In which I meet a notorious BIG, go deeper underground and have food glorious food.

I've been meaning to update this for a while but it turns out the real world of work is significantly more time consuming than being a laze-about student. Used to my three hours of classes followed by hammock naps and guacamole it has been something of a shock to the system to be doing 10-12 hour days. Work is really interesting though and I may have discovered a new style of traveling: journalism tourism. The best way to see a place is to work as a reporter and go and interview everyone while seeing the place. Today, between meeting UNICEF reps and talking to a guy making a band for the huge carnival here I wandered down by the turquoise sea side and once again thought how lucky I am.

I am getting to learn all about Crop-Over, which is Barbados’ biggest festival. It has been fascinating talking to people involved and finding out just how much work goes into the country’s biggest party (those glittery bikinis don’t just make themselves!) Things are cranking up in time for the main events in July, which is, massively frustratingly, just after I leave. Still I got a taste of the party atmosphere when I covered the launch of a “band” (one of the groups of party goers- there is so much vocab to learn here!) There were some seriously glamourous outfits and a lot of flesh on show, plus I met one of the country’s leading calypsonians Biggie Irie (more vocab lessons- calypso is a form of music, often with witty, political messages. Musical story telling.) Meeting a big, fat musician called Biggie was cool. I felt like Tupac.

I had a break from work at the weekend, though thesis work took over most of Saturday. After hours of correcting footnotes I couldn’t take anymore and went for a quick walk and discovered my local beach five minutes down the road. Oh and sorry did I mention, it is one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. Five minutes away. Awesome.

On Sunday I took two looooong buses to get to the Harrison Caves, a series of incredible underground caverns filled with waxy looking stalactite and stalagmites. There is a tram that carries guests down down down into the caverns to see the stunningly architectural calcium formations. The rooms filled with protrusions reminded me of the rows of tall, tapered candles lining the floor of a Mexican church, or a magnified image of microvilli in the intestines. Quite appropriate seeing as were in the bowels of the earth.

However if I thought this would be a nice cool activity I was wrong, even under ground the caves are 26oC! Plus I managed to get sunburnt waiting for the bus home. Only I could spend a day underground and come out burnt and sweating.

In the evening Lorna took me out for a drive to the East coast of the island. It is much less developed over there and covered in wild, rolling green hills and rugged coastline. It was just stunning and the sunset over the choppy blue Atlantic was glorious. The spectacle of nature was given a final conclusion when turning into Lorna’s road a group of three monkeys calmly walked the tightrope of the telephone wires stretched across the road.

Finally I just wanted to write something about the food…. Because it is delicious. My new favourite is a Saturday delicacy called pudding and souse. The souse is meat which has been marinated in lime, salt and chile, (so I can’t have that,) but the pudding is the texture of sticky toffee pud but made of steamed shredded sweet potato, onions and spices. A savory pudding. It is just delicious!

Other delicacies include: vegetable patties, coucou (cornmeal mash with okra in), macaroni pie and roti (wrap with curried veg inside). I also ordered a cheese cutter thinking it sounded like a tasty addition to my Bajan diet…. Turns out it wedge of carefully cut cheese, delicately placed in the folds of a white, bread bap…. A cheese sandwich. Well you can’t win the all. I am also constantly being encouraged to try flyish fish, pig’s tail and fish cakes which are all considered tasty treats here. I’ll stick with the cheese buttie.

Lessons learnt:

It may be having spent a year without addresses in Costa Rica but the road names here seem really beautiful to me: Small land, Industry Road, Clammy Cherry Avenue,

I am slowly learning the Bajan dialect as well as the art of sucking one’s teeth when frustrated or annoyed. It is a great noise and something I may have to bring back to the UK.