A Fulbrighter in Barbados

The Fulbright Scholar, Tasha Souza, was blogging from Barbados while she was there (January to May 2014). Her blog is Being in Barbados: Sabbatical in the Sun. Tasha is a faculty member at Humboldt State University in California (wow, three Fulbrighters in one academic year!) and her appointment was at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus (like mine!). Tasha was affiliated with the Instructional Development unit building faculty development programs and worked with instructional technologist Pat Atherely (on the left with Tasha), who I met and got to work with a little when I was at the UWI.

My blog gets hits from searchers of all things Barbados and/or Fulbright so I'm setting you out to check out Tasha's blog. Get inspired! She took her two young kids (yes, they went to school in Barbados), met loads of new friends, mastered riding the buses and the left-hand driving, enjoyed a busy life right from the first day, and did important work on an educational exchange. Where do you want to go?

These photos are from Tasha's blog.

Shipping Barrels To and From the Caribbean

I never wrote on this blog that we needed to ship back a bunch of stuff once it was time to return to the U.S. from Barbados. I realized that small but significant oversite when I saw this short piece in today's New York Times, "Shipping Christmas to the Caribbean."

Yes, Christmas is pretty huge in Barbados but what is even more huge are the prices of things like laundry detergent, dry cereal, and clothes. Prior to moving to Barbados for the year we were advised to "send a barrel full of stuff because everything is so expensive here." I looked into this but never did happen upon any information about shipping a barrel. All I found was that I could get a portion of a shipping container but that seemed overly large for our needs. I even thought about sending one of our cars over to Barbados, filled with extra "stuff," but worried about getting slammed with a high tariff.

The airlines have made it so that in the year we were away, we could bring home even fewer bags than when we came. We could pay extra for each bag, of course, but it was going to really add up. That is when we got on the stick and found out about shipping a barrel. The only place that does this type of shipping in Barbados is Laparkan whom we bought an empty cardboard drum from (similar to the one in the photo). We took it home and filled it up with 300 pounds of books, long pants, a rip stick and beach towels. Laparkan then came to pick it up and facilitated our shipping the barrel back to New York. We were told it would take about a week. It really took two and a half weeks (not bad) and we had to go down to JFK to pick it up. By the way, our barrel was opened and inspected somewhere along the way, not in Barbados and not in the U.S. but all of our stuff was there, though we had Lego pieces flying everywhere.

If you're moving to the Caribbean, be aware that the prices of all the things you know and love (or at least the things you rely on) are going to be really high. If you're in the New York area, check out this Times article for some advice on who ships barrels to which countries.

Severe Storm in Barbados

I heard that tropical Storm Tomas hit Barbados pretty hard on Saturday October 30. It struck at 6 am so, fortunately, there were few people on the roads driving to work and school. I also hear that there were, thankfully, no fatalities. These two videos not only show the severity of the storm but also show where I used to live. I drove along this road - the Coast Road on the west coast in St. James parish - everyday.

This one shows the same route only driving south on the coast road, going towards Bridgetown.

I hope everyone is doing okay there in Barbados and that the recovery is quick.

Getting Back to the U.S. - Clearing Up Mail Forwarding

I got back to the U.S. August 16 after living in Barbados for nearly a full year. I've needed to write this short update to express some frustrations with the U.S. Postal Service upon my return.

Oddly enough, it was easy to forward my family's mail down to Barbados but going in the reverse took months to rectify; we started receiving mail addressed to our Poughkeepsie adress on October 11. In my mind it was a simple "Turn off the Forward" that should have been easily handled at some sorting center somewhere in my county. I'm including here that the problem, in the U.S. Postal Service's eyes, stems from receiving mail from an adress abroad...note the "We don't handle from foreign addresses" written in under Other. Sheesh! How U.S.-centric can we get!

I was so frustrated with the situation of multiple phones calls and run-around and finger pointing - "It's not MY job" - that I contacted my local state representative. It's an election year, so why not? The assistant to the Senator told me she made a call and got the same crazy run-around that I got and said, ultimately, that because the U.S. Postal Service is a Federally-run entity, I should contact my U.S. Senator. Oy!

I'm not one of those "take your hands off my money" kinds of people and I agree with paying taxes for services for the public good. A functioning mail service is a public good. Our U.S. Postal Service is not, at present, a well-oiled machine.

Funny. I went to a small island nation in the Caribbean and had no problem with my mail getting to me.

Last Day of My Fulbright

I had my last day of my Fulbright fellowship at CERMES and the University of the West Indies last Friday. I probably should have posted this earlier in the week but here it is. Short and sweet.

