Barbados

Days 1 and 2

The Caribbean island nation of Barbados is known for its tropical beaches, rum, and of course, Rihanna. We didn’t come here for the music (although we’re loving the local music scene), and we’re not big into drinking (unless you mean water). We came here to enjoy the beaches and the ocean — especially since Eric has been getting into freediving more lately.

We dove right in (literally) as soon as we got here. On our first day, we connected with Alex Davis, a professional freediver who has set many national freediving records for Barbados. Alex coached Eric in freediving technique, and guided us around the local underwater world. We swam to several cool shipwrecks in the area, including a military boat, a submarine, and even a cocaine-smuggling boat! All of these are now hosting coral and reef fish, and are fascinating to explore. With Alex leading the way, Eric dove down and went inside some of the wrecks, by swimming through small openings in the rusting hulks. Eric’s freediving training was rigorous but fun, and often interrupted by sea life. Curious turtles glided between us, huge tarpon fish swam by, and we even saw a manta ray, a rarity in Barbados!

Our days have been mostly sunny, but we did experience torrential rain for a few minutes while on the water with Alex. Diving down a bit and looking up at the surface of the water was like looking up at a starry sky on a clear night, with millions of stars pulsating with light. What a magical sight!

Airbnb: Frangipani Villa

Days 3 and 4

We spent the last two days pretty much entirely in the water. We had many amazing moments while swimming, snorkeling, and freediving, but the highlight was spearfishing with Alex.

Alex is well-known for being an advocate for responsible spearfishing, as a means to help control invasive species in the ocean. So, not surprisingly, we started our session by learning to recognize the types of fish that lie at the intersection of invasive and tasty. We then learned how to use the spearfishing guns, which was a bit awkward for us, since we don’t have much experience with guns (does paintball count?). But soon enough, we were hitting our practice targets, and we were ready to move on. Swimming to find fish was also challenging, because the current was very strong. But it was also a lot of fun because we were both equipped with high-end carbon fins, and we felt like we had superpowers! Those powers were thanks to Alex, who very generously lent his spare fins to Eric, and his girlfriend’s fins to Bea. Finding the right fish was even more challenging than the swim. If we turned to ask Alex, “is this a good one?”, by the time we turned back, it was gone. At times, Eric and Alex would freedive into the depths and spot some potentially delicious fish, only to find that they would dart into rocky crevices and hide just out of reach. Eventually, after many failed attempts, we (meaning Alex) caught a lionfish — notorious for being an invasive species but also good to eat. Though it wasn’t big enough to provide dinner for three, it was the most hard-earned, well-deserved sashimi snack we’ve ever had. And maybe because of that, it tasted darn good!

Days 5 and 6

We haven’t done much other than spending time in the water on this vacation. There is a lot to do on land in Barbados, but we’re finding that we’re so much happier in the water.

We spent the last two days of our vacation revisiting some of the wrecks that Alex showed us at the beginning of our trip. One of the wrecks in particular is just a few meters from the surface (well within Bea’s freediving range), so we spent quite a bit of time diving to the sandy seabed and exploring the complex ecosystem that has developed around the remains of the ship. We thoroughly enjoyed getting a close-up look at the different varieties of coral that cover the rusted metal, and the many types of fish living in and around the wreck. One fish in particular caught our attention, and we saw it hiding in the same nook each day. We called it the “anime fish” because of its big eyes, round face, and smiling mouth, but we think it’s actually a puffer fish. So cute!

We lost track of time while snorkeling today, and when we eventually looked up, we saw that the sun was setting, turning the puffy clouds a fiery orange color. Meanwhile, a small sea turtle paddled by, and whether it was curious or thought we had snacks, it decided to swim in circles around us. We weren’t quite sure whether we should look above or below the surface!

Tomorrow we head back to Seattle, so this was an awesome way to wrap up our underwater adventures in Barbados!