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Culturally, Barbados seems to be closer to England than to her Caribbean counterparts. Barbados is beautifully landscaped with rolling hills, open pastures, sugar cane plantations and spectacular stretches of sand. The limestone cap that covers most of the island is riddled with caves – don’t forget to explore Harrison’s Cave, an intricate network of limestone caverns.

Good infrastructure and well equipped to handle tourist traffic; Barbados is one of the popular Caribbean islands.

Do not hesitate to try the delicious dolphin available on the local menus in most restaurants in Barbados. It has no similarity to the porpoise but is an ugly yet delicious fish (mahi mahi or dorado) in Barbados.

Fancy a Chattel House in Barbados! These are wooden ‘movable houses’ with ornate designs that are unique and attractive dwellings to Barbados.

Historically Speaking

The Carib Indians invaded the island, displacing the original inhabitants the Arawak Indians, only to abandon it a few centuries later. It is believed that the islands’ first contact with European powers (disputed by some historians who believe that the Spanish were the first to arrive in the early 1500’s) dates back to 1536 when Pedro a Campos, the Portuguese explorer, spotted it on his voyage to Brazil.

Besides christening the island Los Barbados after the Bearded Fig trees found in abundance on the island and introducing the pig to the island, the Portuguese left the island as it was. When the first English settlers lead by Captain Henry Powell arrived in 1627, these pigs were the sole inhabitants of the island. The population of the island expanded rapidly as did the economic sphere as the landscape was cleared away for cultivation of first tobacco, then cotton, and finally sugar. The era of sugar plantations brought with it the evil of slavery and slave trade. The plantation owners or the ‘plantocracy’ profited immensely from this ‘sugar revolution’.

In 1639, a Legislative Assembly was formed in Barbados.

The Charter of Barbados, formulated according to the Articles of Capitulation, signed after the invasion and conquest of Barbados by Oliver Cromwell gave the island a certain amount of independence.

The abolition of slavery did not improve the conditions of the slaves. Matters came to head during the economic crash of the 1930’s and there were labour movements all over the island. Conciliatory attempts by the British such as setting up of the Welfare and Development Office for the colonies and involving the Africans in the decision-making process didn’t solve problems and in 1961, Barbados was giving the right to administer its own domestic affairs.

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Habitat

The Easternmost Caribbean Island, Barbados lies southeast of Miami about 2585 km away. Sedimentary rocks covered by layers of coral limestone form the crust of the island which is characterized by numerous underground streams, springs and limestone caverns due to the soft limestone cover. Intricate cave systems are one of the main attractions of Barbados.

Though most of the island is relatively flat, the inland terrain is uneven with steep cliffs and ridges that are a legacy of the old shorelines that changed as the Island slowly emerged from the sea.

Protected by coral reefs on most sides, the western coast has some lovely beaches with perfect white sand and brilliant blue waters. The Atlantic coast is cliff lined with more turbulent waters.

With hardly any rivers in most of the inland regions, water is pumped up from the limestone. Threat of landslides in certain regions make agriculture, and to an extent, even inhabitation of the region impossible. There are no forests; instead sugar cane fields, flowering trees, open pastures and scrubs cover most of the landscape.