Off to Barbados!

Ken and Virginia had visited to Puerto Rico in 2015, taken the Caribbean/Panama Canal cruise in 2017, and ventured to St. Lucia in 2019. Covid interrupted their habit of biennial visits to the Caribbean in 2021. In the fall of 2022 Ken deemed that he and Virginia needed to resume the practice. After consultations with their travel agent they settled on traveling to Barbados.

This lighthouse shown here was literally right outside Ken and Virginia’s room at the Barbados Hilton. You can also (more or less) see the Hilton’s beach. Ken is using this shot as the cover photo for this blog since it provides a good instant visual sense of the place.

 

It’s a Jaunt

Getting to the island involved connections in Dallas and Miami. The trip began at 6AM on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 when Ken + Virginia caught an Uber from home to the Wichita airport. The airline part of the trip started inauspiciously with a mechanical delay on departure from Wichita. Fortunately Ken + Virginia had a long layover at DFW, got some lunch, and still arrived at their departure gate long before the airplane for the next leg had arrived.

 

They Finally Made It

The plane from DFW to Miami was on time. After the roughly 3.5 hour flight Virginia + Ken arrived in Miami with time to grab a quick dinner before boarding the nearly 4 hour flight to Barbados. Once they were done with all the processes at the Barbados airport they got a taxi for the 35 minute ride to their hotel – the Hilton Barbados Resort at Needham’s Point. It is located right on the beach and just about 1.5 miles south of downtown Bridgetown (the capital). By the time they got settled in their room it was 12:45 AM AST (two hours ahead of Derby), so overall it was roughly a 19 hour trip!

 

Welcome to Room 213

Hours later on the morning of Wednesday, March 8, Ken got some basic shots of the room before V+K headed out for the day’s explorations.

 

Room 213 was a Balcony Room

It was located in what was known as the “Lighthouse Tower” due to its proximity to the Needham's Point Lighthouse shown previously in the first shot of this post (with a smaller version shown below). 

The Needham's Point Lighthouse is one of the four historic lighthouses in the country still in existence. (The other three are at South Point, Harrison Point, and Ragged Point.) Unlike the rest of those lighthouses, Needham's Point had a stationary, rather than rotating, beacon. Owing to its stationary nature, the lighthouse lens was half red and half green to allow sailors to know whether they were on the port or starboard side of Carlisle Bay and thus navigate safely around the peninsula. Built in 1855, this octagonal masonry tower – now painted white with a black lantern – is the island's second-oldest lighthouse. It is now inactive and partially restored by Hilton which owns the lighthouse itself and surrounding grounds. It stands 43 ft above sea level and flashed at 8-second intervals when in operation.

 

Cruise Ship Harbor

Stepping out into the hallway leading to their room provided K+V with this view of the of the Port of Bridgetown (main cruise ship harbor) that was about 2.5 miles away. (The hallway was enclosed and had VERY dirty windows that Ken did his best to mask in this image.)

 

Cruise Ship Harbor-Original

Just for comparison, here is how the shot looked before Ken fixed it up.

 

Carlisle Bay

Shot taken just a wee bit to the right from the previous one, through those same DIRTY windows, and with similar post-processing fixing by Ken.

 

Pool and Beach

As seen from the breezeway connecting the two room towers. A two-level pool with a (not operational) hot tub in-between. Ken never did figure out the intended use of the small square pool between the bigger pools and the beach. There are actually two beach areas but the one shown is much more sheltered and the only one Ken ever used.

 

Upper Pool and Fort Charles

If you look closely at the upper pool (right side) you can see a man cleaning it. Other than when the SCUBA classes were in there, this is the only time Ken ever saw someone at the upper pool. Days later it dawned on him why – there are no chairs near it! At the top right of the picture you can see the cannons at Fort Charles.

 

Eastern End of Beach

This beach is fully exposed to the surf, which typically is rather rough (note the red flag very near the man walking in the surf), so Ken only used the more sheltered beach a bit west of there shown a few shots ago.

 

Hotel Front

Here is the main arrival area of the hotel and what is known as the Fort View Tower of rooms.

 

Hotel Driveway

 

Open Air Lobby

Now let’s head down to the beach and explore the fort too.

 

More Beach

 

There Really is a Fort Here

The Hilton site is also the location of Fort Charles. The view will give you an idea of the location's importance in defense and sea navigation. Cannons still line the wall of the fort, strategically positioned as they would have been back in the 1600s.

 

A Fort with Cannons

 

Cannons at the Ready

 

Cannons Protecting the Harbor

 

And Cannons Protecting the Base of the Fort

 

More of the Fort

Apparently Hilton uses this area for parties and wedding receptions, etc.

 

A Bit Overgrown but Still in Decent Shape

 

There Apparently Were Big Guns Here Too

Time to head back to the hotel. But not before getting a few shots of the harbor and Carlisle Bay.

