Barbados

2/22/2011

Barbados, meaning ‘the bearded ones’, has some of the strictest anti-smoking laws anywhere. As of last October, no smoking in any public building, shops, bars, restaurants, hotels or even the dock area. They also do not allow civilians to wear camouflage colored clothing. It is another island with driving being done on the wrong side of the road. High taxes are the norm, with a combination of VAT taxes at 17.5% and income taxes of 25% or more after the first $20,000. But $20,000 of the Eastern Caribbean dollar is only $10,000 in US money. Plus, there are some other taxes.

We took a tour of the island on a bus, up into the rain forest and down to the beaches, both Caribbean and Atlantic, with stops at high lookouts for photos. Not the most scenic of islands, but it was a very interesting tour. Much depends on the tour guide, and Peter was quite good.

Note the size of the Barbados Navy from the photo.

All aboard today was at 3:30 pm with sail away scheduled to be at 4pm. Three times after that, one couple was asked over the loudspeakers to contact passenger services immediately, which means that they had checked out of the ship, but not back onto the ship. We don’t know if they made it back to the ship. We sailed at 4:45 which is unusual, we usually sail on time.


Colleen & John