Barbados- Island in the Sun!

Posted by Codgie | December 14, 2007 | 3 Comments

BACK FROM BARBADOS & WE ARE FREEZING!!

Our trip to Barbados was simply wonderful! We started with a 7 hour layover in Miami so took the opportunity to go to the beach-South Beach! It was a cold 32 degrees in Michigan and 80 in Miami so we were ready for Barbados. Our party was a robust group of 16 people with 13 runners from the Running Fit customer base, all looking forward to running the Run Barbados series of races and to soak up some sunshine afterwards.

The first 2 days were dedicated to running the 10k, 1/2 marathon and the marathon and all the runners enjoyed the experience, especially the cool dip in the Atlantic Ocean right after the run. For those who were running the 1/2 and full marathon, the day began at 4:00am (not for Lauretta and Eddie though) as we had to be up to get the bus to the start line. Although I was not running I was responsible for making sure that the bus did not leave the Running Fit Group and ended up having to do a sprint at 4:15am to catch the bus. Fortunately, I still have a little speed left in the limbs! We also had one of our Elite Runners(Philip Lagat) doing the 10k and the half marathon and he had traveled some 20hrs from Kenya to be there for the Run Barbados Event. Philip ended up winning the 10k in the fastest time ran in the past 5 years and broke the record in the half marathon!! It was a splendid display of long distance running with what appeared to be an effortless pace.

After all the running was done, we had a long walk into the city for some shopping and eating. We walked the narrow streets, barely escaping the cars that were whizzing past as we got closer to the town (Bridgetown). This was the first trip for all to Barbados and they were loving it. Some even tried the local “ZR” transportation, which are small vans authorized to carry passengers to and from their destinations. The cool part is that they have like a 12 person capacity but always tried to carry about 20 people for the $0.75 fare. Sitting with one cheek on a seat and the other on someone’s knee is not unheard of! This was an adventure for some of the group when they took one going the wrong direction and had no clue where they were when they got there! Some of the group had a blast doing the Rum Refinery Tour and a taste test was the order of the day.

Others took the local bus to the end of the island and visited with locals as they traveled along the way while some others stayed at the hotel and lounged by the pool, dozed off in the hammocks and saved their energies for the nightlife in St Lawrence Gap.

One restaurant we visited in “the Gap” was a place called Josef’s with an excellent location right on the water, and we enjoyed a sumptuos meal to the sound of the waves gently breaking on the shore at our feet.

The hotels we stayed at were The Bougainvillea Beach Resort, Dover Beach Hotel and Turtle Beach Hotel. All were excellent, with very clean rooms, right on the beach, good food and nightly entertainment during dinner.

The next day was dedicated to 5 hrs on the catamaran! We got our safety instructions from Captain Ron and we were underway. It was a beautiful day with a small breeze, blue skies and a deep azure color to the water. This adventure was quite a test for Lauretta and Eddie as they had never been on a catamaran and certainly had never done any snorkeling in 12 feet of water! It was all worth it though as the water was so clear that we were able to swim with the turtles, pilot fish, one large puffer fish and a host of other beautiful angel fish. We then went to a sunken ship site in 20 feet of water and watch the fish that have made this a reef like home. Lunch on the catamaran followed and then a sail back to our starting point.

Please sign up now and join us next year for more fun in the sun in Barbados!!

Joseph “Codgie” Codrington

Codrington Enterprises, LLC