 

The Cruise Ships are In

 

Carlisle Bay

 

A Junk on Carlisle Bay

 

An Early Morning Swimmer in Carlisle Bay

 

But Wait, There is More to Explore!

At this point Ken was about fried and ready to head back to the room and round-up Virginia. But when he saw the sign about the Military Cemetery he knew he was not done yet.

First Some More of the Beach

 

Hotel from the Pool Area

 

Lighthouse and V+K’s Room

V+K’s room is just about directly behind the top of the small palm tree.

 

Drill Beach Lifeguard Station

 As Ken walked southeast along the beach headed for the cemetery (he hoped!) he came to realize that the beach there was actually a public beach, not exclusive to Hilton guests. It was named “Drill Beach” presumably for the nearby garrison location from years ago.

 

Drill Beach

 

Barbados Military Cemetery

Ken finally got there! Actually it was only about 15 minutes after he started off for it, but by 8AM the sun was HOT.

 

Well Kept

As one would expect in a former British colony.

 

Typical Grave

Notice it seems to be above ground. Not all that surprising in a place probably 5 feet above sea level – at BEST.

 

A Few of the Graves Looked Like This

 

Number 42

Close-up of the small marker shown in previous shot.

 

More Details

It seemed to Ken there was a process underway to more fully identify exactly who was buried in the grave and to add a more complete marker when that information was clear.

 

Time to Head to the Air Conditioned Room

To be factually accurate except for the two shots taken from inside the room, and the one of the lighthouse taken from the balcony, all of these “tour of the hotel” shots were taken during a “rest-up” time on the morning of Friday, March 10, NOT the morning after arrival. Ken decided to present them out of shooting order to provide a tour of the hotel before heading out to show the island. So now let’s get back a more or less day-by-day retelling of the story.

 

George Washington Slept Here

No, REALLY! After eating their included breakfast at the hotel (which of course they did every day), Virginia and Ken’s first adventure was to walk the short distance from their hotel to the George Washington House. The house was built in 1717.

The story goes that on George Washington’s only trip outside of what later would become the United States, he accompanied his older brother Lawrence when Lawrence came to the booming British Colony of Barbados in 1751. Lawrence was seeking relief from tuberculosis and thought the fresh air would help. George only stayed for seven weeks. While here two events occurred that the native Barbadians suggest significantly impacted George and his conduct during the Revolutionary War. (Ken is not taking a position but is simply relaying the information he saw in the museum.) 

1. He contracted smallpox. This lead him to understand its devastating effects and emboldened him to defy a Congressional ban and order his his troops to be vaccinated.
2. He came to understand the importance of sugar to the British economy. He later successfully convinced the Dutch to attack British sugar holdings in the Caribbean, thereby diverting a significant portion of the British military assets away from fledgling colonial America.

 

Dining Room

The house was fairly modest for the area at the time, just four bedrooms, kitchen and a huge dining room. When George and Lawrence arrived in Bridgetown, Barbados was a tightly controlled established society with a population ratio of four African slaves to every one white Barbadian. The second floor of the house was added sometime after 1810, long after George's visit, and now houses a more general display of Barbadian history. 

 

The Tunnels

While it certainly was the draw for the American tourists, Ken thought the neatest thing about the location was not Washington’s time there, but the history of the general area as a British military installation. This tunnel lead from the area of the house to the area of the British Garrison and was a drainage tunnel.

 

Right Through the Coral

The tunnels varied from 12 to 8 feet tall and were dug right through the coral base of the island.

 

Barbados Historical Museum

Ken + Virginia’s next destination was the Barbados Historical Society & Museum. It was only a short a walk away from the George Washington House though the blazing sun made it seem further.

 

Military Prison

Like pretty much everything else in the area the building being used for the museum traced its history back to the British Garrison that was on the island. This particular building used to be the military prison.

 

A Long History

The museum told the whole story of Barbados starting from its formation from coral, the time the indigenous peoples first arrived, though colonization and independence. Knowing what little he does about Caribbean history what Ken found most interesting was that by 1751 (when Washington arrived), Barbados had already been a British Colony for 124 years. And, unlike many of the other islands that changed between British, French, Spanish and Dutch control as many as 14 times, Barbados had not changed hands since the initial British colonization in 1627.

 

Garrison Racetrack

Upon exiting the historical museum V+K walked around the perimeter of the Garrison Racetrack. As the name implies it functions as a horse racing track these days but is located on the site of the former British Garrison’s parade ground. But here, of course, the horses go around the track in the "wrong" direction.

 

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Owing to its long history the entire area near the Garrison is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area contains many buildings from the colonial days in various states of repair and disrepair. From here K+V headed towards the main road into downtown Bridgetown. They knew downtown was a bit too far to walk under the conditions and stopped and waited at one of the bus stops. Before the bus even arrived a taxi stopped and offered Virginia + Ken a ride into downtown for 5 US Dollars. That seemed quite fair considering what they’d paid to get from the airport to their hotel the night before.