Barbados: A Photographic Adventure

December 24, 2019, Bridgetown, Barbados — Located on a small island just 14 miles wide x 21 miles long, with a population of 287,000, this was one of only four cities in the world that were serviced by the Concorde: New York, London, Paris — and Bridgetown, Barbados. This playground of the wealthy (an 8- to 9,000 sq ft condo will set you back at least $30 million) escaped the turbulent change-of-hand history of many other colonized places I’ve visited. It first appeared on a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese took it over in the 1530s and held on until 1620. Britain claimed it in 1625, the first British settlers arrived and made it a colony in 1627, and it gained independence in 1966.

Incomes are not high. Taxes are high. But education and health care are free. Having no natural resources, the island imports almost everything: gasoline costs around $6.50 a gallon. Where they can, locals eat off the land: mangoes, bananas, breadfruit... and lots of chicken. They are second only to Japan for the number of centenarians. Barbadians attribute their good health and long life to three things: they eat local, unprocessed foods; they swim and walk; they breathe the fresh air that comes 3,000 miles across the Atlantic from Africa without passing over any human habitation. Quote-unquote our excellent guide.

Solar panels and solar water heaters on roofs are worth the initial investment, since the sun is ‘free’ but gas and oil are expensive. There is talk of wind farms but not much action yet.

Sugar from sugar cane used to be the island’s cash cow. What they didn’t ship back to Britain to sweeten tea and biscuits, they turned into molasses and turned that into the famous Barbados rum. But Korea, Brazil and Australian now compete in the sugar market, so most of the major sugar cane estates have been subdivided or turned, in one instance, into a business park.

My excursion du jour was a ‘Photo Adventure’ by small bus across the island, guided by New York-trained native Barbadian photographer and videographer Ronnie Carrington. He filled us in on island history, economics and culture, then took us to some of his favorite photo sites. Visit ronniecarrington.com to see some of his wonderful photos of island people.

In olden days, sugar cane workers — many were enslaved Africans — built themselves simple wooden houses like this one, called a ‘chattel house.’ Originally, they were perched on stones or bricks, not foundations. I couldn’t tell if this one was occupied or not...

​If a worker was transferred to another estate, he would need housing: so he took his chattel house apart and took it with him, loaded plank by plank onto a cart. More recently, foundations have been built under them and the houses have been expanded out or up.

The most charming chattel house in the neighborhood...

I love finding plants growing outdoors that I grew as ‘house plants’ back in the ’70s.

Here’s the village church — Baptist. The woman and young boy appeared to be neatening it up for Christmas.

The creative gate outside another house...

Back on the bus, we pushed east across the island towards the Scotland District.

Ronnie said that next to every church there’s a rum shop... even if it is advertising beer.

The area called Bathsheba...

No, I don’t know the function of the little house on the rock...

Our final destination was the Atlantis Hotel in Tent Bay, built in the 1800s, at the end of a now defunct railway line.

This charming small hotel reminded me of Winslow Homer’s Key West and Caribbean watercolors. We were served a very tasty rum punch. The recipe is: 1, 2, 3, 4. One part lime juice. Two parts simple syrup. Three parts Barbados rum. Four parts ‘weak’: orange or grapefruit juice. We didn’t care that it was still morning.

Next stop: Devil’s Island, French Guiana.

Now I’m going downstairs to the Atrium to sing Christmas carols. Merry Christmas everyone! xox #