Barbados

Our four days in Barbados were full of surprises. I expected that there'd be beautiful beaches and, in the Caribbean style, quaint buildings painted in ice cream pastels. And, I wasn't disappointed - Barbados has the most beautiful beaches and cutest buildings we've seen in the Caribbean to date. However, there were many surprises, e.g. renaissance buildings in Bridgetown, monkeys, turtles mating and Samuel drinking at a pool bar.

The bridge that makes Bridgetown a bridge sort of town.

The Barbadian Parliament building.

I wonder if any of the Bajan politician sail to work? Not a bad gig if you can get it.

Samuel weighing up whether he should prioritise making friends or keeping up with his ice cream which was rapidly melting in the Caribbean sun.

The ice cream won, so...

...Jesse made friends instead.

Downtown Bridgetown.

The boys play at Rockley Beach. Jesse seemed to enjoy eating the sand. It must not feel quite as gritty when you don't have a mouthful of teeth.

Rum Punch anyone?

The boys arguing at the bar.

As much as Samuel loved the hotel pool and pool bar, the highlight of the trip was definitely Barbados' Green Monkeys. Samuel loves re-enacting the moment when one of the monkeys snuck up on me and gave me a fright.

Rare red footed tortoises getting friendly.

Sugar cane fields cover much of Barbados. Sugar cane in the Caribbean = rum = yum.

This restored plantation property was adjacent to the field in the picture above.

Ruined plantation house dot the Barbados landscape.

Peak hour on the east coast.

Still peak hour on the east coast.

A west coast fishing village.

Some west coast houses here and below...

...I love the colours. I just want to decorate a cake with them.

A typical west coast beach, tucked between the fishing village and houses above.

One of the many opulent west coast properties.

Trinidad & Tobago - the early days

Having recovered from the big journey from Australia to Trinidad & Tobago, we are now settling into and enjoying life in Port of Spain. We'll put our impressions of the city down in writing soon, but in the meantime here are some photos of the journey, Port of Spain and a trip to nearby Maracas beach.

Saying goodbye to Nay in Sydney.

And Stefan.

Samuel was so excited to be going on an A380. He packed a toy Qantas A380 in his backpack for the journey and on all of our inter-island flights in the Caribbean so far he has told the Dash-8 pilots that he flew to Trinidad on an A380. They've all been suitably impressed.

The boys certainly made themselves at home on board.

And so did Cuddles and Butter.

Samuel, Cuddles and Butter on the American Airlines flight to Miami.

Samuel making friends with the porter in the Miami Airport Hotel.

Finally in Port of Spain. Samuel is on his ride-on suitcase that he has named Frederick.

Our first look at Port of Spain on the way into town from the airport.

Port of Spain from Fort George.

Hannah and Jesse taking in our new home from Fort George.

Looking towards downtown Port of Spain from our apartment.

The view south to the Gulf of Paria from our apartment.

The view of Queen's Park Oval from our apartment. South Africa were scheduled to play the West Indies here next week; however, the matches were cancelled due to the snap election that was called in Trinidad & Tobago and due to be held next week. Shame!

The view of the Northern Ranges from our apartment.

The view inside our fridge. The local brew, Carib, is unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) easy to drink.

When we left Australia Jesse wasn't crawling. On the flight we could confidently sit him on the floor and know that he wasn't going to disappear. Now, two and a half weeks later, he's tearing around and crawling through boxes!

Over the Norther Ranges from Port of Spain on Trinidad's Caribbean coast are some of the island's best beaches. The closest is Maracas beach and is just behind the first peninsular in this photo. During our first real weekend in Trinidad we made the journey with some friends. The drive there through the mountains and a morning on a beautiful beach really made us feel like we were now living in the Caribbean.

Maracas beach.

At one end of Maracas beach is a busy little fishing village. By the time we got there the fishermen had finished work for the day. However, a few were still tidying up loose ends.

Typically, Samuel wasn't keen on the water at the beach because it was too rough and Jesse on the other hand couldn't get enough of it. Funny boys.