[charleskieffner]

well i survived my 50th birthday in barbados! best b-day ever! unreal eye opening experience on land and unta-wata.

first a few factoids for those interested in sumthang different:

most educated country in the world.

most literate country in the world.

most developed island in entire carribean.

crime about ZERO!

brits gave it up in 1966.

heavy brit influence.

use 110AC electricity.

cleanest water on planet. why? its a limestone island unlike rest of carib. drink water from tap safely. try that anywhere else and you might as well buy stock in toilet paper or depends to contain the load! ask me how i know! ice cubes nailed me in messiko!

everyone smiles and says hello on street.

they speak the kings english and will correct our poor bastardized ignorant english.

the MT GAY RUM DISTILLARY! what the hell more can i say??? U.S. only gets (1) type exported. (4) FOUR other types available at factory. YUM YUM YUM I LOVE RUM! "god looks out for rummies and children" ernesto hemingway.

MALIBU RUM distilled there also...........see above YUM YUM YUM...........with pineapple. el supremo breakfast of champions. a bonifide health drink!

MOJITOES.............a lil cuban influence with mint. another bonifide health drink. WOW!

BANKS BEER.........not exported. excellent beer along the lines of coronas.

self sufficient nation with 50% of items grown or mfged exported.

have their own oil wells.

deep water port(bridgetown). mega cruise ship stop.

port of call U.S. NAVY. uss philipine sea (#58) aegis class guided missile cruiser in port. met (3) scuppies off of her and shot the breeze as they were divers also. wayyy cool ship that can really ruin someones day if pissed off!

seafood and shell fish to DIE FOR! flying fish is numero uno plate . how ever you want it cooked. baked fried, flambayed etc. deee-licious. dont ferget to add some yellow BAJAN HOT SAUCE w/CUCUMBER for some KICK!

would go anywhere on island at 3am and not fear for my life.

cops everywhere.

clean.................I MEAN CLEAN ! streets and unta-wata. no garbage anywhere.

last hurricane that nailed them.......1955.

very long runway. concorde mothballed at airport. NOAA turbo prop hurricane hunters based there at grantley adams airport.

100 miles from st. lucia and st vincent. (my next dive trip is there). this was from locals who have traveled entire carib basin. not from some dumbass gringo from the u.s. .natives stated those two islands the coolest above water and unta-wata. but you still have to fly to barbados and then take puddle jumper over. barbados and puerto rico are the hubs.

branson of virgin atlantic was there while we were there, doing the red bull aero stupid people stunt tricks into pool. figure the 5th richest guy on planet vacations there, i must be doing sumthang right!

everyday is formula one driving day there. they drive on the wrong damn side of street and drive insane! surprisingly few accidents seen.

the japs have the vehicle market cornered. trucks cars tractors bikes etc. (1) 1981 porsche 911 SC for sale in paper $39,900 BBD(bajan bucks) was left hand drive. white.

a few BMWs seen.

(1) VW transporter seen.

a coupla ford trucks, (1) chevy surburban. other than that everything was JAPANESE!

simpson motors is porsche dealership there. none in stock. order only. (1) cayenne turbo running around.

missed barbados ROAD RALLY, as in full airborne WFO rally in the streets insanity by one week. brits ship cars down and go nuts. lots of wrecks and rollovers. this is second week in sept. everyyear.

learn how to like rasta music and buy a bob marley shirt and you will blend in perfect! i introduced myself as "HI, IM BOB MARLEY FROM ARIZONA, YOU KNOW THAT BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND CALLED THE GRAND CANYON!" that broke the ice real quick.............lots of laughs over that from natives.

everyone realizes that tourism is numero uno(number #1) and are very very nice. even when dumbass white guy asks 50 million goofy ass questions about the place after consuming 50 million MOJITOS and MALIBU COCONUT w/PINEAPPLE DRINKS!

1USDollar=2 BARBADIAN DOLLARS..........simple no brainer.

the diving was the best wreck and reef diving i have done in 33 years of diving. hyperbaric chamber at queen elizabeth hospital in bridgetown. unreal vizability. reefs have 4 ft sea fans, 6 ft tube corals, brain corals as big as VW bugs. very healthy reef system. turtles everywhere, fish everywhere. WRECKS EVERYWHERE! lots of history here. bridgetown was the london/new york/san francisco/paris of the carribean way back when. old photos of carlisle bay had 100's of sailing ships docked there just like san francisco had during gold rush.

dived on 1880's sailing ship and numerous others. one wreck was a freighter that ditched a u-boat during wwII. freighter saw u-boat started doing ziggy zaggy action. carlisle bay had anti-torpedo nets stretched across it. harbormaster opened nets and freighter got into bay. this pissed undersee-booten kapitain off. he lets loose with "vier torpedos los" and blows hell out of net. then lets go with "zwei torpedos los". one torpedo runs up on beach and is now enshrined in bridgetown museum. other torpedo ran straight and true and blew the bow off the freighter! wayyyyyyyyyyyyy cool dive on bow section. eels everywhere and some barracuda along with turtles. dived on drug runner freighter also sank to build artificial reef. numerous anchors from 1800's and cannons from late 17th century and early 1800's still intact.

now yer gonna say "this is worthless w/out pictures".............and your right!

just got back from ritz camera 35mm made to CD's. havent figured how to get them to pelican yet. will do so when i get back tonight. stay tuned.

brand new digital camera destroyed by TSA. not cool. and it wasnt like i dont know how to pack cameras for dive trips. was in its own case, inside sealife padded case, inside PELICAN HARDBOX CASE inside north face duffel bag. TSA wasted LCD(liquid crystal display). camera was worthless and never made it passed (MIA) miami.

word to the wise.........MIA -miami intl airport is an absolute nightmare. here was my flight out.......remember there aint no directs to barbados. phx-dallas-ft.worth-orlando-miami-barbados.

my return was barbados-miami(customs)-to baltimore/dc-to dallas-ft.worth-to phx.

this was all on american airlines. my tickets were free for both of us(long story). cost of tickets during off season(hurricane season) $369.00 USD! cheap in big scheme of thangs.

stay tuned for pics. would do this trip AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT! cant say enough about the people, the place, the rooms($80USD a night), the food , the drink, the diving!

BEST DIVE DESTINATION I HAVE EVER GONE TO!