Saturday April 16. Sunset cruise and a swim with the hosts.
Because three of the four days between Friday and Monday are classified as “Easter”, meaning stores are closed, today was our last opportunity to do any last minute shopping, so we headed over to the duty free shop that was literally across the street from the resort. Jeff bought some fancy rum and I picked up a pair of billowy, cover-up pants that exactly match the bathing suit I bought in Napanee, Ontario.
For today, we had pre-booked a Catamaran sunset cruise which was scheduled to pick us up at the resort at 2:30 so we had a little time to kill. Our favourite ways of killing time in Barbados are:
- Swim and/or snorkel in the ocean
- Read a book (me and Andi) or listen to music (Jeff and Dave)
- Eat
- Feed the little resort birds the crumbs leftover from our eating
- Repeat
The birds that hung around the resort begging for scraps were bullfinches, carib grackles, and doves. Every once in a while we’d see a non-begging, little, yellow-breasted bird called a bananaquit. Honestly, I don’t know who names birds, but there must be a secret contest for most ridiculous bird name. Bananaquit indeed. This is on par with bushtit. The bullfinches and grackles were obviously used to getting fed by resort guests and were quite bold about taking food right out of our hands. (I’m sure this was something we were probably not supposed to be doing.)
The Catamaran sunset cruise turned out to be a total win, with one exception. We cruised over to “swim with the turtles” and, despite the attempt to lure them with food, the staff/hosts were unable to attract any turtles to hang out with us. Honestly I think the turtles were probably just smarter than us. I mean, if someone left out a plate of cookies to try to lure you into hanging out with a bunch of idiot tourists, would you be fooled by the food? I didn’t think so.
But the cruise also included some delicious local food (grilled chicken, grilled marlin, macaroni pie, rice and peas), unlimited drinks, and music! The staff were more fun than the resort staff, and seemed to enjoy spending their day with rowdy tourists. We also were incredibly fortunate to see one of the two best sunsets of the trip – the sun setting behind the ocean in a clear, cloudless sky. Amazing!!
Regarding the music, here’s a tip for you folks employed in Barbados tourism industry. We have all heard Sweet Caroline about 5,000 times too many so don’t be afraid to venture further afield. In fact, this tip is freely offered to people responsible for the music at hockey games, dances, and festivals at home, as well.