Barbados is a former British colony, and the British influence still runs deep. Cricket is a favorite sport, traffic drives on the left side of the road, and the Anglican church is probably the largest Christian denomination on the island. Barbados is not a volcanic island, so it is flat and low compared to many of the other West Indies. The bedrock seems to be mostly fossiliferous limestone, with karst topography such as caves and sinkholes. Nevertheless, the island has beautiful rain forest interspersed with tracts of sugar cane.
We spent most of our time on Barbados touring two botanical gardens. Maybe we should have taken a taxi to the nearest beach and spent the day as beach bums, but we wanted to learn about the flowers and plants we were seeing on the various islands, and this was the way to do it. Our first stop was Hunte’s Botanical Garden, where we found this large display of Bird of Paradise, a variety of heliconia.These are Flamingo-lily plants, also known as anthurium. Sometimes we see these for sale at Costco, but I can’t say that we have ever been successful at keeping them alive for any real length of time. Wax begonia, with a pair of honey bees. We did not see very many insects during our visits to the islands, and no mosquitoes, for which we were grateful.Time to take a breather near the end of our walk through Hunte’s Garden. The garden was built/planted in a large limestone sinkhole, and the usual breezes did not reach in to keep us cool. Our hosts offered us rum punch, which was good but left us thirsty. I asked for water, only to have the hosts suggest that we should not drink the local water. Good to know.Copper kettle that the sugar plantations used to boil sugar cane sap (juice?) in the process of making sugar. We saw a few abandoned sugar cane mills, but did not see any currently operating. Maybe we just missed them, since we did see sugar cane under cultivation.View towards the sea from our second stop, a botanical garden called the Flower Forest. This is the most rugged terrain we saw on Barbados, but this was not nearly as rugged as we had seen on the volcanic islands.Orchids we found along our path. We saw several different colors of orchids, and these were particularly striking.Closeup of blooms on an African Tulip Tree, with a Green-Throated Carib hummingbird visiting the flowers. We saw these trees, also known as flame trees, blooming on several of the islands, and they were always spectacular.Jade vine. Birds love to eat the jade-colored parts of the blossom, but they had not found this one. Yet.After our excursion to the gardens we were back on board the Viking Sea, and almost ready to set sail. This much larger P&O Cruises vessel had moored across from us. Viking’s ocean cruises usually a little more than 900 passengers, and feel quiet and roomy. The larger cruise ships, like this one, might carry 3000 or more passengers, and have a different feel to them. This is a case where bigger is not better, at least from our point of view. Notice the tugboat idling in the middle of the harbor. I think the insurance companies (or cruise lines?) require a tug boat to be available and ready to take action when a cruise ship prepares to sail in case anything goes wrong with the ship’s engines or navigation systems. If something were to go wrong, the tugboat can assist rather than letting the cruise ship drift.Here is another safety measure: whenever a cruise ship enters or leaves a port, a local pilot who knows the harbor and its approach channels navigates the ship. A small boat like this brings the pilot out to the ship as they approach the harbor, and when they leave, a boat like this picks up the pilot after they are out of the harbor. And now we are ready to sail to our next port of call, Dominica.