This year has been a gift to me. I have had a golden opportunity to spread my wings and take flight and I have had encouragement and a stable base to do so. Sure, I contributed some of my expertise to a few projects. But I gained so much more than I gave. Last Friday the department gave me a coffee, tea, and banana bread party send-off. It wasn't until a little later when I got in my car to drive home that I cried. I cried nearly the entire way home. What a joy to weep about missing a place that embraced me in such a short period of time.

The first project I worked on I did some final edits and additions. You may recall that work was a Google Earth project based on data from the Grenadines. Here is the MarSIS project site. Here is the project KML (will open in Google Earth). Take a look. It came out great, I think. But would love your feedback if the user experience is less than satisfying.

The second project was to organize the CERMES GIS data library. There were already some geodata up on the CERMES server but I just added some more data, organized by country and region, and set up a template for future data to be added. I hope this helps the students out. I'm not a librarian. I should try to go back and get an MLS degree if I really wanted to be an effective GIS consultant, but I don't think I have the time. I really do admire librarians, though.

This week has been spent packing and reflecting and filled with lasts...last full moon, last flying fish sandwich, last Magnum bar, last trip to Animal Flower Cave...our flight back home is Monday. Back to New York. Back to reality.

Monday Night at Ju Ju's Beach Bar and Restaurant

There's a great restaurant just a short walk or swim from our apartment. It's called Ju Ju's Beach Bar. It's a little tucked away and hard to find so I wanted to make sure to sing its praises.

Ju Ju's is owned and operated by Joanna. She and her skilled chef serve up fresh fish of all sorts (flying fish, dolphin, snapper, whatever is in season and fresh) grilled or fried. Very tasty. The kids like the chips (also known as "fries"), hamburgers (the meat-eater anyway) and the cheese sandwich. The flying fish sandwich is great too. The prices are very reasonable given the high-end location on the west coast.

You don't have to wait for Monday. Ju Ju's is open everyday but closes by about 7 p.m.

Where is Ju Ju's?

Latitude: 13°12'16.83"N, Longitude: 59°38'24.63"W

Located directly off the Coast Road in St. James, Ju Ju's Beach Bar is just south of the Lone Star Restaurant. It is seaside. Look for the lime green house and the sign that says "Dive Barbados" (both shown in the photo to the left) and follow the walking path to the left of the green house. There is no sign for Ju Ju's. Watch the video below to get an idea how to get down to the restaurant and see what it looks like.

But not only do you get delicious Bajan seafood, you cannot beat the location and view of the sea. This was from the beach at Ju Ju's taken in May.


And this was taken tonight.













The photos can be found on my Flickr page and the video is on my YouTube page.

Things We Should Adopt in the U.S. #4: Traffic Circles or Roundabouts

By whichever name you choose to call them, traffic circles do their jobs well - keeping vehicles moving along the roadways. Here in Barbados roundabouts are employed all around the island, on small roads, in the city, and on major highways. The cars roll on. I'm not saying that there are no accidents here, but I don't see fender benders resulting from navigating the roundabouts.

Barbados was colonized by the British and their influence can be seen in many arenas in Bajan society - the traffic circle is but one of the marks the English left here. Because of living in Barbados (as well as in Trinidad where they also have roundabouts) we could easily adapt to traffic circles when we took our U.K. trip last month.

I write this post because of past experiences with a traffic circle controversy that occurred in my neighborhood in Poughkeepsie. Some community members wanted roundabouts put into a busy, too-fast roadway and some others thought these traffic devices would be a menace by diverting all vehicles to their street causing snarls in front of their homes. It pitted neighbor versus neighbor. I wish I could pull up a couple of letters-to-the-editor from the local newspaper but they are archived and not free. Well, the traffic circles went in, as well as some traffic-slowing devices on the other street, and all is well in Poughkeepsie. To think, if everyone could have just experienced the joys of roundabouts first hand by driving through them in Barbados or the U.K., we could have avoided all that angst.

Here, take a look for yourself:


The Creative Commons photo of the roundabout above was taken in England and was found on ztephen's Flickr page. The video I skillfully took while driving around a traffic circle near Dover Beach in the southern part of Barbados. I was very careful. Note the coconut sellers on the left towards the end of the video. You don't see that in Poughkeepsie!

Turtle Beach

We moved temporarily to Barbados on September 1 last year. The apartment is nearly right on the beach. We feel very fortunate. It took me awhile to realize that not only do we have access to one of the most beautiful beaches on the island with swimming in Caribbean blue water but we have turtles.

