Barbados top 10

This is just a quick and dirty list of the top ten things I will miss about Barbados.  I started this list before we left post and am finishing it a few months after we left.  I find that these are the things I miss the most, so I guess it was a pretty accurate list!

#1 Beaches.  This one is about as obvious as it can get, but the beaches in Barbados are amazing.  The sand is beautiful and the water is clean, clear and just the most perfect temperature, but the beaches offer even more than that. After three years we have several favourite beaches, and they make the list for completely different reasons. Miami Beach is the one closest to our house, and probably the one we visited the most. There was a cove that offered few waves and a nice splash area for Ryan, and a wide open beach that was good for boogie boarding.  Accra beach was another nice place to boogie board, and it was great to have the pool at the Accra Hotel to go into after the beach. (Far less sand in the car that way!)  Martin's Bay offered the best place to search for treasures like sea glass, shells and coral/rocks, and it was a great place to see interesting creatures, especially at low tide.  The ramshackle beach was a nice place for lunch, and we could swim out to spend some time with sea turtles and snorkel with interesting fish.  The beach at the cruising club was also nice, and provided a place to stand up paddle board which I loved doing.  It also was right next to Cuz... see item #7 below.

#2 Rain on the roof.  It rained so much in Barbados, and with no insulation in our roof the sound was loud and beautiful throughout the house.  Although it would sometimes wake me up at night I never got tired of hearing it.  Thankfully the boys slept right through it, if it had woken them up I might have developed very different feelings over the three years!

#3 Sailing and swimming with the turtles.  The water around Barbados is perfect. The color can't be described because it constantly changes with the weather and the tide, but the it is clean and clear and a perfect 82 to 86 degrees year round.  Getting out into and on the water was always such a joy, and I am so glad that we were able to do it as much as we were.  Conor got out the most, and in the end he was able to pass his level 5 sailing exam, which is actually pretty impressive for a 10 year old!  He sailed at least once a week, and when school was out it was more like every day.  I took lessons too and enjoyed it thoroughly but didn't excel like Conor did.  We also got out on many different commercial and private catamaran cruises and enjoyed every single one.  They always involved snorkeling with interesting sea life and, of course, swimming with the giant sea turtles.  I love that Ryan and Conor have gotten to experience being up close and personal with these wonderful animals in their home.

#4 Our lime tree.  We got so much use out of the limes from that tree!  Limeade was a favourite drink for all of us, and I developed some amazing recipes too.  I definitely miss being able to ask Conor or Ryan to go out back and pick 4 or 5 limes for me at absolutely any time, year round.

#5 First Bat of the Night, a game we played in our family whenever we were out at dusk.  Usually either Conor or I won, but we tried to be the first person to spot a bat.  Bats were everywhere around our house, and we loved seeing them because it meant that they were out eating up tons of pesky (possibly Dengue-carrying) mosquitoes!  Bats were definitely our friends in Barbados!

#6 Tree frogs at night.  I definitely didn't think I would miss these little guys when we first moved there because they are LOUD but not only did I get used to the sound of the tree frogs singing at night, I grew to really enjoy them.  Just to give you an idea of how loud these guys can be, people often think there is a car alarm going off somewhere in the neighbourhood when they first arrive in Barbados, and all of that sound comes from a frog that is smaller than a quarter!  This one was an acquired taste, but I will miss them just the same.

#7 Cuz.  I won't miss much about the food in Barbados.  Grocery shopping was frustrating because things were both old and over priced.  "Fresh" produce was the worst for both of those reasons.  The only consistently available produce were root vegetables ("ground provisions") such as yams, cassava, potatoes, beets and taro.  Most restaurants had the same problems we did getting good ingredients so the food was overpriced and only OK.  The really good restaurants were a complete splurge and would have broken the bank if we ate at them on a regular basis.  That said, the fresh fish in Barbados was amazing.  Conor's favourite local food was flying fish, something he won't be getting many other places I am sure!  The fish markets offered huge portions of well seasoned, nicely grilled catch of the day, and there were many small shacks where you could get a nice "fish cutter" or fish sandwich for very little money.  The best of these places was Cuz's shack by pebble beach (near the cruising club).  I tried to overdo it on Cuz sandwiches our last week in town, eating one a day as I was dropping off and picking up Conor at the yacht club for sailing lessons.  It didn't work.  I never got tired of them, and only miss them more now.

#8 Monkeys and Mongoose. Monkeys carrying their babies on their backs, climbing the mango trees at Providence, a troop crossing the lawn at Graham Hall, were all very common sights in Barbados and something that always made us happy to see.  Mongoose were harder to spot, usually just darting across the road ahead of us as we drove through the cane fields, but also something fun to experience.

#9 Friends.  We made some amazing friends in Barbados, and hope very much to keep in contact with them as we all scatter around the world. A few people we leave behind in Barbados who were very important to our time there are Mrs. Betty and Ryan's first best friend Caelin.  Mrs. Betty was such a joy to get to know, and I always felt so good about sending Ryan and Conor off to school with her, knowing that she loved them and would keep them safe.  She told them stories about growing up in Barbados, and through their interactions with her I think Ryan, and even more so Conor got to know a bit about the true Barbados.  I also loved watching Ryan and Caelin play together and grow closer, and will miss being able to see where that relationship would have taken them. Moving can be hard in lots of ways.

#10 Everything I am forgetting.  I know there are tons of things that I am forgetting to include here, but really all of it just boils down to this.  Barbados was a wonderful place for our family to be for the last three years. The kids have flourished here in so many ways and for countless reasons and we will always look back on our time in Barbados with fond memories and quite a bit of nostalgia.