Fall is in the air up here in the arctic circle, but last weekend we were still in sunny, hot and humid Barbados. Sunday we took our time getting ready in the morning for the shuttle bus that was coming to pick us up at 9:00 to take us to Bridgetown for the snorkeling trip. For once, the shuttle bus was late, but there was another couple, more newlyweds, these named Chris and Amelie and from New Jersey, waiting with us. The bus finally arrived, picked up people at about four other hotels and still made it to the dock by the proscribed departure time of 10am.



I guess since there's not much of a harbor in Barbados, sailing isn't one of the major activities there like it is in the Bahamas or Virgin Islands (plus the nearest islands are relatively far away by sailboat standards). So a lot of the boats you see tend to be catamarans, which was the case with our snorkeling cruise. Although it supposedly held 100 people, there were about 60 on the trip, comprised of one 10-year old and the rest couples of all ages, including some extremely tan old English people. Gloriel had recommended this Tiana outfit over the Cool Runnings we'd had recommended because it was a bigger boat and thereby had a bigger enclosed area to get out of the sun when you weren't in the water (staying out of the sun is another popular Barbados pasttime, almost an obsession for some).



As it turned out, we didn't need to stay out of the sun so much as out of the rain. The weather was fine as we motored way up the western coast to get to a spot where we could see some sea turtles (I saw two in the first 30 seconds in the water and that was it). But on the way back it started raining, really coming down at some points. Some people were almost chilly and found it refreshing after sweating through the rest of their vacation up to then. They served lunch on the boat (more flying fish, but lots of other good stuff) and people took advantage of the rain to just have an excuse to drink more. For the long trip back down the coast it was more of a party cruise than a snorkeling cruise, and nobody seemed to mind much. As it was, and we ended up going even further south to an alternate site since the current was too strong at the primary spot.



By the time we got to the second dive spot the sun had come out again and we were over a shipwreck that was sunk years ago to create an artificial reef. The water was clearer here and about 20 feet deep, there were plenty of fish up near the surface although there wasn't much variety. Down in the wreck you could see more fish, but with snorkeling gear it's hard to get much below the surface for any length of time. This outfit made everyone wear lifejackets, although inflating them was optional. This helps you to focus on snorkeling rather than not drowning. They didn't provide fins though, saying they scared off the turtles, but the turtles were plenty scared off to begin with, and the second site didn't have any turtles, so I'm not sure what the point was. Beth got to snorkel for the first time and did pretty well and seemed to enjoy herself. For me, it wasn't as good as Molokini, but it was a fun trip.



The shuttle bus dispatched us back to our respective hotels by 4:30 or so, so it was back to the pool to rinse off, although I skipped the rum punch since I'd already had several during the cruise, and another sunset, which started out promising but then was mostly obscured by clouds, equalling the "hideous sunset" that the waiter in Maui apologized for at Scott & Shelley's rehearsal dinner. The aforementioned newlywed Chris ended up on the beach at the same time as we did so we chatted with him some more, he seemed like a real surfer dude even though he was from New Jersey and he and his new bride were both smokers. He had recommneded this restaurant called Pisces just down the road in St. Lawrence Gap, which was also written up in Frommers, so we took a cab over there (just Beth and me, that is, not the surfer dude) and had a nice dinner by the water, then just walked back, the only time we walked that stretch at night. There were quite a few people out and about and the area looks much better in the evening, without so many people standing around trying to sell you timeshares or souvenirs.



There was only one full day to go and still plenty of places we hadn't seen, so we made arrangements with the activities desk to rent a car on Monday, which I'll elaborate on next time.