April 2019
Our dinner companions on the cruise had been to Barbados many times, and they volunteered to lead us into town. The port in Bridgetown(population: 110,000) was the biggest we had seen thus far in this part of Caribbean, and the cruise terminal was well developed with shops and the tourist information center. A free shuttle brought us from the ship to this terminal, a 3 minute ride, and we walked out of there to grab a shuttle van to downtown ($2 per person) It felt like about a 2 mile ride.
We got dropped off right in the center of town, and the main shopping drag, Broad Street, was a minute away to the left. There was no doubt this was a former British colony by looking at the architectures here.
With a population of about 290,000 in the country, Bridgetown, the capital, had a feel of an urban center – complete with shouting matches of a couple of van drivers that we had not seen else where during this trip. Our companions had a specific mission of finding comfortable shoes that fit smaller feet, and they had had many successes here previously. After strolling and checking out some stores with them, we parted our ways.
A small pedestrian only street parallel to Broad Street called Swan Street is where the locals shop. Many bargains were offered there even though we didn’t find much that interested us. Still, it was good to have a glimpse into local life. Once again, prices were not that reasonable for every day items. Without the source of income that would comfortably match the price tags, life cannot be so easy, it seemed.
We slowly walked back to the center of town stopping for pictures of the parliament and other buildings. There was a big produce market around there, too. A service was in session at the Cathedral, thus, we did not go in. We continued walking to reach Queen’s Park where we found a 444 year old baobab tree, a cricket match, and free WiFi.
Exiting the park at the other end, we turned left hugging the fence of the park. I thought we would find a bridge that will take us to the other side of the river, but we couldn’t. We walked on the road that did not have sidewalks for 5 minutes or so and came to a bridge.
There was a big bus depot on the left side as we walked into the other side of the river, and a riverside park was on the right hand side. We walked in this park along the river. Local people were hanging out just enjoying the sun.
There were some restaurants and bars around the main bridge that we took to get back to the center. The menu prices were not very friendly($2 Babados dollar=$1 USD.) We decided to head back to the ship and have lunch on board.
We were approached by a cab driver as we tried to find the shuttle van. He quoted $6 for the trip, and we took it. He took the road along the coast, and it looked like just a mile ride this time.
We were trying to get online at the terminal under the sign of “Free WiFi,” but the connection was erratic. We gave up and returned to the ship.
One week later we came back to the same port, and we were determined to go outside of the city and visit Hunte’s Garden tropical arboretum. This time the shuttle van took us to a spot right on Broad Street. From there it was a 5 minute walk to the bus depot that we noticed a week before. Fairchild Bus Depot was the name of the place.
The lady at the window told us that the next Sugar Hill bus($1) will leave at 10 AM at gate 5. We got there at 9:45 and waited. There was not much to see or do, but an information screen was posted at each gate. 10:15. No sign of the bus. A local lady who was waiting for the same bus said the information screen didn’t mean anything. 10:25. Still no bus. I asked the lady whether this happened often, and she rolled her eyes saying, “all the time!” We got worried that it could be difficult to get back to town once we were out there, so we gave up.
Back at the cruise terminal I tried to get online but could not connect. Finally I walked into the tourist information office and asked them about WiFi. They told me to go outside the building. Bingo! It worked. As long as you are willing to trade air-conditioned comfort with working WiFi, you can do all the internet surfing you ever wanted!
Small Wide World 