Day trip to Barbados east coast

We got out of the apartment fairly early yesterday morning, and waited by the side of the road for a ZR van to come by. These minibuses typically hold about 16 people, although you'll often see them stuffed a little more full than that. (The term ZR is derived from the licence plate code assigned to these vehicles.) They travel the busy roads, and competition is fierce as one competes with another for your business.

As expected, we didn't have to wait long!

Barbados steel pan drum band and new friends!

We had received an interesting email about a month ago. All it said was "Sundays..Southern Palms Hotel, St Lawrence Gap....noon till three.....Steel Pan Band.....rum punch our treat.   We hope to meet you.   Have been following you for quite awhile.  You will love Barbados."

No names mentioned! Who are these people? But, they did mention rum punch! Sounded like fun, and it was located only a 40 minute walk from the apartment.

Not everything in Barbados is beautiful...

Yesterday's blog post was late because our host Eric was going out to do some shopping and wanted to get there early. We went with him so that he could drop us off at the big Saturday market in Bridgetown and we would walk back to the apartment.

He was headed to the big PriceSmart (the Caribbean Costco) store so we went there first to check out prices since he has a membership card.

Just another beautiful day in Barbados...

We wanted to do a little less walking yesterday, and we did. But we still managed 7.2 kms (4.5 miles). We headed down towards St. Lawrence Gap, and wanted to check out the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary along the way.

It's nice to walk along the beach on the way there, and then walk back along the road where there is a chance of some shade, at least on one side of the street.

Caught in the rain!

We are here in Barbados during rainy season. But rainy season means that while it might rain every day, it's usually just for an hour or so every afternoon. So when we set out in the morning, it was a gorgeous day.

We decided to walk to the capital city of Bridgetown, about 4 kms (2.5 miles) away. But of course we don't take a direct route when we're out exploring!

Hello Barbados!

Barbados is country #34 for us!

We left you yesterday in Toronto airport just ready to get on our flight to Barbados. The flight was right on time, and we got in the air at 8:15am. Our flight was with Air Canada Rouge, which is Air Canada's supposedly discount airline, although the pricing often doesn't show up that way! However, we did get the return ticket at $531 CAD, ($405 USD) which is not bad, and of course we used our Air Canada coupons from when we got bumped so only paid out of pocket $128 CAD each for the return trip.

We're on our way!

Writing this from Toronto airport, waiting for our flight to Barbados. Not long to wait, either! It starts boarding in half an hour!

We got up at 3:00am this morning, and daughter Lindsey drove us to the airport. Only saw one other car on the road for the entire 20 minute drive.

Checked in!

Received the notification from Air Canada first thing this morning to do the online check in for our flight to Barbados early Wednesday morning. Very early.

Of course flying from Ottawa, you almost always have to connect in either Montreal or Toronto. This time, we're headed back to Toronto again. So in order to get there in time for our 8:15am departure from Toronto to Barbados, we have to take the first flight out of Ottawa to Toronto.

That one leaves at 5:35am!

Funny Halloween outfit!

We won't be here for Halloween this year so we won't get to see the grandkids dressed in their outfits. But we did get to see our son in law Justin in his outfit the other day. Too funny!

I had been perusing Amazon.ca one day a few weeks ago and saw a great costume on sale. Grandson Cameron is a big dinosaur fan, so I knew that he would love this one.

Beautiful day...

Well, I've managed to survive two nights with my friends. My voice is a little hoarse from laughing and talking so much. But that's what happens when we get together. Good times.

And we got out for a hike yesterday morning. The weather has been perfect.

Out with the boys

I've been spending time with my long time friends the last few days. Was out playing pool with my son on Wednesday night, then another old friend on Thursday night.

Then yesterday, was up early to drive Ruth up to her father's place for the weekend, because I'm at a cottage (actually a very large lake home!) on Whitefish Lake just north of Kingston, Ontario.

Motorhome upgrades

When we're staying in one spot for a while, like we are now with Sherman parked up at our daughter's house, it's really the only convenient time to do some repairs and renovations to get Sherman ready for his big trip.

So we bought some inexpensive blackout curtain panels and curtain rods for the bedroom, and we're having a new table made for the dinette booth!

All set for Barbados!

A week from today, we will be arriving in Barbados. Everything is coming together, including our accommodation.

Some of you will remember that back in July, we had booked to stay with a couchsurfing host Eric, who had offered to let us stay for the entire nineteen days. But that was over three months in advance, and we were worried something might happen between now and then.

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Sorting through our stuff...

As George Carlin once said, "a house is just a place to keep your stuff". Well when you have a small house like a motorhome, you have to keep your stuff to a minimum! So yesterday we started sorting through every drawer and cupboard looking for stuff that we don't think we need any more.

And it's amazing how much stuff you can get rid of!