There's more of a wind than a breeze today and the waves are crashing on the beach, which is pretty deserted. The sun is trying to break through the clouds, which are clearing slowly.
This morning’s excitement was feeding the pigeons by hand on the patio. They are pretty tame but still quite wary.
We're going to the fish fry at Oistin's tonight, that's all we have planned. A lazy day. I might rig up a better aerial for the radio in the apartment if I get round to it.
I'm off for a shower now, I wonder if the lizard we saw in the bathroom is still there? Yes.
I spent about 10 minutes remodelling a steel coat hanger into a nice straight aerial with a tight turn at the end to go under the screw of the radios FM connection. It works really well and we can now pickup far more stations.
A bit of reading (me) and some sunbathing (J), and then we are off to the Carib Beach Bar for lunch.
We walked all the way, it's hot. We had some Caribs instead of Banks and it tasted good, then we ordered our lunch. We'd been told about the fish cakes here so we ordered some for starters. We're not over enthusiastic as they are seem like deep fried dough balls that aren't very fishy. For main course we had
Blackened Dolphin and Blackened Barracuda. Very good.
We walked back as well and stopped at the beach bar for some more beers and I also had a straight white rum. It was very strong (very). Just one more beer and a dark rum and coke it's time to go back to the apartment to get ready to go to Oistins.
We take the bus to the fish fry, it's too far to walk. There's a great party atmosphere when we get there. At one end is a stage with big speakers pumping out music, at the other is the fish market. The space in between is dozens of little huts selling the freshest fish and seafood you can possibly have. From fishing boat, to market, to vendor, to you is a total of a couple of hundred yards.
We shared two plates of food, blackened fish with rice and salad and some big prawns, potatoes and salad. We haven't had a bad meal in Barbados yet!
We crossed the road to buy a small bottle of rum from a "rum shop", a hut that is the closest thing you get to pub here. They are dotted all over the place if you look carefully. A couple of rum and cokes later and we are take a look at the art and crafts stalls which fill the gaps between the food huts. We bump into Robert, a local who drinks at the beach bar, we have a short chat while Janice looks at the arts and crafts. Next we look around the fish market where they are just finishing for the day, there's some big fish here! We decide to buy some more fish to takeaway. We stop at "Janice's" and order some fish and salad. Janice asks which of the people serving is Janice. Her sister says Janice passed away last year but her daughter still works here. Janice was only 47.
We get on the next route taxi back to Magic Isle and eat the fish and salad as soon as we get in. I have no idea what the fish was but it's great.
At 10:15 this is our latest night so far!
Drinks tally:
2 Carib, 3 daiquiris, 3 Banks, a light rum, a dark rum and coke, half a small bottle of rum.