I don't know if you can see the bathers in this top picture or not. If you cannot see them, then you might want to click on the picture to enlarge it. But, I included this picture to talk about "bathing" here in Barbados. I have now lived in two different locations on the island. And in both locations, there are always bathers that come out very early each morning and get in these choice spots in the ocean. They know where these spots are. What are choice spots? Well, they are spots that are shielded by rocks - so that the person doesn't have to fight against waves all the time. They are also spots that have nice sand on the bottom instead of reef or pebbles. And they are spots where a person can stand or sit comfortably without having to be able to swim. In this picture above, you can see that the bathers are shielded by the ledge of rocks. This group of bathers that come out are usually retired persons. It looks like they have a grand ole time each day - they sit in the water for about 30 minutes and talk with their neighbors about whatever is on the coconut express for the day. I'm envious of these people - not necessarily for their being able to get in an ocean each day - but, for the fact that they are enjoying God's creation and enjoying the company of their friends.
Also, in the USA, I never heard the term "bathing" - we called it swimming. Now, in the USA, we did call our swimsuits - bathing suits - upon occasion. But, the British and also the Bajans call it bathing.
This next picture below is a shot of the fishing boats headed out for the day. You will see a line of them each morning heading out from the Bridgetown port or the Carlisle Bay area. They set off early - usually going toward the South Coast to make their catches for the day. The fish are usually barracuda, marlin, or dolphin (that is not flipper, just a fish that they call dolphin).
I want to take some time and go back to my hike that occurred last Sunday evening from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. It started at the Heywoods Beach and went North first by Port St. Charles and then we headed inland to a Mile and a Quarter, up to Ebworth, and down to Speightstown. Here is a map that was taken on someone's iphone that had the application called Run Keeper. I really like this application because it plotted via GPS exactly where we walked and how many km this ended up being. Which by the way was 11.21!
I really enjoy these hikes. I don't know why really - they are hard. It is not a leisurely walk. This particular walk was a moonlight walk. Meaning that we walked the majority of the time after the sun had set. I had a torch as they call it - we in the USA call it a flashlight. I didn't really see a lot of my surroundings - because it was dark and because I was devoting the majority of my time to keeping the torch light aimed at the path in front of me. I have a tendency to stumble - and that was the last thing I wanted to do on this hike, since Gary was not with me. It was miserable a lot of the time because it rained pretty much the entire trip and people were always trying to get to the front. These hikes don't give me a sense of camaraderie amoungst the peoples! Most all are walking very fast - trying to prove that they are better at the hike than you are. So, that just makes me want to walk as fast as well.
There was one spot on the trip where I had to go through dense trees and undergrowth and that kind of scared me. I actually couldn't see the person in front of me for part of that way. And, truthfully - I do not like to have limbs and weeds raking across my arms - I always feel like there will be a spider or snake somewhere near by. Although, Barbados doesn't have many snakes at all on the island - because of the mongoose. Yeah for the mongoose!
I still want to do the hikes each Sunday, but I might skip the moonlight ones. Well, our hot water heater is broken, so there is a plumber being called to the condo. Also, the TV cable servicemen are coming to install a second cable box. It is about time! We have been asking for this box since we moved in May - that was 3 months ago. I was told this morning that there was actually a calypso song written this year for Crop Over on the dreaded wait of cable boxes. I hope I can get a copy of that song. It will mean a lot to Gary and I. It was only this year that I realized what the difference between calypso and soca music was. Calypso is a story being told in a song format - that has political or country problem meaning but is told in a funny story kind of way.
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