10 Minutes with Danielle: #CaribbeanCrawl Days…Um—I Don’t Remember: Conquering Fears in Barbados

Yeah, I think somewhere along the lines I messed up with the sequence of days of my #CaribbeanCrawl trip…lol. But this last diary is combining the four days and three nights I spent in the beautiful island of Barbados aka the birthplace of my Granddad and BadGal Riri.

First of all, Barbados is SO AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS! From the time we started to see signs of land on our Caribbean Airlines flight from Trinidad and spotted the white sand and turquoise ocean (which made an ombre effect as the water looked a darker blue color the further out you went), I fell in love. We stayed in St. Lawrence Gap at the St. Lawrence Condos which was absolutely perfect because within like a 45 second walking distance was everything you needed from two gorgeous beaches, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and night clubs. Christina joined us for this leg of the trip—love me some LoveBrownSugar! We rented a two bedroom, two bathroom condo at $350/night which gave the four of us plenty of room, the convenience of having a kitchen, washer/dryer, and utilities right in the unit.

Here’s some pics of the condo and the view we had from our room…

After we settled in, we wasted no time to start checking things out. We had breakfast at Sharkey’s (so good—they also do a happy hour special later in the day) and two other days we had breakfast at Moonbay—both places were delicious and had great service not to mention gorgeous views. Well I guess since I just started to mention food, I might as well just mention the rest of the places we tried…lol. We had dinner at Brown Sugar restaurant about a 10-15 minute drive away (taxis are a plenty in this area) one night (so good—I had the quinoa stuffed sweet potato and tried the flying fish with cucoo), tried out Chefette (I found it fascinating that they sell roti, pizza, chicken, fish sandwiches, and ice cream…lol) and Friday night we went down to Oistins for the fish fry. I guess we went at a time when tons of older British tourists visit because there were many moments where we were the youngest by far—but it seems as if younger Barbados starts their nights out really late—as we were heading in the youngsters were just heading out…lol.

I stopped by Sharkey’s to get a drink and get a few stories in

Breakfast at Moonbay

Drinks at Moonbay

The view from our table at Moonbay

More drinks at Sharkey’s

We were also supposed to hit Sugar nightclub (which was also within walking distance from the condo) on Thursday night but we all fell asleep at odd times so some of us were turned up while others were turned down…lol. I hear it was really good that night though.

What else? lol—see this is why I wanted to do daily recaps because my mind sometimes is like :/

Oh! We went swimming with turtles and tropical fish! And by “we” I mean Lexi, Christina, and Jessica went swimming with the turtles and tropical fish while I freaked out on the boat. I tried to learn how to swim after college but it didn’t work out—in a pool I’m okay because I can feel the bottom at least, but the ocean is SUPER scary because I almost drowned TWICE in life at the beach. SIGH.

I surely needed a drink before getting on the boat (no worries—I didn’t drink and swim)

We had life jackets but I needed to know the science behind why they wouldn’t let me sink and since no one could give me the 411 and I was completely terrified, I stayed on the boat…lol. One of the guys guiding the tour tried to get me to at least try it—I did—I got about as far as him attaching a ladder for me to climb down and then I freaked out again and asked to get back on the boat…lol. But then I saw my friends having fun and just knew they were getting really cool pictures because the other guide had an underwater camera so when they got closer to the boat, I said I’d try it. I mean, there’s things I do all the time that are scary at first—I could at least try getting in the water. After like 10 minutes of dipping my toes in, I finally let myself get in the water and then started to feel like I was sinking so of course I panicked. My girls had to calm me down and promise nothing would happen. I was still scared, but felt a little bit better because Lexi was holding my arm. A turtle was coming so I wanted to be cool and stick my head underneath to see like everyone else. That in itself was a feat because I felt like the snorkel and googles were tight (they weren’t), but I did it and it looked amazing. So 20 seconds later I pulled my head back up and made my way back to the boat because I knew I’d be panicking again…lol. But I’m proud of myself because I totally was going to just stay on the boat. My next feat will be to take some swimming lessons. It’s about time, dammit!

Here’s video of us after the swim—note how I’m totally acting tough at the end…lol

We also got to tour the island courtesy of the Barbados Tourism board. Our guide was the greatest! We got to see some really great places around Barbados and took some amazing pictures, too. If you ever visit Barbados for the first time, you definitely want to schedule an island tour.

St. John’s Church

Burial grounds at St. John’s

Barbados was definitely a more chill time than Trinidad of course with all the fetes and Carnival and what not…lol. I’d love to visit again soon—loved the vibe and the beauty of the island. I also saw lots of older men who reminded me of my Granddad (he passed away in 2006) and had to keep myself from tearing up a number of times (great—I’m tearing up now…lol) because I miss him SO much—he was the greatest man you could ever imagine—always there for his family and also so funny :)

Our silhouettes on the beach

Well, this culminates my #CaribbeanCrawl diaries—hope you enjoyed following along! If you missed anything, make sure you go through the tag and also check out Danielle Travels for more of my travel adventures, beauty tips, and more!

P.S. Things that got me through the days in Barbados…
*Sunscreen–and plenty of it! I wound up finishing my travel size Banana Boat sunscreen spray I loved and had to rebuy some in Barbados. Sunscreens at the nearby shop were pricey ($20 USD for brands we pay like $8.99 for here) so I just got some No Ad brand that worked very well to sink into my skin without that icky white residue and it was water resistant. Plus it was comfy so when I reapplied every two hours, it didn’t feel sticky or heavy.
*Lucas Papaw Ointment—great for skin chaffing, irritations, heat rash, sunburn, insect bites, and more.
*Degree MotionSense Deodorant—this is the deodorant you want with you if you get stranded on a deserted island. It’s NO joke for keeping you cool and fresh even in the most tropical of temps.
*My Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters wardrobe–I did tons of shopping before the trip and loved that I could get so many cute pieces for almost next to nothing. My favorite accidental outfit had to be my black and white printed Global Girl Knit Shorts from Forever 21 that I paired with my Ecote cropped tank from Urban Outfitters. I pretty much had like 10 minutes to get the out the door and just threw it on because it was the first things I saw in my suitcase and it worked really well. I paired it with JustFab shoes and crossbody bag.

P.S. Check out my girls’ recaps on their blogs:

Lexi with the Curls
LoveBrownSugar
Glamazons Blog