Barbados and Grenada

In Barbados, the cruise ship terminal is part of the commercial port, so it is some distance from the town. When we got off the ship, we took a shuttle bus to the cruise ship terminal, and then another bus into town. 

 We walked up to the Anglican cathedral.

The graves were especially interesting, many dating from the early 1700s. From there we headed to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, which was some distance away. The Catholic cathedral was relatively new, as the Catholic church had only been there since the 1800s. It included regimental symbols from various units which had a connection to Barbados, including the Royal Scots.

The day was a bit of a long walk, not through the best neighborhoods, but we did get to see something of the town.

We were warned twice to keep a close watch on our bags, a friendly reminder.

We kept walking to find the Garrison and the Barbados museum. The Garrison is the UNESCO world heritage site. We walked and walked, and saw some signs for the garrison, but no garrison. We asked for directions several times, and finally reached the Barbados museum, without ever seeing the garrison. The museum itself was moderately interesting, but nothing to write home about. The museum is in the old military prison. When we left the museum, we started to see the garrison, generally red brick buildings around what is now a horse racing track.   The buildings date from the early 1800s.

But by then we had walked enough. We continued long enough to find a coffee shop, where we rested our feet, and ate a bit. At that point, Sandi said she would not walk any further, and wanted a cab. While looking for a cab, a van/bus stopped, and we got on. We were definitely with the locals.  The lady behind us in the bus was chatty, and told us about the 50^th anniversary of independence, and explained the commemorative monument that we saw, including a large flag.  The bus dropped us at the open air bus station, near the center of town.  

We walked a few blocks, and hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way back to the ship.

In Grenada, the ship arrived at 7 AM and left at 2 PM, not allowing much time for tourism.

We trudged straight up the steep hill to the 8AM mass at the Cathedral. The elderly bishop said mass; they are waiting for a new bishop to be appointed. The bishop appeared to be well loved. During the traditional Catholic sign of peace, the bishop went down the aisle shaking hands, and many crossed the aisle to great each other. We do not typically see this in the USA. This appeared to be a close knit community. There were many well dressed church ladies, including some in white, as you would see in an African-American church in the USA. There was a Calypso choir, with a drum. Sandi claimed the mass was two and a half hours, but it was really about two hours.

After mass we asked a policeman about WIFI, and were directed to a nearby bar, where we saw many people from the cruise ship staring at their phones. We also saw a local man persuading tourists to buy him beer. We walked through the low one lane tunnel to get to the Carenage (sic), the old port, where we saw colorful fishing vessels. The town was basically closed for Sunday. We were told that the unemployment rate was 39%. We perceived Grenada as poor, and not as prepared for tourism as Antigua or Barbados. Venezuela funded the city market, which was virtually empty. The people were hawking their wares, but were polite. Sandi missed visiting the spice plantations; we had read that they were closed on weekends. Grenada is known as the spice island; we did not buy any spices, although they were being sold everywhere, because we were not sure if we could bring them back to the USA.