Barbados: Day 2

3/10/2025

Sunday, March 9, 2025: I'm not sure why, but I'm embarassed to admit that I didn't drag myself out of bed until 8:43 a.m. to catch my first picture of the day. We're literally staying in a "sunrise villa" with the most spectacular sunrise view and we kinda missed it. :-) We woke up at 5:30 a.m. to a rain shower. We quickly jumped out of bed to go close all of the shutters, no small task, but we made it before too much rain came in. We fell back asleep easily.

We were drinking our instant coffee on the terrace around 9:30 and heard a man coming to talk. He introduced himself as Mark Anthony, not to be confused with the singer or my friend, and he was here to sell fresh fruit and vegetables and he invited us to come out to his van parked in front of the property. We walked out front and there were three other guests already in line. Each of us bought a fresh pineapple and we watched Mark Anthony meticulously spiral cut each one by hand. The oranges and pineapple were a nice surprise to compliment the rainsin toast we were eating for breakfast. This reminded me of when we were in St. Lucia. We stayed in an upper level apartment, overlooking a bay filled with mega yachts and boats of all kinds. There was a local man who cruised the bay on his paddle board each morning, selling fresh produce to all the boaters. Mark Anthony's van wasn't quite as impressive as the other man's paddle board but it was a pleasant surprise.

The direction of the waves prevented us from walking the beach until early evening. We followed a trail that goes in front of our place and headed in the opposite direction of the beach to see where the people we saw with the flashlights the night before were coming from. We walked a short distance past Surfer's Bay and found the path people were taking. We could see from a distance that it was an apartment/condo complex, most likely private, so we stopped there and made our way back to the terrace where we spent the afternoon reading and staring at the waves.

Tonight we sat inside Surfer's Bay. We found a perfect section of bar stools overlooking the grounds below. It was so fun to people watch. It wasn't nearly as busy as the night before until 8:15 or so when the island's best Reggae band started playing. Suddenly the place filled with many locals and the dance floor was packed with people standing and swaying to the music; very different than the dancing tourists the night before.

While Larry was getting our drinks, a man asked if he could sit in the spot next to me and we started chatting. He's from Boston and his brother and sister-in-law have a timeshare here. They grew up coming here with their parents and now his brother comes for a month at a time. He made it very clear he doesn't enjoy his brother's company and is here only because his brother isn't. He is out exploring on his own and took a bus to get to Surfer's Bay. He was completely impressed and said it was his first time and this place was spectacular compared to the other places he's been on the island. He confirmed my reluctance to rent a car here. He's been here many times and will not drive. It's hard to tell if the roads are actually roads or just walking paths.

I'm so curious to know why there are so many fishermen out tonight. Is it because it's Sunday or prime fishing conditions? There's a path at the edge of the cliff in front of the villa and there are 5 different fishing poles I can see, even in the dark, because they have lights on their poles. These are serious fishing poles; unlike any I've seen being carried around at home.