Hello from Barbados! Last night we decided that at least once during this trip we needed to order room service for breakfast, so today that's how we started the day. I had heard about on area off shore that was known for its large number of sea turtles and really wanted to see it so that's what we decided to do. We had the option of booking a $75 per person tour to be boated out to these turtles, where they'd let us swim in a large group for 10 minutes to gawk and feed the turtles. $75 is a lot of money that could be used for better things (ahem, shopping...) I didn't want to spend $75. And boat rides are for sissys, right? Let's just swim out there, Jim, I said. It'll be fun I said. We took a $15/20 minute taxi ride to the closest beach to the alleged turtle spot. We rented beach chairs and set out for a 1 mile (round trip) swim to where we saw the boats with loads of tourists. And guess what? Turtles!!! They weren't shy and we did see enough to make us both happy. The weather was a bit overcast and visibility wasn't great for much else but when we saw the turtles, they were right in front of our faces. I loved them. We did a bit more swimming and enjoyed our beach time too. The pictures also show my little crab friend that kept me entertained for a while. The beach was primitive with no facilities. Ah but this is the Caribbean and there are always "entrepreneurs" ready to take your money. We were approached by quite a few selling various junk. Some vendors were more colorful than others, including a ripe-smelling man who called himself Crazy Eddie. Crazy Eddie sells aloe, scraped fresh from a leaf. He preys on tourists who are beet red from their first days under that strong caribbean sun. When Crazy Eddie saw Jim I think he saw the colors red (Jim's skin) and green (Jim's money). Poor Jim, he never saw it coming. Before he even knew what was happening, Crazy Eddie had smeared his Crazy Aloe all over Jim's head, arms, and legs. I think Jim was actually relieved Crazy Eddie didn't try to give him a Crazy Massage too. Of course Crazy Eddie wanted payment for "services rendered" and that's when Crazy Kari had to tell him to scram and not to even THINK about touching her with the aloe. We didn't see Crazy Eddie again after that.
We finished up our day, took another taxi into downtown just to walk around and see the area. We had a snack of pineapple drink and plantain chips before returning to the ship. When we returned to our cabin tonight, we had a note on our door (see picture). I guess our neighbor 4 stories up threw some orange peels on to our balcony. The note was from his wife, apologizing and explaining that her husband had Alzheimer's disease and that she would be happy to clean up the peels. That tugged at my heart a little, making me think of my grandpa, and his Alzheimer's and of my grandma's sweet way of caring for him during his last few years. We decided to order some chocolate covered strawberries and I sent Jim up with them and a note telling her to please not worry about orange peels.
Dinner was a simple one at the poolside grill tonight for us tonight, followed by a dessert and coffees in our favorite area, the piazza. We need to do some laundry tonight and are planning on an early bedtime. What can I say, the old people from the last cruise segment really rubbed off on us. Goodnight from The Crazy Ebbers!
No comments:
Post a Comment