Having finished with Brazil, we're heading for home with a couple of Caribbean stops on the way. First up is Barbados, formerly a British colony and currently one of the more popular island stops (particularly for those overpaid types whose sole contribution to world peace is bouncing a ball or singing a song)- the islands' most recent claim to fame was the hosting of the Tiger Woods wedding. We turned Don T loose on a chatty cab driver/tour guide and he beat him down to a reasonable all day fare for the four of us and a couple of other new friends.

Not having seen any monkeys since Sri Lanka (with the exception of few hairy dress-wearing gorillas in Salvador) our first stop had to be the Green Monkeys of Barbados (apparently in a certain light their fur appears to be green??) . I'm not sure Chris M is even following the blog anymore due to the lack of monkey pics but just in case he is I overdid the primate photography once again. Imported from Senegal and The Gambia, these furry critters spend most of their time irritating the homeowners in the tonier sections of Barbados. And speaking of tony, Don T wanted to drop in on the local high end golf course to see what he was missing out on- he had tried to parlay his B.C. golf course membership into a discounted rate on these ritzy greens but apparently the locals weren't impressed by his status as lead pro at the Richmond Pitch, Putt, & Carwash, so there were no free rounds to be had.

After dodging some goat-like Barbados Blackbelly Sheep, we took in another Mushroom Rock, another cave, some curious rock paintings, and a couple of really nice looking beaches. It was a fun way to spend the day and gave us a pretty good synopsis of Barbados. Our driver even added a fair bit of social commentary as he pointed out the differences between the wealthy foreigners who were gobbling up primo beachfront properties while driving up the cost of living, and the locals- many of whom were still living in former slave homes (since they couldn't own land, slaves built homes on a stack of stones so they could move the house easily).

Back to the ship just in time to catch the harpist.