Day 9 - Man did Barbados suck for us! After our morning shipboard routine, we rented a car and headed towards the Flower Forest. Driving on the left wasn’t a big deal (got used to that on the Virgin Islands). And driving with the steering wheel on the right didn’t take long to get used to either. But these Barbarians (I mean Barbadians) haven’t figured out street signs yet! Needless to say, we got lost trying to get to the Flower Forest, so we finally backtracked to the “main” highway and headed north to another one of our destinations – Speightstown – which also sucked. As soon as we stopped in that town in some random parking lot to consult our map, a local approached us, offering us “advice”. After being very annoying in a sort of friendly, overly-touchy way, we ended up giving him $5 for the advice and small piece of Aloe he gave Joanie. Probably just bought not being out-right robbed.
We decided that Spits-town was also a bust and decided to cut our losses and head home to the ship. Easier said that done. Even though we only had to stay on one “main” highway, it did have roundabouts and we obviously took one wrong turn, which lead to another and another and another wrong turn. We were not in the best parts of Barbados, and that’s saying a lot! But we just couldn’t find our way out – no signs to indicate where we were. We did stop to ask directions a couple of times, which paid some dividends, but not enough to get us home. We finally realized it was only time and a bit of good luck that will get us home. We were both very glad it was early in the day and not getting late. That would have been scary.
We finally spotted the ship and headed in that direction – even getting a bit lost getting there – but finally we go rid of that dam car, and the daytime nightmare ended. It was unbelievable – changed my mind as to how I’m going to approach visiting third world nations from now on. Sad to say, I might be staying at the all-American all-inclusives… or just stick with Hawaii when we desire a visit to the tropics.
Spent the afternoon hanging out in the Solarium on board the Ship, sipping Goombai Smashes… rum, coconut rum, pineapple juice and sweet and sour – yum!
The day may have started out with a “yuck”, but it’s winding down with a “yum”. Finally going in the right direction!
