Trinity

We think of Gibbs Beach on the west coast as our hometown in Barbados. We've tried staying elsewhere—one year in Fitts Village, St James, and one year in Bathsheba. Nevertheless, nice as those places were, we always felt a little displaced and dissatisfied.

But we are budget travellers, and Gibbs is an expensive, exclusive neighbourhood. There are vacation rentals here that cost thousands of US dollars per night. Even the Gibbs Bay Inn, which is in just the right spot and looks fine (though just short of five-star), starts at about USD200 per night.

For a few years, we rented a little apartment up on Gibbs Hill. It was lovely, but to get down to the coast we would have to walk through a dark, steep-sided gully that wound around a couple of blind corners—not the kind of place you want to share with cars, especially not at night. The gully became a kind of psychological hurdle for us. Watching for a green flash at sunset on the beach was out of the question, because then we'd have to walk back up through the gully in darkness. We ate all our dinners in.

So it was with great relief that we found the lovely "Trinity", just a few minutes' north of Gibbs Beach, along the West Coast highway. It is a self-contained studio apartment on the ground floor of a house. As you can see, it opens out onto a spacious, breezy patio that faces away from the main road and onto a well-looked-after garden much frequented by green monkeys, Zenaida doves, bananaquits, grassquits, and hummingbirds. We really had a nice time here—I can't think of a single thing that could have been done to make our stay more comfortable.

The owner, Barbara Anne Rodriguez (who told me about the cow's nostril), is as sunny and warm as her native island. She tells me she has plans to add a two-bedroom apartment in time for next winter. You can read more about Trinity here and get in touch with Barbara Anne here.

Animal Flower Cave Concession Stand

In all the times we've visited the Animal Flower Cave, we've never actually gone into the cave nor seen anyone else go in. It costs something, and there is a discouraging sign posted at the top of the stair that says something like "Enter at Your Own Risk".

Nevertheless, the concession stand at the cave is a pleasant and popular spot. You can have lunch here and ice cream, and there are washrooms in decent shape around the back.

There are several benches around the grounds that are painted blue and have a "Wet Paint" sign affixed to them. But I think the paint must be dry by now, as those signs have been there for at least three years.

Great Spot for a Picnic!

As you get close to the Animal Flower Cave (assuming you walked over from River Bay, rather than vice versa, which would actually be more sensible), there is a gallery of sorts, complete with benches, so you can put your feet up and enjoy watching the surf crash against the cliffs.

There are signs that there had once been plans to put thatch on the roof of the structure, for some welcome shade, but the wind is so strong along this coast that I don't doubt the plan was abandoned after numerous roofs blew off into the deep blue yonder.

Still, it is a great spot for a snack.

Please Pay Attention to Where You're Going

As you might imagine, there are a few signs of erosion along the coast, where the relentless ocean has scoured away for millennia at the coral cliffs. If you weren't paying attention to where you were going, you might fall through a hole like this and end up forty or so feet on the beach below.

If you did that, you'd find yourself on a beach of Bottom Bay–like beauty, but I'm not sure how you would get off it.

Surfing Lodge Ruins

One of the stranger sights along the walk from Animal Flower Cave to River Bay is this ruined hotel. At some point in the fifties or sixties, I gather, some entrepreneur thought it would be a good idea to promote the north coast as a surfers' paradise. I don't know how long the lodge was in operation, but today this ruin is all that is left of the venture.

I don't know anything about surfing, so I can't speak to the wisdom of the plan, but I've had a good look at that point on the coast, and I just don't see how, once they'd cruised in on their gnarly waves, the surfers could avoid being pureed against the rocky cliffs.

Perhaps that's why the hotel went out of business, when all its guests failed to return from their day's activities.

One thing to note about this point in the walk: there is a hobo-like person who seems to live by the walled perimeter of the surf lodge. He likes to insist you buy something from him as a kind of fee for passing through. One time we bought a wild grapefruit from him (it wasn't entirely edible, but its scent made me think I'd died and gone to citrus heaven) and this time around the GH bargained him down from five dollars to three for an entirely desiccated coconut that he claimed had juice in it.

He seems pretty harmless, and we don't begrudge him his rather marginal means of scraping by. He seems shy about who he approaches—one time I saw him start towards us jauntily, only to melt into the shadows under the trees when he saw the muscular beefcake tourist who happened to be walking in front of us. I felt rather sorry.

The Cow's Nostril

This brief video gives an idea of the wildness of the north coast. Towards the end of the video, you will see a blowhole in action. Our landlady, Barbara Anne Rodriguez (about whom more in a later post), told me that blowholes are known locally as "cow's nostrils"!

Where the Atlantic Meets the Caribbean Sea

The sea off the north coast of Barbados is as wild and crazy as it is because that is the point at which the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea. It really is something to behold, the way the water heaves and thrashes around. Great waves, as high as buildings, crash into the cliffs, as depicted above—when you consider that the cliffs are about thirty or forty feet high, you start to get an idea of the scale of the splash I photographed here.