In the first month we would snorkel and see what looked like discarded ping pong balls strewn across the reef that is our backyard. We'd pick them up underwater, bring them to fresh air and realize that these were not athletic equipment but some sort of egg. Then we went on a turtle patrol walk along the south coast of the island. We saw hundreds of baby turtles and one turtle track. Still, I did not think of our beach as a turtle nesting beach. Plus, I knew what a marine turtle track looked like because we became fascinated with Leatherback turtles in Trinidad a few years prior. It was not until November when turtle hatchlings came scurrying up from the sand on our beach that I understood the magic that we have on this beach. They've been here nearly the whole time. Certainly we see sea turtles when we are snorkeling but they've been nesting and hatching throughout most of our time here.

Yesterday when I went for a morning run I saw eleven turtle tracks along my usual route. That was more than usual. Today I saw just two, but the point is there are tracks and nests every morning. Here are two from a couple of weeks ago.

When you come to Barbados, wake up early and take a walk along the beach and you will see the tracks. Most beaches enjoy frequent visits from nesting turtles, I'd say from May to October. It's best not to walk up to a nesting turtle, shine a flash light (or torch) on her, or scare her in anyway. If you see hatchlings, feel lucky! But let them make the journey to the sea on their own; don't help them, they need to feel the sand and stretch their legs because they have their work cut out for them.

These turtle shots are from my Flickr account.

"If Ya Bajan and Ya Love Ya Teacher, Raise Ya Hands!": Junior Kadooment

For the past few months the Barbadian radio stations have been playing an endless rotation of soca music (hear it in the videos below) all in the run-up to Crop Over. Crop Over happens August 2 this year and is so named for the end of the sugar cane season.

Saturday was Junior "Kiddie" Kadooment and was a miniature version of what we might expect on August 2, only without all the alcohol and bacchanal. This was such a sweet affair that I'm really glad I went and took the kids and I'm glad I got lots of video of the little paraders.

We met up at the beginning of the parade route and watched the marchers make their way to the National Stadium where the various "bands" of kids parade across the stage in front of the judges. The title of this post is a reference to something the M.C. said from the stage. There's a lot of emphasis on and value placed in education and teachers are very well-regarded in Barbados. Yet another thing we should adopt in the U.S.!

The photo of the little reveler is by Risee on Flickr and not by me. I had yet another camera failure and did not get still photos of the kiddie kadooment.

But I did get plenty plenty video of the young paraders. Check it out, but be cautious, it's a little loud:


The event that followed the parade was a Junior Calypsonian competition that, unfortunately, we could not stay for. One of the opening acts for the the show was a young soca group (the Hypa Kidz) that has a song out this Crop Over season called "Happy Feet." You can hear "Happy Feet" in the first video with the little parade marchers. Here is Hypa Kidz' performance:

Hawksbill Turtle Tracks

School is out for the summer and now we find ourselves heading down to the beach a little earlier in the day. This video was taken at about 7 am yesterday. I went out for my run in the morning and saw a lot of Hawksbill turtle tracks and nests but these two were right in our back yard. I had to bring the kids down to see them.

I love living here. We're going to miss it.

Technology Workshops This Week - At UWI

I am an instructional technologist. When I first got to the University of the West Indies, I tracked down my cohort here, Pat Atherley, to see what the system was like at the UWI and to figure out how we could work together. This week we got to do that.

Pat organized a week of Moodle training sessions for faculty members on campus. From beginning-level to advanced, Pat showed all of us (me included - I don't know how to use the Learning Management System Moodle) many of the tips and short cuts to getting course materials up online. How I was involved was Pat asked if I'd like to give a demonstration or two on some of the educational technologies that I know. I happily volunteered to talk about Google Earth (Monday), collaborative writing with Google Docs (Wednesday), and using tablet PCs in teaching courses inside the classroom and out in the field. The photo at the top shows Pat (on right) and me talking about tablet PCs. Both photos here can be found on my Flickr photostream.

The Google Earth session was developed as a hands-on workshop so that faculty members could learn how to create Google Earth files so they can use the geo-browser while lecturing in class. The Google Docs session (also hands-on) went over not only collaborating in a Google Doc (if you don't know, it is just like Microsoft Word only on-line), but I showed the group how to use and collaborate with Google Spreadsheets, Drawings, Presentations, and Forms. The tablet PC talk was really mostly me talking about how one can use a tablet PC for lecturing, sharing slides and PDFs, and facing the students while drawing on the "virtual chalkboard" which is the tablet's screen. I also talked about how tablets are useful for field classes and data collection. Here are my slides for the tablet PC talk.

Tablet PCs in Higher Education

View more presentations from Meg Stewart.

