A slice of paradise

We went to Barbados for a week and I thought I'd share a bit of it with you all. We had a wonderful, albeit to short, time. We chose to go to there because we have a close friend that is from Barbados and has been trying to get us to go with he and his wife for several years now.

J, the one from Barbados still has some family living there and they graciously hosted a dinner for us on evening during our stay. The wife is a caterer, and she prepared an authentic Bajan meal for us. Outstanding! Hubbs was in pepper sauce heaven! It was neat to see how people really live and not just see the tourist's Barbados.

I would say it was a wonderfully relaxing vacation except for the fact that we also rented a car while there. Thank goodness I didn't have to drive. Every time we had to drive somewhere I felt it might be my last day on earth! The roads are narrow, bumpy, and for and island surprisingly hilly. I feared each time we passed a bus that we may end up careening into a ditch or some one's home. J did a superb job of driving and we did arrive alive to our destinations. Although we took a couple of interesting "detours" while trying to find something called Animal, Flower, Cave. (I'm not making that name up!) I think they're three separate things... I think, still not clear on that. Somehow the men in the front with the map thought they knew a better way than we girls in the back following the street signs. 30 minutes later after several dead-ends into peoples yards,we finally ask a man on the side of the road. He directed us to a "road" through a muddy field to get back to the real road. Men with maps... I'm just saying! Who knew you could get lost on an island?? All worth it for this amazing view!(this is Cave...I think...definitly not Animal?!)

The food in Barbados was wonderful. The seafood is as fresh as it gets and the mango's and banana's are picked ripe and were so sweet.

I had flyin fish for the first time. Very good, we had it prepared different ways nearly every day.

The salt fish cakes at this fun little place we found in Bridgetown were outstanding as was the fresh fish baguette.

I LOVED the pumpkin fritters... taste a bit like fried pumpkins pie. How good does that sound:) yum
We were staying very close to this roti stand that the locals swear make the best roti on the island. I would have to agree. We ate lunch there several times. The food is all prepared fresh and when it's gone it's gone. The best food comes from places like this:

Although we did plenty of eating like this as well:

So for the most part we ate, lay on the beach, ate, walked around town and shopped, ate, swam, ate, walked on the beach, which can really work up your appetite:)