Barbados has easy rhythm of life

Some prefer the intimacy of St. Thomas, others delight in the topless beaches of St. Kitts and still others affect the English atmosphere of Bermuda. Still, many Americans and Canadians are easily lured to the blandishments of Barbados, a coral island lying just 30 degrees north of the equator with Venezuela to the south.

Characterized by one wag as an island “21 miles long and a smile wide,” it has a varied topography, mostly hilly, especially in the Bathsheba area. It faces the Atlantic Ocean on the east and is caressed by the Caribbean on the west.

Its economy resting largely on tourism, light manufacturing, agriculture (its principal crop being sugar cane, which being translated, means rum) and financial services, Barbados fairly bustles with activity without sacrificing a certain easy rhythm of life that’s easy to adjust to. On arrival at the modern airport just a few miles from Bridgetown, the capital of this jewel in the British Commonwealth, he or she will immediately be entranced by the profusion of flowers — oleander, hibiscus, ginger lilies, heliconia and so on.

Although cricket and education have almost reached the status of religions here, there are scores of bona fide religious denominations: Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Church of England communicants. Indeed, the Cathedral of St. Michael’s in Bridgetown with its splendid wooden ceiling, its finely wrought rood screen and its powerful four-manual organ, is the focus of much of the religious activity of the island. Its members, chiefly black (the inhabitants of Barbados are 90 percent black), are beautifully turned out on a Sunday morning in silks, satins, velvets, chiffons and laces.

It is not always easy to understand the natives, for they speak what is dubbed a Bajan dialect, an archaic English laced with Africanisms. Examples are “caffuffle” (Don’t bother me), “unna” (all of you), “backra johnny” (poor white) and “duppy umbrella” (mushroom).

A spectrum of restaurants include everything from the rather exotic local cuisine to Chinese. Exotic foods include yams, breadfruit, bananas garnished with carrots, shrimp and a delicacy called flying fish. Dinner shows are fairly common, these sometimes featuring chorines and belly dancers.

The hub of Barbados, of course, is Bridgetown, whose harbor welcomes large steamships that disgorge flocks of tourists for a day’s outing, these buttressing the local economy enormously.

The island has a network of 1,000 miles of good roads, eight fanning out from Bridgetown to all parts of this Edenic island. Taxis operated by a “friendly Bajan” are available as are plentiful buses — all at reasonable fares.

Speightstown, established somewhere around 1630, where boats appeared prior to World War II to collect bags of sugar cane, is interesting. The remnants of several forts that once protected this town are faintly visible. The Barbados Wildlife Reserve in St. Philip Parish allows visitors to view the elusive Barbados green monkeys, tortoises, hares, swans, American deer, raccoons, otters and a variety of fish and crustaceans. One reaches these exhibits through a walk shaded by mahogany trees.

One of the major points of interest is Sam Lord’s Castle, now converted into a luxury hotel full of exquisite antiques and surrounded by feverishly manicured gardens and lawns. This Georgian mansion, built around 1820, belonged to the pirate Sam Lord, who, by hanging lanterns in the coconut trees around the harbor, lured ships in order to kill the survivors and loot their cargoes.

The only plantation open to the public is Oughterson in St. Philip Parish, the site of a wildlife breeding amd nature education project run by American-born Bill Miller. In this “zoo” are parrots, monkeys, snakes (none poisonous) and other animals. Oughterson gives a vivid idea of the leisurely life of the aristocrats before slavery was eradicated in 1836.

For the sports-minded there are deep sea fishing (blue marlin, kingfish, dorado and barracuda), scuba diving (on the coral reefs and sunken wrecks), jetskiing, yachting, windsurfing, cricket, polo and by all means swimming inasmuch as Barbados boasts some of the finest white sand beaches in the world.

Barbados is served by several airlines, though most demand a change in San Juan, Puerto Rico, unless one goes direct from Miami. For Americans only an ID is required. For a relatively small space, Barbados packs in an enviable variety of activities. The name of the game here is undiluted fun.