It was very satisfying to be able to share some of the things I know about teaching and learning with technologies. Thanks, Pat, for asking me to contribute!

Secretary of State Clinton in Barbados

The U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in town (Bridgetown) for a brief visit. Let me say first off, I did not meet her or go to her press conference, much as I would have liked to. I am a huge fan of the Madam Secretary.

Continuing with the Obama Administration's interest in renewing attention and positive relations in the backyard of the U.S. with evidence from his trip to Trinidad and Tobago for the 2009 Summit of the Americas meeting, Secretary Clinton made a trip to the Caribbean and Latin America over 6 to 10 June. I am thrilled she stopped in Barbados.

I see her visit to the area as extremely positive for the region. She announced commitments from the U.S. for support of such areas as: More assistance to Haiti, energy security and climate change cooperation, health cooperation concerning HIV and AIDS, trade relations, and continued and on-going dialogue among other concerns. There was a commitment to $300 million in U.S. (Barbados dollars are 2 to 1 with U.S. dollars) aid to the Caribbean with about $8 million going towards climate change and energy projects.

And showing off her humorous side, Secretary Clinton has this to say to assembled U.S. Embassy staff and their family members in Bridgetown:

I hope that you all know how much President Obama and I appreciate your long hours, your commitment. Although frankly, serving in Barbados, I mean – (laughter) – I don’t know. I’m not going to hear too many complaints from anybody here. But I do think that it’s important to underscore how everything we’re trying to do to reengage with and deepen and broaden our relationships with our friends in the Caribbean depends on you.

I hear you, Ms. Clinton, it's tough "serving" here in paradise, but Barbados, with its strong infrastructure, solid government, and hard-working, committed people is the perfect place to model success for the rest of the world and, in particular, the Caribbean. U.S. support and attention is a positive thing in a region that has been overlooked for too long. As she stated at the press conference, "We have had a long relationship between the United States and the Caribbean, but there was a sense that the United States was absent from the region. So we are back. We are back 100 per cent. We are back and committed."

The photo of above of Secretary Clinton is from the Barbados NationNews on-line version of the newspaper.

We Did Not Miss Mango Season

Our view from our balcony looks towards the sea...and a huge mango tree. For months it has done nothing but been beautiful to look at. Now it is covered with mangoes. And I am feeling pretty lucky.















Photos from my Flickr photostream.

Cricket in the West Indies

Before I even moved to Barbados I heard that the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket matches would be held here and in other parts of the West Indies. I was excited because I have wanted to know more about cricket. I tried to learn about it when I was Trinidad, but never really got the hang of it. I'm starting to get it.

We went to two matches on separate days at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. The video below shows bits and pieces of the matches. What I found out is that Twenty20 cricket is a much shorter, faster-paced sport than all-day cricket or Test cricket (five days, e-gads!). The game is over in about three hours. Each team gets a turn at batting; they are "up" for 20 overs, then the other team has their "ups." The ball, when hit by the batsman, can go anywhere on the oval-shaped field. If the ball reaches the boundary that marks the outer perimeter of the playing field, the batter gets 4 points. That's also called a "boundary." If he (or she) hits it over the boundary, like a "home run," that counts for 6 points. You can get ones and twos for little dribbles and drabbles hit. There are two guys with bats on the cricket pitch. They take turns batting, plus they are both running back and forth between the wickets, sort of like two "home bases."

The "pitchers" are called bowlers. There are two bowlers out there, also taking turns at the batsmen. There's fast bowlers and slow bowlers and spinners. I think that the bowlers are trying to knock the wickets over (they are wooden stumps), so the batsmen are trying to defend the wicket yet still try to hit the ball for some runs. If there is a hit, the ball can be caught in the air for an out, or the ball can be thrown at the wicket, so the fielding player tries to get it there and hit it before the runner gets there.

The stands in the Oval were another thing altogether. There's a lot of noise, a lot of good natured-cheering, there's not a lot of cursing and yelling at "bad calls," and there's lots of loud music and dancing girls and boys. Check out the video for a view into the cricket fan culture.


There, that's an American's view of the game but using some baseball terminology. I loved it. It was great fun. Do I think cricket will catch on in the US? No. They may have abbreviated the game to get more young people (and Americans) into cricket, but the US is pretty saturated with its sports. Cricket is, of course, played in America, but it's played like beach cricket is played here in Barbados, usually pick up games in parks. In Poughkeepsie (where I usually live) there's a significant Jamaican population and there is a pitch on the outskirts of town where I see folks gather on Sundays to play. They dress in cricket whites. I'm sure one can see rousing cricket matches down in Brooklyn and elsewhere. I would love to see cricket in the US. It's a civilized sport.

