Moving to Paradise — Getting the Hang of Barbados
Week one of living and working in Paradise
We have now been in Barbados for a week and a half. After our quarantine was over we still had a few days in our hotel to explore the area before moving to our new apartment. Our first day of ‘freedom’ was a Monday. Unfortunately most places are closed on a Monday, even more so now in Covid times, but we did find a bar just down from the hotel, Mojo which had great burgers and live music but fairly watery cocktails. On our second night we went to Café Sol in St Lawrence Gap, really nice Tex-Mex food and slightly better cocktails. One thing I noticed over both nights was the very rushed service. Each time we arrived around 6pm wanting a few drinks before dinner and said as much to the waiter, but were asked probably every 10 minutes if we were ready to order food. Although locals do seem to eat slightly earlier than we are used to (around 7pm), I think because of the situation, places are generally quieter and they are trying to rush people through so they can close up early. It certainly doesn’t make for a relaxing meal. Hopefully as things get busier this will improve.
Before moving in, we decided to scope out the area around our new apartment. Google said it was a 20 minute walk, no problem right? Well not quite. We started walking, found our local supermarket on the way, and then the pavement ended. The hill that we live near the top of, only has pavement for small stretches (although thankfully they have put in some steps for the steepest part of the hill) so walking up and down is not for the faint hearted, and certainly not to be attempted after dark. Having come from London, we are very used to getting around without the use of a car and coming here we really hope to do the same. We chose to live on the south coast in part because of the good bus links, however we had not appreciated that simply getting to and from the bus stops may be an issue. We have been advised to make friends with a taxi driver and work out a rate for running us around the area, we will get onto this as soon as we have a local phone number. We do intend to rent a car for the odd weekend to explore the island, but at around $600 US a month for a small hatchback simply to do our food shopping, right now we are going to stick with walking!
Speaking of supermarkets, we have now been a couple of times and have started to figure out what we will and will not be eating from now on. Things that are most certainly off the list due to the cost are: bell peppers (£3 a pop!), most cheese (except cream cheese which is actually quite reasonable), cereal, olive oil (I’m particularly devastated about this as I slosh it on everything) and wholewheat pasta. We were fully expecting to cut out red meat for the year and just each fish and chicken, but actually minced beef is not too bad. Oh and if you see dolphin in the fish section, don’t worry, it is not actually Flipper, it is mahi mahi (dolphinfish). We are yet to visit a market or fruit stall so will be interesting to see what the prices are like there.
On the weekend we decided it was time to do some proper tourist activities so booked onto a catamaran cruise. I chose Calabaza as it is a small boat (max 12) and very highly recommended. It is around £100 per person for 5 hours. They picked us up from the apartment and we got to see a bit more of the area near us on the way to the marina in Bridgetown. This is certainly one of the more luxury options (if you can’t afford to charter your own) so right from the get go we were offered drinks — coffee, juice, prosecco, rum punch, beer, cocktails — all at 9am! They kept us well fed and watered throughout the entire trip, I was amazed no one fell off to be honest, but apparently that hardly ever happens! The crew are amazing and super attentive, special shout out to captain Sean who it turns out is practically our neighbour. They make several stops, the first being Carlisle Bay to swim with the turtles and snorkel the two shipwrecks located off the coast (this would be a really cool diving experience too).
I have mixed feelings about swimming with turtles. On the one hand they do live in these waters and we have seen one regularly at Worthing beach, but the ones at Carlisle Bay get fed by the boats in order to attract them. There are also quite a few people in the water with them at a time. They seem very used to people and swim right at you, I even saw people stroke them which is not ideal, they are wild animals after all and should not be interacted with in that way. There are also issues around people wearing sun cream that can come off in the water and affect their skin and shell, there was no mention of that. But having said all of that, they are stunning creatures and of course it was an amazing experience.
I would absolutely recommend doing a catamaran trip whether you live here or are just visiting. You get to see more of the coastline including some of the celebrity houses up the west coast, swim in the beautiful warm water and of course have lots of cocktails! We will certainly be doing more of them.
On Sunday we decided to check out Barbados’ largest and most famous fast food chain Chefette. Although it does all the usual fast food fare, the one we visited in Rockley also has a BBQ Barn (think Harvester) which does proper meals including grilled chicken, fish, ribs etc with sides such as macaroni pie (baked mac & cheese — amazing), mashed potatoes and of course a salad bar (which it turns out you are not meant to visit multiple times, oops!). Unfortunately the timing of our visit was not great, having started to walk down we got to the main coast road and the heavens opened. We are still in the thick of an unusually rainy ‘rainy season’ and the downpours are really something to behold. As I write this it has not stopped raining all day (I know you don’t feel sorry for me but just to show it is not always blue sky and sunshine!). We ran for a bus stop to shelter but by the time we made it to Chefette we were fully drenched. Thankfully you dry off quickly here! The food was really decent and very large portions, we ended up taking half home for dinner so worked out even more cost effective (around £37 for both of us).
Back to work today. We generally work 7–3 to have a decent cross over with our clients in the UK and Europe and this seems to be working well. The internet here is brilliant, much better than what we had back home so if anyone is worried about that, don’t be. Just make sure it is set up for you before you arrive as I think it can take a while otherwise. I think the biggest benefit we have felt so far is the work/life balance. Back home of a weekday we would do the 9–5, gym, watch TV and that was about it. Here, the day is so much longer, and going to the beach for an afternoon swim is just the best thing ever, we are still pinching ourselves that this is our life now. Also watching I’m a Celeb at 5pm is so much better than 9!
4 things I have learnt this week:
- We have a very cute troop of monkeys living nearby who are bold enough to come up to our front door but are yet to venture in. Note to self — do not leave any fruit out!
- Never go to bed saying ‘wow I haven’t been bitten at all for a week, maybe the mozzies aren’t as bad as we thought’ — you will wake up at 2am to discover multiple new bites on your legs and feet. Don’t jinx it!!
- Invest in a golf umbrella, the piddly little one I got from M&S just isn’t going to cut it over here. Now I know why Rhianna was so keen to sing about them.
- The plugs here are all fitted to the wall on their side. An odd thing to mention you may think, but I thought I was being clever stocking up on those plug in insect repellents which now just leak on the floor and are clearly not doing their job.
I started this blog to help those who are thinking of doing something similar. Please follow me on Instagram katie_in_barbados and get in touch if you have any questions. Stay tuned for more adventures in Barbados!
Disclaimer: The views in this blog are my own, not that of Red Quokka Ltd. This is a personal blog.
