16 hrs, 13.5 kms

Today is a Sunday and it's going to be a bit of a quiet day . All I need to do is a quick 10 kilometer hike from St Lawrence to Bridgetown and I'll have finished my "Z" hike through all the parishes of Barbados. I take my time getting out of bed--just chilling a bit and preparing myself mentally for my return back to "Normal Life" in the USA. Hopefully this spirit of adventure and discovery will not fade once I'm back in the routine of daily responsibilities.

Finally I head on out, starting my day hike where I was dropped off by the bus in the dark 5 days ago with no idea where I was going to stay. Now I practically feel like I'm a local.

Not far away I notice a couple of people walking on water, or so it seems. It turns out there's shallow area where you can walk out several hundred meters out into the calm sea. I don't have my shorts on, but I decide I have to experience this anyways. It is quite magical--I'll have to come back later, once the sun isn't so hot to just come out here and spend a couple of hours just chilling in the middle of the ocean .

On towards Bridgetown, there is a boardwalk that continues for aways... another hotel resort... and then the scenery changes abruptly and the upscale touristy area ends and the gritty streets of Bridgetown begin. A sign proudly announces that this town is a "UNESCO World Heritage Site" but I'm a bit skeptical about this claim. Quite honestly, I'm not seeing many buildings worthy of a photograph, much less a World Heritage Status.

There is a little park area by a canal, where I figure I'll go ahead and do my Parkbench concert. An older fellow joins me and listens attentively to my song "At Home on the Run" apparently he thinks my song about being homeless is strictly autobiographical and offers to share some chicken with me. Then he finds out I'm not homeless and asks ME for money!

He's a Portuguese fellow, a wanderer, who got a job on a sailboat and ended up here. Not sure what he's doing or going next .

"I can always hustle for money" he tells me.

He then introduces me to another British fellow on a scrappy looking sailboat with a torn sail and clothes hanging out to dry. He looks sunburned and tired--for good reason.

"I just sailed across the Atlantic by myself" he tells me "It's my first time. One of my sails tore so I had a rough time of it. You can't imagine the feeling of seeing land for the first time after weeks of being at sea"

It feels good to reconnect with the yachtie culture again, and we chat for a bit. The guy looks like he's in his 50s and has been sailing his whole life--but didn't cross the Atlantic until now.

"I'm going to dock here to make some repairs... not sure where I'm going next."

I continue on to explore the town. The castle-like courthouse is pretty cool. The shopping area would be fun--if it weren't a Sunday with most everything closed. I guess it's an OK town... but UNESCO site? That really makes me suspicious of how UNESCO picks locations to be heritage sites. Maybe the rocks at Bathsheba could be a Heritage Site, but not this scrappy town...