Barbados in English a take hezky cesky!

As we were a bit lazy in last few days and did not find much time to put down our thoughts and comments, I would like to go back to Thursday, 13^th January 2011, when we finally dock at Barbados after 8 full days at the sea. We arrived around 7am and quickly run to the balcony, check what is actually out there. It was a port, not much to see really, but we were excited anyway. We got ready quickly, as we had an organized trip booked with P&O. After fast breakfast, we packed our bag for a day, put on our swim suits and got to Globe theatre where we were asked to meet other fellow passengers who were booked on the same tour.

Poslednich par dni jsme byli trochu lini, co se psani tyce, takze jsem se jeste chtela vratit ke ctvrtku, 13. ledna 2011, kdy jsme konecne po 8mi dnech plavby dorazili do naseho prvniho pristavu Barbadosu. Prijeli jsme do pristavu kolem sedme hodiny rano a jak jsme si uvedomili, ze jsme se prestali hybat – lod prestala vydavat zvuky pohybu -  rychle jsme vybehli na balkon, abychom zjistili, kde ze jsme to vlastne pristali. Pristav vypadal nic moc na prvni pohled, ale stejne jsme byli velmi nateseni a chteli jsme vystoupit co nejdrive. Rychle jsme se vypravili, protoze jsem meli zarezervovany vylet jiz dopredu pres P&O. Po rychle snidani jsme si pobalili veci, vzali plavky a sesli do 2. patra do divadla Globe, kde jsme se meli potkat s ostatnimi ucastniky tohoto vyletu.

After being marked with sandy numbers 8, I guess so we can recognize who is who, we disembarked Arcadia for a very first time. The procedure was really quite easy, we just had to scan our ship card on one of the Symbol scanners and off we were through the ship terminal and boarding the bus was a very short ride. The ride took no longer then 5 minutes and believe it or not, here we were boarding another boat. Well, this time only catamaran, which looked very inviting. Together with about 50 other “friends” from our ship, we boarded the catamaran for our day away adventure.

Pote co nam bylo prideleno cislo osm piskove barvy, asi se chteli ujistit, ze budeme vedet, kdo je kdo a ke ktere exkurzi patri, jsme se poprve vylodili z Arkadie. Proces to byl celkem snadny, jen jsme museli oskenovat carovy kod nasi lodni karty za pomoci jednoho ze Symbol skeneru a uz jsme byli venku. Museli jsme projit lodnim terminalem a nastoupit do autobusu. Asi po 5 minutach jizdy jsme byli na miste, a verte ci neverte, jsme byli pripraveni nalodit se na dalsi lod, no spise lodku, ci takzvany katamaran, ktery  vypadal celkem lakave. Spolecne s asi 50 “prateli” z nasi lode, byl katamaran vypraven nas dovezt za nasim dnesnim dobrodruzstvim na karibskem mori.

The boat had a captain and other 5 members of the crew who were native Barbabadosians. We head off to the sea with the boat’s bar serving free non-alcoholic drinks of your choice. Our first stop was a place about an hour up the coast where we should be able to snorkel with big sea turtles. The crew passed everyone a snorkel and a vest; both had to be worn at all the times. The vest is great it helps you float at the top so you don’t have to worry about swimming to much. Actually when you snorkel, you should be only using your hands and drag your feet gently behind you. This ensures you don’t disturb the fish and you sink nicely with the slow motion environment. It is really great fun, and I would recommend it to anyone, even to people who are scared of fish like me!! J

Lod mela kapitana a dalsich 5 clenu posadky, ktery vsichni byli rodily Barbadosane. Vydali jsme se na cestu a bar katamaranu byl otevren pro nealkoholicke napoje zdarma dle vaseho vyberu. Nase prvni zastavka asi po hodine cesty bylo misto, kde by melo byt mozno se potapet a snochlovat s velkymi morskymi zelvami. Posadka vsem rozdala snorchly a vesty, a byli jsme upozorneni, ze obe musime mit na sobe po celou dobu co budeme v mori. Vesta ma velmi dobry vyznam a pomuze vam jen se nadnaset po hladine, takze se muzete venovat tomu co je pod vodou a nezabyvat se plavanim. V podstate, kdyz snorchlujete, tak byste meli pouzivat k plavani jen ruce a nohy jen zlehkat tahnout za sebou. Tento ladny pohyb zaruci to, ze si nevyplasite vsechny ryby v okoli a lepe tak splynene s podvodnim svetem, kde vse ubihave velmi pomalu. Snorchlovani je skvele a vsem doporucuji, je to i pro ty z vas co se trochu boji rybek jako ja!! Ony vubec nedotknou vaseho tela, i kdyz jsou hrozne blizko, tak se vzdycky vyhnou.

