By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

There are about 1,800 Rum Shops (you can call them bars if you prefer) and about 500 churches on the island of Barbados. So, one way or another, the spirit is with many of the islanders and visitors.

We went for a visit to St. Nicholas Abbey, one of the reminders of the once-immense wealth of the British sugar mill and plantation owners of the island. It was never an abbey, just a great house, and well-preserved as a glimpse into the past.

George Washington, commander-in-chief of American forces in revolt against the British and later the first President of the United States was born to a well-off family in the Virginia Colony in 1731 or 1732.

But before the revolution, in 1749, George’s half-brother Lawrence fell ill with a cough. By 1751 the illness was tuberculosis.

Several unsuccessful trips to the hot springs at Berkeley, Virginia and the prospect of another winter at Mount Vernon pushed Lawrence to explore other options.

He was advised to go to Barbados, which had a reputation for treating lung diseases. Lawrence asked his 19-year-old brother, George, to accompany him.

On November 2, 1751, the Washington brothers arrived in Bridgetown.

It was, we believe, the first time George Washington had ventured more than 200 miles from his place of birth. And, also, the only time he ever visited a foreign country.

In traveling from the not-very-successful Virginia Colony to Barbados, Washington was going from an undeveloped country to a cosmopolitan place.

When the Washingtons visited, Bridgetown was one of the largest cities in the British Atlantic and Barbados one of its most profitable colonies, made rich–at least for the owners–by sugar plantations farmed by slaves and indentured servants.

It was in Barbados, according to his diary, that George saw his first fort, attended his first theatrical performance, and spent time in the first sizeable city in his life.

He also learned about forts and other military defenses.

The brothers stayed only six weeks. Lawrence did not recover; he died a year later of tuberculosis back in Virginia.

A remembrance of British colonial past in Bridgetown.

We were here in Barbados a week ago; you can read a bit about the English history of the island in my post for February 8.

Although it is Carnival time in most of the Caribbean, here in Barbados, the big party is the Crop Over festival, a reborn remembrance of the sugar plantation history of the island.

Crop Over, held for most of the month of July into early August, features the island’s homegrown calypso and soca music for the year.

For music-lovers, of which we have several hundred on board ship for this cruise, you may well have heard of one particular singer born in Barbados.

Rihanna, born in 1988, grew up in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street.

Her hits have included “Good Girl Gone Bad” and “Umbrella.”

Whatever your knowledge of her work may be, Rihanna has sold more than 41 million albums and 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Text and images copyright 2016 by Corey Sandler. All rights reserved. If you would like to purchase a high-resolution image, please contact me.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS,  PLEASE CONTACT ME.

SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We are back in Barbados, in a relative cool spell: only about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which by this point in our travels feels positively wintry.

(Back home on the island in the North Atlantic where we live, our saltwater harbor has frozen and ferry boats are being canceled because of the ice. So, everything is relative.)

Today I went with a group of guests on an underwater tour of a reef just outside the harbor at Bridgetown. Our vessel was the Atlantis submarine, a true submersible.

We descended to 142 feet below the surface, about 40 meters, and toured around in the presence of wrass, lionfish, neon fish, at a fringing reef. The entire island of Barbados was once a reef, now lifted out of the water by the upward pressure of two volcanic plates below the surface.

For more details about Barbados, see my previous blog postings, at:  http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2758  and   http://blog.sandlerbooks.com/?p=2731

All photos copyright by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. If you would like to purchase a high-resolution image, please contact me.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We’re out of the Amazon, back to Bridgetown, Barbados where the previous cruise began 18 days ago.

To guests leaving us here, we wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you again. And to those joining us here, welcome aboard.

This cruise begins with the ABCs, actually in our case we’re hailing a CAB: Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire. The three islands–each with its own form of semi-independent government–are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They stand just off the coast of Venezuela.

Then we head northerly to Dominica, Sint Maarten, St. Barts, and Puerto Rico.

Here’s our plan:

I hope you’ll join me here as I post photos and stories. For more about Barbados, see my earlier post of 25 January.

All photos copyright by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. If you would like to purchase a high-resolution copy of an image please contact me.

—————

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)

 

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

Here in Bridgetown, one cruise comes to an end and another begins. We are headed south from Barbados to the fragrant island of Grenada and the infamous Devil’s Island before entering into the South American continent and sailing up the Amazon River to the forest city of Manaus. Here’s our plan:

To guests leaving us here in Bridgetown, safe travels. And to new guests, welcome aboard.

Barbados, along with Jamaica, is one of the most English-like islands in the Caribbean.

That stands to reason…since its first permanent settlers arrived from England in 1627 and to some extent never left…although the population today are mostly descendants of African slaves or indentured servants from India.

Barbados became an independent state in 1966. Queen Elizabeth II is still the constitutional monarch.

And so on Barbados they love their cricket and their rum, often combining the both under the Caribbean sun. Sometimes with a break for tea.

About 90 percent of Bajans are of African or mixed descent, with small groups from India, China, Ireland, and the Jewish diaspora.

Here in Barbados, the big party is not Carnival. Instead it is the Crop Over festival, held for most of the month of July into early August. The origins of Crop Over can be traced back to the 1780’s, a time when Barbados was the world’s largest producer of sugar.

Nearly everyone gets into the parade or the musical performances, colorfully dressed (or barely dressed) for the occasion.

In recent years, a guest at Crop Over is a hometown girl who made good: the pop singer Rihanna. She was born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988, which means that most of us have shoes older than she is.

Rihanna grew up in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Forbes estimated her 2012 earnings at about $53 million, which would be about $106 million Barbadian dollars, in a place where the per capita income is about $16,000.

Good for her, I suppose. To her credit, at least some of those tens of millions of dollars have made their way back home.

All photos copyright by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. If you would like to purchase a high-resolution copy of an image, please contact me.

————-

Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”

Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA9QTBM

Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession: The Tragic Legacy of the New World’s Least Understood Explorer (Kindle Edition)