Today we arrived in the Caribbean at Barbados. There were 3 cruise oships visiting that day, our ship was the smallest this was huge 3000 passengers I heard. It had a massive TV screen on the top deck and even a water slide!

This was just outside the harbour it looks like a wreck to me but a local told me its not, I don’t think I believed him.

Here’s a colourful local bar which was at the marina hence all the maritime flags.

Banks is the main beer in Barbados, the only beer that’s made on the island. I tried it ans it was a light larger with a slight  sort of German pills taste.

We were booked to do a snorkeling tour with the turtles from a sailing catarmaran

All aboard and set sail!

Here are the 3 cruise ships in port. Ours is the small one on the right and the huge mega ship is the one with the weird T shape funnel on the top.

Sitting on the mesh on the front when going over the water was fun.

Snorkeling with the giant turtles was fun. The guides fed them with fish to lure them within touching distance. I’ve not snorkeled in a while, I swallowed 2 mouthfuls of sea water, yuk.

As you can see the water is so blue and the water temperature was 27 degrees.

This is a good photo, Sanna spraying the guy working on the boat 🙂

Blue warm water.

Mount Gay rum is made in Barbados and it is really cheap. After the snorkeling I tried a local Banks beer and then they kept making me Mount Gay fruit rum punches.

They kept making doubles and after the 45 minute sail back listening to chilled out music that really suited being on a sail boat in the Caribbean, I was quite drunk.

This is Thomas the captain who is also Barbadian but is white, he said only 4% of Barbadians are white. He was interesting to talk to, to ask about life on the island and sailing this boat for 14 years now, taking out tourists each day.

After the snorkeling we went to the Mount Gay rum distillery. The tours were now closed but I bought a huge 1.75 extra old rum for only $38. The rum is so cheap here.

One more look at that massive ship in the harbour, it was huge!

Not much to write down today as it was a whole day at sea. Sanna’s feeling better but has a blocked nose. I’m feeling not so good so I must have caught it.

A quick lovely photo of the pool area at night.

Today we put down anchor just a few hundred metres off of Devils island at 7am. It was a tender launch, the sea is still very choppy, it was hard for the older people to get on and off the tender boat.

As soon as you get ashore to this hell of an old prison it first seems like tropical paradise with palm trees everywhere.

You get ashore and the tiny island which is a few hundred metres across has lots of convict made paths. This one the first leading up to the governors house.

This is the only pretty house on the island, it was a 2 floor house built for the governor of this prison island. It has a small garden and some nice views.

A couple of views from the governors house.

This is a view over to the famous Devils island. There are 3 islands that make up the Devils island but one of the smallest ones is actually the one called Devils island. So this one below is the true Devils island that in the film Papillion he ends up on at the end of the film.

This water storage pool by the prison has caymans living in amongst the water lilies as the sign says.

We are now exploring the jails and these are the solitary confinement cells. If you’ve seem the film you should recognise these cells.

These are the prison officers houses which now some people live in it looked like.

We went for a walk in the rainforest around the perimeter of the island. Lots of wildlife we found and very friendly.

This is the graveyard for the prisonofficers. All the convicts that died were rowed out to sea then a bell was rung and the body dumped in the sea. It wasn’t long before the sharks learnt that a ringing bell meant feeding time, and they would gather in anticipation.

So this is the real Devils island just a couple of 100 meters across massive waves and rips.

How’s this for a big leaf!

Some More Beautiful Photos

We both have to say Devils island had been the nicest, peaceful and most beautiful place we have visited so far this trip. It used to be hell when it was a prison island but now its a beautiful place to visit.

A short day it felt today. We are out of the amazon and at sea. The waves are bigger now, the ship is rocking side to side back and forth, the occasional bang of the biggest waves on the side of the ship followed by the vibrations.

It’s either all that were not used to or we’ve been hit by germs from the dirtyness of Brazil, but we are both not feeling very well. Some soar throats, sicky stomachs and generally really tired. Sanna is worse than me currently.

Exciting news though, we had an invitation to have dinner with the captain as the honeymoon couple! What a honor, terrible though we had to decline as we just didn’t feel up to it, a real shame.

It’s Easter, if you didn’t know it still happens at sea and there were large chocolate bunnies everywhere and the the staff had hidden hundreds of chocolate eggs all over the ships common areas to find.

Its been raining a LOT, it is the wet season here in the tropics. The outside pool area looked very wet by nighttime.

We came back to the cabin to find another animal in the bathroom, a rabbit! Tonight is a rocky night at sea and then tomorrow Devils island.

In preparation we are watching the film Papillion about one mans repeated escape from Devils island.