Lazy Caribbean days

It’s 7:00am. Croc Bones’ gentle rocking makes waking up harder than it should be despite the blazing sunshine streaming in that has already been inching up the horizon for almost two hours.  We have now been here in beautiful Barbados for 7 days and it feels like we have fallen into some parallel time warp. The hours move by so lazily but it seems only yesterday we were giddily excited by the sight of land and being overwhelmed by all the smells it brings (Completely true about senses going nuts if they have been deprived of stimulation). 

After our two ‘de-boat’ days we headed back to our little world by the sea. Croc Bones is nestled right up by the beach in Carlile Bay, you can (and we do) easily swim to shore. We spent the remaining few days before Ben and Aimee arriving in ‘post Atlantic boat repair’. The Alternator turned out to not be repairable after closer inspection so Jarvis took a 3 hour tour-de-taxi around the southern parts of the isle to meet all the local wreckers... and ending up buying an old one from a Mazda from the Taxi Driver himself called Jason. A dude in all  respects – gave the full briefing of island life; from Sugar Cane growing, hurricane effects felt here in the past.. right to his supreme luck ‘wit da ladies’ (his wife not knowing of course). 

We rose with the sun, painted the binicle (the body part that holds up the wheel, compass etc), sanded, varnished, built BBQ stands and tables and even found time to start scrubbing all the life that had made home on the bottom of the boat. The afternoons were spent taking the dingy and driving into town. I love it here how the Careenage channel for boats literally ends in the heart of town. So after a 10 minute drive – Voila, no walking in the baking 32 degree heat!

The town itself seems a delightful mixture of English formality, American consumerism and local hospitality all bundled together to create such a welcoming place where you can really get anything and everything you need in such an orderly fashion. Twice a week the town turns into a frenzie when the cruise ships come in and suddenly every inhabitant comes out of the woodwork to match the influx of tourists. I have to admit, its incredibly refreshing to see people who do not view tourists as a necessary evil but actually welcome them. The politeness and random “how you going’s” from complete strangers on the street is a big shift in culture change but extremely welcome! 

We thought it would be a fun start to Ben and Aimee’s holiday to start with a real Pirate like Treasure hunt, so like the big kids we are we sat and worked out clues, drew maps and ‘piratised’ pieces of paper for their hunt and then casually went around places in the south depositing clues. The final X marks the spot was right here on Croc Bones and in blistering time they nailed the riddles and came motoring along on the dingy we had left for them. A brilliant welcome and chill out night followed and then came the fun...

A sample of our treasure hunt

We sat with swimwear on, snorkels in hand and waited for the tourist boats to come out right near us where they boast to people how they can feed the turtles (for a hefty sum). As soon as their turtle leader hit the water so did we and suddenly the 360 degree underwater world had turtles of all sizes swimming around us. About 10 came and went, not shy but not dangerously tame either and although they made you work for it, you could touch their shells or under their bellies as they swam by. Amazing doesn’t quite cover it. Best experience to date. They stayed for about 20 mins until the sushi ran out and then were on their way but with the help of our underwater camera we got the most amazing pictures. 

Up close and personal with the TURTLES!!

It really hits it home how lucky we are to be here. So many more wonderful things to do and this is only Caribbean island no. 1!

Awesome food after a great day out!

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out.