Puerto Rico - Uno, Dos, Tres! (3)

Ok, so remember those great photos with the waterproof case? They didn't work quite as well for snorkling. We took a snorkeling tour to 2 sites and saw turtles and sting rays (4 of them all swooping over each other at one point) and a shipwreck covered with fish in Carlisle Bay in Barbados. 

Then we explored the downtown, and had lunch at the most authentic place I can imagine. We asked the captain of the snorkeling boat, and a sketchy gentleman hanging around on the dock where they would go for lunch and everyone agreed you go to Tim's. Being good Canadians, this seemed a very workable plan. So we found the tiny sign for the unmarked side door to Tim's, where we were clearly the only people not on our lunch break from work. I tried to get Flying Fish for credibility (I had read it was Barbados' national dish), but they were all out, so I got Shepherd's Pie instead and green plantains, but it was delicious and had a totally different, typically Caribbean tasting spice blend. I'll now spend the next year trying to recreate Tim's Shepherd's Pie.

All my travel research indicated that you haven't truly experienced Barbados until you ride the Reggae Bus. So we asked 3 locals until we eventually found where to hop on a free wheeling, bass thumping, engine revving speed demon they call the bus. It was wild, and hilarious. For anybody who has seen Harry Potter it felt like the Knight Bus. Brendan felt the noise and chaos were unnecessary, but Rob and I had a great time.

It was however a little demoralizing to eventually get off, find the tiny marine museum we had ridden to, see that it was closed "for lunch" and that the beach was closed due to the rip current and waves. Hmmm. Well, travelling is adapting, so we headed down the walkway towards the next beach I knew of and had the good fortune to find a tiny section of sheltered cove where the waves were big but not too big and an overly helpful young man who desperately wanted to sell me boat rides for the kids when all I wanted was cold beer in a bucket. We eventually compromised and he took me to a friend, who sold cold beer in a bucket. 

Nearing the end of our return Reggae Bus ride, the crowd thinned out so much that we all got seats of our own, and I was able to take a picture rather than swinging wildly from the bars on the roof like a St Martin monkey.

Final Stop - Grenada

We had arranged for a morning tour of the island with a very knowledgeable guide named Mandoo. He took us to a waterfall to swim, and a National Park with monkeys and a crater lake at the peak of the island. Along the way he talked all about the history of the island and we saw how bananas, pineapples, nutmeg, cashews, cinnamon, mangos, and breadfruit grow. 

At Concord Falls, some of the kids got their daredevil on and cliff dived much to the delight of the crowd and the dismay of this mother. They all survived.