Hot Legendary Fish Cakes at Oistins

These are kind of nice. Doughy, spicy, and fishy. They make a tasty appetizer before your main plate of fish.

The Oistins Fish Fry Traffic Jam

A definite downside to the Oistins Fish Fry is the traffic jam you have to endure in getting there. There are direct buses (yellow and blue) to Oistins from Speightstown along the West Coast road, but when we casually strolled out at 6 pm to the bus stop at Fitts Village (where we were staying the first time we went to the fish fry) , we had to let several buses go by as they were so packed with people there was no room for us to get on.

When we did finally get on a bus, it got bogged down in rush-hour traffic around Bridgetown, and from there it was stop-and-go all the way to Oistins! It was well past 8 pm before we arrived.

The bus goes along the South Coast, which is where most of the tourist resorts are. I can't say that the strip is much to our taste, but maybe it's best for Bajans if the rowdiest tourists are all concentrated in one small part of the island.

The second time we went to the fish fry, we left from Bathsheba. This time we thought we would dodge the traffic by going early, and presented ourselves at the bus stop outside the Sea-U Guest House at 3 pm (buses go to Bridgetown every hour from Bathsheba). Strangely, the bus never arrived, and one of our fellow would-be passengers said it might have something to do with school being let out.

So we took the 4 pm to Bridgetown and changed at the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal to the Sam Lord's Castle bus, which leaves at the top and bottom of every hour (i.e., every 30 minutes). But by then the rush hour was in full force, so we still got to the fish fry rather later than we had planned. In fact, the one-way trip took three hours!

So this year, we had a cunning plan ... stay tuned to find out what it was.

By the way, buses from Bridgetown back to Bathsheba leave every half hour between 5 and 8 pm; thereafter they leave every hour on the hour.

The Oistins Fish Fry

The Oistins Fish Fry takes place every Friday night and is well worth visiting if you are at all fond of fish! We are told that a quieter version of it occurs on Saturday nights too, but Friday night is the happening night.

Situated right next to the Oistins Fish Market, the Fish Fry is a collection of stalls and tables, rather like a Singaporean hawker centre but all--yay!--devoted to fish.

A plate of fish and side dishes (grilled vegetables, macaroni pie, rice and peas, mashed potatoes, etc.) costs about BBD 35.00. You can have your pick of grilled dolphin (mahi-mahi, not the mammal), marlin, swordfish, flying fish, and seafood kebabs. Some stalls are better than others, but we haven't yet figured out which one we like best.

I'm usually somewhat conscientious about eating seafood in an ethical way, but I figure by the time I've racked up the carbon emissions to fly to Barbados, I may as well indulge. (Plus, we get around ever so virtuously by bus!) I haven't looked into it, but my impression is that Bajan fishing practices are pretty low-impact. It's all local seafood, too!

Valentine's Day in Barbados

So this is what the GH looked like on Valentine's Day, 2010.

That's okay. When I thought of all that could have happened--a concussion, an abraded cornea, lost teeth, or even a broken neck--I was happy just to have my Good Hubby by me, even if he did look a little more colourful and puffy than usual.

The main inconvenience was that, to avoid disturbing the many stitches inside his mouth, we had to switch to a diet of mushy food for the rest of our visit.

What? No more dolphin (mahi-mahi), marlin, flying fish, or swordfish steaks? It was a cause for genuine dismay.

Luckily, we had already made our annual pilgrimage to the Oistins Fish Fry, just the night before.

Turtle Nests Destroyed

Throughout the night of February 13 (the day of the Good Hubby's accident), we could hear the surf pounding the shore, even though we were about a mile inland.

The next morning, we visited Gibbs Beach again and noticed that there were smashed turtle eggs all over it.

Our host, P.H., told us that there are usually about 70 hawksbill turtle nests on Gibbs Beach alone. She was very sad to hear about the smashed eggs, as she has taken part in the hatchling release programme, where volunteers shine flashlights to guide the emerging baby turtles into the ocean.

From all I've read about sea turtles (The Voyage of the Turtle, by Carl Safina, is one of my favourite books), I can see that Gibbs Beach is a perfect beach for nesting turtles--at least, when there are not "large battering waves" pounding the shore.

From the website of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project, I've learned that hawksbill nests are usually about 18 inches deep. I guess that gives us an idea of how much the beach was churned up by those high waves.

I also learned that three different species of sea turtle nest on Barbados--hawksbills, green, and leatherbacks. I think P.H. said the leatherbacks mostly nest on the East Coast.

If there are about 70 nests on Gibbs Beach and each nest contains about 150 eggs, that means come hatching season some 10,500 baby turtles make their way to sea from Gibbs Beach alone. The number that survive to breeding age is, of course, only a tiny percentage of that--but still it's an encouraging thought.

I certainly didn't see 10,500 destroyed eggs along the beach that day, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that only a handful of nests were disturbed and that this summer baby hawksbills will emerge out of the sand and take to their ocean home in great numbers!

Sandy Crest Medical Centre, Holetown

Very fortunately, our hosts P. and D.H. arrived at Gibbs Beach in their car just moments after the Good Hubby had had his accident. They drove us to the Sandy Crest Medical Centre in Holetown.

I can't say enough good things about the treatment that the GH got there. The attending physician, Dr Trudy Weeks, found that the force of the wave in dragging his chin along the bottom had opened up a deep laceration inside his mouth, essentially ripping the flesh away from his jawbone. The laceration was full of sand.

