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With Zia anchored off the beach and the
Sugadadeze
villa just a minute's walk across the road, we spent
the last week in decadent luxury. Juliana and
Mike flew in from San Francisco and Nana from New
Mexico. The seven of us had a glorious time
catching up after a year's absence. The
hardest thing about our wonderful cruising lifestyle
is being so far removed from family and friends.
Weeks like this past one go a long way to compensate
for the long periods of separation.
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Barbados is a lovely
setting for such a reunion. The west coast of
the island boasts luxury villas and hotels that are
frequented mostly by British and Canadian tourists.
Although it is not an accepted destination for
cruisers, being the easternmost of the Caribbean
islands and therefore upwind from most locations, it
is one of the most popular tourist destinations in
the West Indies. It is easy to see why, with
an abundance of white sand beaches, steady trade
winds and a high standard of development relative to
most of the region.
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Geologically, the island
differs from the rest of the Windward Islands, which
are volcanic in origin. In contrast, Barbados
is formed by coral and limestone deposits. It
is generally flat along the coastline and hilly in
the interior. It's highest peek rises to just
over 1,000 feet. Plentiful rainwater seeps
through the island's porous foundation and is stored
in underground fresh water reserves.
Agriculture was historically the most important
sector of the economy, but tourism surpassed it in
the 1960s. Sugarcane is the largest crop and
is used to make the famous local rum, Mount Gay.
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Sugar
Hill, pictured in these last two pictures, is
one of the housing developments in the interior of
the island geared towards foreigners. Our
contract at Sugadadeze granted us privileges at this
facility as well as the
Royal Westmoreland Beach Club. A taxi
drive away, we spent just one day enjoying the
infinity pool overlooking the gentle slope down
towards the beach from Sugar Hill. We met a
lovely British family who were on a work/vacation.
David is a golf pro at the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club
outside London. The golf facilities on the
island are spectacular, and spectacularly expensive
as well, we heard. David and Jessica's two
young boys were enamored with Cassie and Juliana.
And they were all enthralled by the singer who
preformed easy listening covers at the facility's
poolside restaurant.
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Most of our days we
spent between the comfortable luxury of the villa
and the umbrella shaded beach just across the road.
We sat and talked and swam and read our books and
caught up on lost time snuggling.
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Our days tended to revolve around mealtimes.
We split these up pretty evenly between cooking at
the villa and going out. One night, Mike and
Jules arranged to have a chef come and prepare a
delicious meal for us at the villa. It was a
real treat to be served in such style in the comfort
of our own "home." The food was delicious;
breaded chicken breasts stuffed with plantains,
Roquefort mashed sweet potatoes and a medley of
roasted local vegetables. Yum.
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It was a special treat
to have Nana there with us. At
eighty-something, she is strong and lively and a joy
to have around. That she was willing to endure
the grueling travel schedule to come and visit meant
the world to us. Her perceptive questions
about our travels and lifestyle kept us all engaged
and entertained.
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Of course, our wonderful
week came to an end far too quickly. With work
beckoning, Mike and Jules flew back to San
Francisco. We had another couple of days with
Nana all to ourselves and then had to say our teary
good-byes to her as well. Thankfully, everyone
arrived safely home with no travel nightmares.
On Zia, we are getting back into our routine of
school, boat projects, planning our upcoming
itinerary and trying to make up for all the
decadence with a little exercise. We miss our
family but it feels good to be back home on the
boat.
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