Barbados - It's all about the Rum!

Barbados is the only island we visited that has an industry other than tourism which contributes the island's prosperity. That industry is sugar. We didn't get to see any of the cane fields, but we did get to see the Malibu and another Spiced Rum plant as we drove around town. Rum, in case you were wondering, is made from the Sugar Cane!

Our final excursion was zip-lining through the forest and what a blast! The island is really flat, and as we drove out, we kept wondering where we were going to find trees tall enough to give us the 85 foot height aerial that was described in the excursion's description. The island is made of coral and limestone layers. A cave was formed by the movement of water through these layers, and the eventual cave-in which formed the gully we zipped over. Most of the trees we zipped to and from were the fig trees which gave the island it's name because they have aerial roots, giving them the "Bearded" look. You can see this in the pictures below, along with R & A zipping over two of the longest parts of the 7 line course.

We got back to the ship early this day, so we decided to go out on our own for the very first time. We hitched a ride in a taxi and headed to Malibu Beach, right next door to the Malibu Rum factory. The sand was beautifully soft, the water was warm, but the locals trying to sell us their wares were disruptive and loud.

But A was unable to ignore their taunts and bartered with one guy for a 15 minute ride on a wave runner. R was able to ward them off and lay basking in the sun as A sped 70 Knots over the calm water. You can see speed racer in the last two photos.