We went of the boat using side leaders straight into nicely cooling water. We were asked to follow the guys from the crew, who had some turtles’ favorite bites so they can lure them towards us. It did not take long and we saw the first one, massive big fellow, to appear and started to swim towards us and then another one and after a while few more. Then we even saw a baby turtle which was instead of about meter long only about 50 cm! It was really magic and they were just swimming below us, a few centimeters and you could touch them. We enjoyed about 40 minutes swimming with these magical animals and it was truly an amazing experience and I think we were very lucky to have so many.

Slezli jsme z lodi po postranich zebricich, primo do prijemne chladive vody. Potom jsme nasledovali posadku z lodi, ktera s sebou mela oblibene zelvi pamlsky, aby je mohla nalakat bliz k nam. Netrvalo to dlouho a za chvili jsme videli  prvni, obrovska zelva, ktera plavala smerem k nam a pak za chvili dalsi, a dalsi a pak jeste nekolik dalsich super bozich morszkych zelv! Pak jsme dokonce videli i male zelvi miminko, ktere melo misto metru je asi 50cm! Byl to opravdku kouzelny zazitek, plavali kolem nas a pod nami jen nekolik centimetru, az jsem se jedne mohla dotknout. Stravili jsme asi 40 minut plavanim s temito opravdu magickymi zviratky a byl to zcela jedinecny zazitek. Myslim, ze jsem meli velke stesti, ze jsme jich videli tolik. Bylo to jen asi 200 metru od brehu. Zelvy maji radi teple karibske more a jeste radeji lidi. Protoze kdyz pripluji lidi, tak s nimi pripluji i dobroty a ony se pak odvdeci tim, ze s lidmi plavou. Myslim, ze je to celkem dobra symbioza!

Our second snorkeling stop was just next 15 minutes away. On the way there we saw about 50 flying fish. They are native to the Caribbean Sea and they can fly up to 50 meters before they dive in again. This stop was hiving with fish Small, Tiny, Big, Huge, Massive. You name it and it was there! A Crew has some nice white rolls to keep the fish interested and I must say it was after while just too many fish at the same spot for me, so I headed back to the ship. Chris was just fine, he continued swimming with fish and snorkeling above a lovely coral reef. In the meantime I found some food on board like banana bread, white bread rolls and I also secretly smuggled on board brown bread roll and a blueberry muffin! So, this was my time of joy to feed all my fish in that sea. It was a great fun. Especially when people started returning to the boat and I was throwing the bread near them, they truly had a wonderful hands-on swimming with fish experience. I saved the big pieces for when Chris was getting back to he had his special fish bath. There were lots of searget mayor fish –the ones we have on our picture from Saint Lucia - so Chris truly felt like at home!

Nase druha zastavka byla jen asi 15 minut cesty. Kdyz jsme pluli, najednou jsme videli asi 50 letajich ryb, ktere se najedou podel lodi vynorili. Ziji celkem bezne v Karibskem mori a kdyz se vynori, tak mohou letet az 50 metru, nez se opet ponori zpet. Tato zastavka mela obrovske mnozstvi ryb. Male, malinke, velke, obrovske, masivni! Jen si reknete a verte, ze byla tam. Teda ne Nemo, ten zije jen v koralovem mori na brezich Australie, takze na toho si budete jeste muset chvilku pockat. Posadka opet mela nejakou dobroty, housticky, aby rybickam trochu zprijemnila zivot. Musim rict, ze po chvilce to bylo az prilis mnoho ryb na jednom miste a prilis blizko me, takze jsem plavala zpet na lod. Chris si to ale uzival, plaval dal s rybama a snorchloval na krasnym koralovym utesem. Ja jsem zatim na katamaranu nasla nejake jidlo jako bananovy chleb, bile housky a take jsem propasovala v nasi tasce celozrnou housku a boruvkovy muffin. Take ted byla moje chvile uzivat si pohled na rybky z lodi a krmit je. Byla to super zabava. Obzvlast kdyz se lide zacali vracet zpatky na lod a ja jsem hodila kousek housky pobliz jich, meli opravdu skvely zazitek pri proplouvani jejich hejny. Setrila jsem si ty nejlepsi kousky dobrot az kdyz se vracel Chris, takze pobliz lodi mel pak specialni rybi koupel. Bylo tam mnoho tech zlutuch rybek s cernymi pruhy ( ja nevim jak se cesky jmenujou Searget Mayor ryby – sezrant major mozna? ) – ty jak mame doma na nasem obrazu co jsme si privezli ze Svate Lucie -  takze Chris se opravdu v jejich pritomnosti mohl citit jako doma!

