Barbados

After such a busy week, we wanted to do something simple on our last island.  We chose a beach close to the cruise ship that I had heard good things about.  We decided to walk to it but it ended up taking longer than we thought it would.  That wasn't such a bad thing though as it gave us some desperately needed exercise and we found an internet cafe along the way that cost about a tenth of the cruise ship's price.

We arrived at Carlisle Bay and it was beautiful!  The water was the perfect color and the sand was the softest sand I have ever walked on.  Our only complaint was that it had old buildings as a backdrop instead of palm trees and lush vegetation.

[caption id="attachment_1416" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Horses"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1417" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Carlisle Beach"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1418" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Clear Water"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1419" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="View from the Water"][/caption]

We rented two chairs and an umbrella and stayed for quite a while.  The water was perfect for swimming.  I found out about a good snorkeling spot off the shore where there was a shipwreck.  From the beach, I could see some tour groups arriving at a snorkeling spot by boat.  I thought I would go ahead and swim out (just a mask and snorkel, no fins) to see if the snorkeling was any good.

About halfway out, I realized that it was a lot farther than I estimated from the shore.  I kept going though, despite worries that a shark would eat me or thinking about how if anything happened to me, no one would know.  The water was about 25-30 feet deep and all I could see was sand.  Every now and then I would pop my head up to make sure I was going the right direction and to see how far the people were ahead of me.  I knew I got there when I suddenly saw a dark shape in front of me (and yes, I thought for an instant it might be a big shark)...it was a giant anchor, about 20-25 feet long.  I swam a little farther and saw a huge ship at the bottom of the ocean!  It was really cool to see that appear out in the middle of nowhere.  The best part of it all was all of the fish that were there.  I have never seen so many fish in one area in my life.  They were all around me!

Once the tour group left, I really didn't feel like staying out there all alone.  I asked their guide if any sharks came around and he said that he was the only shark in those waters...ha, ha.  ;)  On a side note, the reason I kept thinking about sharks is because I LOVE them but I am also scared of them.  I would love to do a cage dive with great white sharks one day. So I started to swim back to the shore.  It took forever.  The waves were also pretty big at points so I started to swallow a lot of water that came through my snorkel.  I eventually took off the snorkel and mask but found it very hard to swim while holding on to those and my camera.  I finally reached the shore, but accepted the fact that I was pretty stupid to swim all of the way out there, alone and without fins, regardless of how good of a swimmer I am.  Mom and Dad, I know that you probably didn't enjoy this story either, but I have learned my lesson and I'll be more cautious next time!!!

[caption id="attachment_1420" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Part of the Anchor"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1421" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A lot of fish!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1422" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Very Close - No Zoom Needed!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1423" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Barracuda (3rd one of the week)"][/caption]