this is an English colony, after all) or even getting used to driving on the opposite side of the street, what completely threw me off was having the turn signal on the other side of the steering column. So, every time I went to put my turn signal on, I had the windshield wipers going. Which is not nearly as funny as it sounds, at least from my perspective.
On top of that, Barbados is pretty congested around the port area which is somewhat close to the city center and the number of drivers that you have to contend with is fairly large. In addition, we are talking about people that tend to take law and order much more seriously then in other parts of Latin America (Yes, officer, I can read the STOP sign, but you waved the other people in their cars right through, so...Yes, officer, I can read) and that certainly raises the anxiety level especially when you are trying to find parking downtown (good luck!).
Still, this would prove the fastest and most inexpensive way to see the island while having the flexibility to knock off on touring and go to the beach when we wanted to, rather than when the tour operators thought we should. Nonetheless, on the way to the Andromeda Botanic Gardens--which, in keeping with the nature of these things, was of course on the other side of the island from the ship--there were several times when the guided tour looked good to me. This was especially the case when roads that started out as highways just sort of gradually became gravelly country roads for no apparent reason and even the most detailed map available couldn't explain to us how this might be the case. Fortunately, me and my co-pilot (my Dad) like to spend our free time out in the middle of nowhere on snowmobiles with no maps and dubious-looking compasses, so this was actually not that distressing for us. On the other hand, it did get to be a little nerve-wracking for our passengers, especially when Dad and I were in the process of "negotiating" which way to turn.
As you can see from the picture above, we did indeed make it to the Botanic Gardens, however, after a brief bathroom break near Bathsheba Beach. This is a beautiful location on Barbados which you can see below, though I hasten to add that this is NOT a beach for laying out on or swimming at given its windy, rocky nature. As for the gardens: probably not worth the drive or the trip in and of themselves unless you happen to be a botanist or are looking for time to kill. Its certainly very pretty, is well marked and has a wonderful back-story, but you can see the whole thing in far less time than it took you to drive there and back. Of course, then you would miss getting lost on the way there and not get to see endless amounts of sugar cane under cultivation. And the chance to donate $12.50 per person to see the Gardens.
Leaving the windy side, it was considerably easier to find our way back to the west coast (leeward side) and we had some time available to lay out on the beach. Finding the "right" beach would be another story. We found an okay beach instead, but by that point no one was complaining. Neither would we complain about the somewhat rocky nature of the shallow areas that are akin to the rockiness to be found on Cozumel. Instead, we mostly just enjoyed the fact that Barbados' long coast allowed us to find a practically deserted beach all by ourselves and not too terribly far from the ship or the downtown area--not that you would ever get there by walking, though, I should add.
Before you get the idea that I hated Barbados or anything, let me just clarify: its definitely a place I would come back to for a week's vacation sooner then I would for any other island. This is primarily due to the sheer size of the island and the fact that there is a lot to do there. Indeed, one day or even three days would not be enough to do this giant justice. For this reason, I am glad to have had the opportunity to do sort of a preliminary investigation before returning some day, hopefully soon, to discover it in more depth.
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