Around the Reef

After a few hours of exploring the inshore reefs with my camera, I found a few interesting species of fish and even a green sea turtle looking for a snack.

The flying gurnard flashes his pectoral to scare me!

I thought it was a puffer fish but actually it's called a burrfish.

The beautiful blue tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) is also known as the surgeonfish.

Wow! The goldspotted snake eel hunting for his prey,

A trumpetfish sometimes hangs vertically in the water, sneaks up on his prey and then sucks hard!.

Don't mess with this guy; the stingray has a poisonous barb in his tail.

The sand diver waits patiently for his unsuspecting prey and then lunges with lightning speed. Fun to watch!

My old friend the green sea turtle hangs out with the tour boats who feed him every day.

Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill

Today we visited the Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill, owned and operated by the Barbados National Trust.

Built in 1727, it is the oldest and largest sugar mill in the world!

It ceased commercial operation in 1947 but has been totally refurbished and still fully functional.

At the height of the sugar industry there were over 500 windmills on Barbados: more per square mile than existed in Holland.

The original wooden gears and engine were replaced with cast iron in 1870 but the central shaft is still constructed of the original wood.


The wood came from an ancient Fustic tree that's harder than mahogany.

The next milling of sugar cane won't happen until 2021.

The reason for the delay is that the mill needs to be fed long pieces of hand-cut sugar cane and today's modern cutting machines only produce short pieces.

I hear the juice is delicious so we might just have to come back and try it then!

The view from Cherry Tree Hill just above the Morgan Lewis Mill

The Cannonball Tree

The Chattel Village shops

The  cannonball fruit

If you're ever in The Chattel Village in Holetown Barbados, do stop by and say hello to one of its strangest residents, the cannonball tree. Like the huge round fruit it is named after, this tree is enormous, providing shade to the guests at the outdoor restaurant.

The true stars of the plant are its fragrant flowers which look like they are from another planet; maybe Pandora in the movie Avatar.

Unlike other flowering trees, these fragrant blooms don't grow up in the canopy but lower down on special leafless branches that extend out from the tree's trunk.

And no that's not a strange caterpillar crawling across the flower. They are the tree's pollen-bearing stamens.

Fun fact: while the tree comes from Central and South America, in Sri Lanka it is considered to be the sacred tree that Lord Buddha was born under!

Back in Barbados

New Year greetings from this fair Caribbean isle! This is my sixth visit to Barbados, the island that Gail loves to return to each winter. We've been here a week now, staying with Guelph friends, Cynthia and David Parks, before our Waterside apartment was available. Here are a few pics from our first week, living the good life Bajan-style!

"Pinky" was a constant distraction as I tried to work poolside on FON business!

Celebrating "Old Year's Night" with Get Back on the beach at Lone Star

My favourite thing to do here is swim with the fish and capture their beauty with my camera.

The sky at sunset can be quite dramatic without being too colourful