Everyone was getting hungry after two sessions of heavy snorkeling. The crew prepared for us a delicious Caribbean lunch on board and also opened the free bar. This time with offer of all sorts of rum punches beer and wine. This was exactly how you would imagine your perfect working Thursday in the middle of January! After the Caribbean feast, we were told we can now swim to the beach – which was about 150 meters away. Nicely rum punched we could not resist to that turquoise water and white sandy beach in the distance and slipped to the sea -  this time without our safety vest of course. It was really great just sit on quite private beach and enjoy the unique atmosphere of Barbados. Unfortunately after a short while it was time to swim back to the boat and head back to the port.

Vsichni zacinali mit celkem hlad to takovem narocnem snorchlovani, takze posadka pripravila skvely karibsky obed a otevrela bar. Tentokrat krome nealka byli v nabidce ruzne karibske rumove punche, pivo a vino. Bylo to uplne tak, jak by jste si predstavili svuj idealni pracovni ctvrtek uprosted ledna, proste uz to nemohlo byt lepsi. Po karibske hostine, kdy nam kapitan rekl, ze ty ryby co jsme jedli byli ty letajici ryby, ale ja myslim, ze jen kecal, protoze na tech letajich teda moc co jist neni, nam rekli, ze muzeme si jit zaplavat a projit se po plazi, ktera byla asi 150 metru od lodi. S plnymi brisky a s nekolika rumovymi punci, jsme ani tak nemohli odolat krasne tyrkysove vode a bile piscite plazi a seskocili jsme do chladiveho more  - tentokrat ovsem bez plovacich vest. Po chvilce plavani to bylo super sedet na celkem soukrome plazi a uzivat si atmosfery Barbadosu. Bohuzel po nejake dobe jsme se museli z plazi rozloucit – nasbirala jsem si par muslicek a jeden zkamenely koral – a plavali jsme zpet k nasi lodi, ktera se vydala zpet na cestu do pristavu.

In the rhythms of the Caribbean music and still drinking free drinks from the bar we slowly landed back to the catamaran port. The bus took us back to the port terminal where we still had some time to write a few postcards, enjoy very local beer Banks and shop for a Caribbean shirt for Chris and Dress for me. As we felt a bit underdressed for the Tropical night, we are now ready for the next one near the Hawaii.

Za rytmu karibske hudby a popijeni drinku z baru jsem pristali zpet v malem pristavu. Autobus nas dovezl zpet do naseho lodniho terminalu, kde jsem meli jeste cas napsat par pohledu, ochutnat nefalsovane Barbadoske pivo Banks a koupit karibskou kosili pro Chrise a modre karibske saty pro me. Byli jsme trochu nevybaveni pro Tropickou noc, ktera byla na lodi pred nekolika dny, tazke ted mame uz ty spravne oblecky, az bude dalsi karibska noc nekde pobliz Havajskych ostrovu!

It was a truly a wonderful day on this tropical island of Barbados. We snorkeled with turtles and thousands of fish, tasted very good local rum and beer, made some new Australian friends, met the couple who got married on the ship the other day and ended up talking for ages with them, enjoyed the sea and just had a fantastic day in the Caribbean paradise. It felt a bit sad to see it disappear as we were standing on the top deck, swaying into the rhythms of the sail away songs, but we knew we still have many days to come and enjoy and decided we should finally properly relax and start feeling like on holiday!!

Byl to skutecn uzasny den na tropickem ostrove Barbadosu. Sice jsme nevideli mnoho z krajiny -  jen to co bylo videt z lodi – ale pozdeji jsem zjistili, ze ani tam ve vnitrozemi neni moc o co stat. Snorchlovali jsme s zelvami a tisice rybickami, ochutnali jsme mistni rum a pivo, seznamili jsme se z australskymi prateli, potkali se s temi lidmi, co meli na lodi 11. ledna svatbu a bavili jsme se s nimi hodnou chvili, uzivali jsme si more a meli paradni den v karibskem raji. Bylo to trochu smutne, kdyz jsme stali na vrchu Arcadie a houpali se do rytmu picnicek, ktere nas odvazeli zase dal a nas prave objeveny ostrov mizel v dalce. Ale mame jeste mnoho dnu, kdy budeme objevovat nova a dalsi mista, takze nebyl velky duvod smutnit. Rozhodli jsme se,ze je treba si uzivat kazdy den a vsechny dny a ze je treba konecne zacit poradne relaxovat a zacit se citit jako na prazdninach!!