His right eye was similarly rather sandy, so the first task was to irrigate this eye and clean it out as much as possible. Miraculously, although it was already clear he would have a huge shiner, his vision was unaffected.

Also miraculously, he had all his teeth, so the main task was to sew the hole in his chin back together again, after all the sand was cleaned out (she did this by poking her finger in the hole repeatedly!) I assisted in the suturing by holding his bottom lip open so that Dr Weeks could see what she was doing. So I'm afraid I've now seen my husband's jawbone.

There was very little tissue left on the bone, so Dr Weeks had a difficult time trying to attach the other side of the laceration back to the gum. But she was very patient and also quite deft with her hands. It took about an hour for her to put all the sutures in and to close up the hole.

She then ordered x-rays as she was convinced that the GH had broken his orbital bone. Luckily this was not the case, but I was rather impressed by how modern the x-ray facilities at Sandy Crest were (my father is a retired radiologist so I have a faint interest in these things).

I was most impressed by how kind and cheerful everybody was. In many countries that are as touristed as Barbados, the prevailing attitude might be one of impatience or disdain for a tourist that had got himself into trouble this way, but both the nurse and Dr Weeks were extremely sympathetic and unrushed in attending to us.

In the reception area of Sandy Crest, there is a framed photo and letter from Tony and Cherie Blair, thanking the staff of the centre for their kind treatment. Not a big fan myself, but I think I can say we couldn't have been treated any better if we had been celebrity politicians!

High Surf on February 13, 2010

These were the conditions at Gibbs Beach on the morning of February 13. The waves were, I think, between two and three metres in height. Because Gibbs is a relatively steep beach, these waves did not break until they were right on the shore.

Unbeknown to me, as I was taking this video the Good Hubby was happily undressing and getting ready to go in. As soon as he entered the water, however, he realized he should come out again. However, this meant turning his back on the surf.

I watched in mounting horror as he got slammed down repeatedly by waves that stood maybe three feet taller than him. The last wave dragged him along the bottom by his face. He must have hit a rock on the way, because when he came out of it his cheek was swollen to the size of a grapefruit and his chin was coursing with blood.

Hindsight is a great thing. I have now discovered that the meteorological section of the Ministry of Agriculture website had posted for that day: "Moderate to rough in open water with swells 2.5-3.5 m. A small craft warning is in effect for above normal northerly swells. A High Surf Advisory is in effect for large battering waves."

My italics. No kidding!

Gibbs Beach

Of all the beaches we've visited in Barbados, Gibbs Beach is our favourite. The beachfront is taken up with staid and elegant villas, all with lovely tropical gardens--as a result, the beach has a secluded, untouristed feel.

To get to Gibbs Beach, get off the bus at the junction of Highway 1 (the West Coast Road) and the road that leads to Rock Dundo. Walk north along the west side of the road until you come to a house called "Southwinds". There is a narrow passage on the left that takes you down to the beach.

When the sun is out, the waters of Gibbs Beach have that astonishing blue colour that always looks faked in photographs. You can see why travel copywriters are so fond of the word "azure" when you come here!

Most of the time, the sea at Gibbs Beach is as calm as a swimming pool. I've spent many happy moments floating on my back here, looking up at the casuarina trees and climbing bougainvilleas that line the shore.

If you tilt your head slightly back in the water, the sky and the sea become your whole universe. You can hear the clicking of grains of sand as they're moved back and forth by the waves--and if you let your feet float downwards, you can comb the sand with your toes.

It's so idyllic that, whenever I am feeling stressed, I try to visualize floating in the sea at Gibbs Beach to calm myself down.

On this visit, however, we found out that sometimes the sea at Gibbs takes on a different complexion.

An Eventful Fourth Visit

We are now back from our fourth visit to Barbados--and a very eventful visit it was!

This time we stayed with some friends near the lovely Gibbs Beach in St Peter's Parish on the West Coast. We were about 15 minutes' walk up the hill from the beach, just off the road that leads to the hamlet of Rock Dundo in St James.

We made our usual trips to Bathsheba and the Oistins Fish Fry, and also visited the spectacular Cave Bay and Bottom Bay at the southeast end of Barbados.

The most memorable part of this visit, however, involved the Good Hubby, his face, a wave, and a rock ...

In Case You Are the Surfing Kind ...

Here's some East Coast surf. I don't know how you'd avoid those bad-looking rocks though ...

The Soup Bowl Cafe

The Soup Bowl Cafe functions as an informal bus terminus for Bathsheba. After arriving from Speightstown and Bridgetown, buses sit across from the Soup Bowl Cafe for about ten minutes before beginning their inbound journeys.

The cafe is so named for its proximity to a famous surfing cove known as the Soup Bowl. I knew this--nevertheless we headed in here one afternoon in hopes of having a nice chunky fish stew or something like it for lunch. You can't say the phrase "soup bowl cafe" to a food-minded person like me and expect me to think of gnarly waves.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem that there was any food to be had in the cafe at all. It is, however, a nice enough place to sit and sip a cold beer or a can of pop. Not that we're surfing types at all, but I believe you can rent a surfboard from here (or the place next door).

According to The New York Times, the Soup Bowl is set to become one of the world's great surfing destinations. I hope not. I like Bathsheba as it is--sleepy and somewhat underpopulated.