Day totals: 16 hrs, 15.1 kms

After the Marina, the scenery changes instantly . All traces of tourism disappear, and it's just basic houses, shops and fishing boats. Whew... finally the real Barbados again. Not that I mind all those beautiful beaches... but you know that that doesn't reflect the reality of life in Barbados. When I see the well dressed waiters and bellhops at the fancy resorts my question is... what kind of life do they go back to when the return home at the end of the day?

Here I don't see the shocking cotradiction between the luxury resorts and the slum suburbs where the workers live like I've seen in Morocco, Egypt, Vietnam, Peru etc... I don't see very much really abject poverty. But I'm sure there are struggles--especially when these tourism jobs only last a couple months out of the year.

And of course, there's the question... how much more can the population grow? This is a small island with limited number of jobs, limited amount of water. If it keeps growing and growing, at some point something is going to snap . At 660 people per square mile more than twice that of neighboring islands), it's already in the top 10 of most crowded countries on earth.

Checker Hill is my last town up the Caribbean Coast. From here I head inland where... whew... I finally see some open space and som serious agriculture. Unfortunately it seems that the limited agricultural land is used mostly for quick cash crops like sugar cane rather than basic food staples that the locals can use (most of these are imported). Still it is nice to finally see an end to the sprawl.

One thing I notice when the road cuts through a ridge is that the topsoil looks awfully shallow with hard, coral rock underneath. This might limit the options for agriculture.

It's getting late. I find a bus stop and hop on a van back to Speightstown... the another back to my pad... I'm ready to get some rest.