Fireball International 2010 - Regatta in Barbados

We got to watch from a distance the Fireball International regatta at Carlisle Bay. Here's another Fireball World link. These sail boats are small and slick and super fast. They are raced by two people, one "crew" who is really just a counterweight hanging by a tether and harness over the edge of the boat and the other is the skipper. I made of video of what the regatta looked like from the event site, the Barbados Yacht Club in Bridgetown. I hope you can tell from the video that there were about 12 to 15 countries represented which you can tell from the IDs on the sails and flags a-flying.

Two international competitions have converged on Barbados at once: the Fireball International races and the World Twenty-20 Cricket matches. More on cricket in a future post.

My kids take sailing lessons at the Sailing Association next to the Yacht Club. That's how I heard about the Fireballs. But I also read about the Fireballs from my favorite local blogger, Planet Barbados' Janet Shattuck Hoyos, who adores Carlisle Bay about as much as I do, I think. She had this video linked from her blog. Check out the speed these boats are flying.


Next year Fireball International 2011 is in Ireland. I think they really might need those wet suits the racers were sporting in sunny Barbados this year.

March and April are Kiting Flying Months

In Barbados there is a daily gently breeze. The wind is perfect for kite flying (and sailing, and wind surfing, and trips on catamarans...). All during March and now into April, I hear the sound of kites zipping through the air in my neighborhood and I look up and see one lone kite. Or off in the distance, from a hill top, I can see several kites being flown in an open field. Kites stands sprang up in March. Of course, kite flying is an evening or weekend activity.

I asked someone about the kite flying going on now. She said she wasn' t really sure but if one was to fly a kite at any other time of the year, one would look silly. Strange, I thought, with all this wind. Then another person said the reason for the kite flying at this time of year is related to Easter and the resurrection of Christ. The kites symbolize Jesus' rising. Aha!

Creative Commons photo is from orphanjones photostream.

Friday Night at Shakers

We went to Shakers tonight. We like this restaurant a lot and it always seems we end up there on Fridays. Shakers is in a house, in a neighborhood. You will not have an awesome view of the sea and sometimes a car will whiz by a little too fast, but you will have a great meal.

I like to get the Catch of the Day which is usually Dolphin (the fish) or Marlin. The seasoning is perfect and the dish comes with salad, cole slaw and grilled potatoes. Our carnivorous daughter likes the tasty steak: she gets it every time. And our vegetarian son likes to get two orders of samosas and a side of grilled potatoes. Other good stuff: grilled flying fish, beer-battered catch of the day, grilled shrimp and hamburgers. On a small island nation, I always stick with the fish.

I don't feel comfortable writing the meal prices just in case they change, but three of us ate at Shakers tonight, had drinks, appetizers and entrees and spent $119 BDS (not including tip). That's $60 USD. I think that's pretty good.

Latitude: 13° 4'37.97"N; Longitude: 59°35'29.77"W

Where is Shakers?: You can find Shakers on the south coast, in Brown's Gap. From the coast road, turn up the hill at Big Johns and follow it past the Pirate's Inn, curve around, go almost to the T and there on the left is Shakers.

Shakers is open evenings Tuesday to Sunday 6 to 10pm. Call co-owner Amy for reservations: 228-8855

Don't Miss the Jammin' Catamaran Cruise

We live in paradise for a year, did I mention that? When you live in Barbados, you get some company from folks living in cold and foreign lands. With all of our friends who have left the chilly northeast to come visit us, we take them on a real treat - the Jammin' Catamaran cruise which sails around the west coast of Barbados. The video below will give you a sense of the atmosphere - music, limin', happy people, fun in the sun as well as in the water. If you're really lucky, when you're on your Jammin' cruise you'll get to see a few sea turtles.

On one Jammin' trip, I overheard the owner/captain Roger say to one of his crew members "give the people what they want!" and Jammin' does do that. Then they passed around a pitcher of Jammin' Rum Punch. Nice!

































Jammin's web site: http://www.jammincats.com/


All the photos shown here are on my Flickr page.

Quote about Port of Spain, Trinidad

A friend of ours just came from a professional meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2003, we lived for six months in Trinidad in a suburb of Port of Spain, Diego Martin, and have fond memories of the twin island country. One might even say we is trini 2 de bone.

Our friend was overjoyed with her conference and the brief site-seeing she got to do around Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital. She studies the writings of Derek Walcott who also attended the conference. The city moved her so much that our friend sent this quote of Walcott's, reflecting on Port of Spain. It reminds me of why I loved the place so much.

". . . so racially various that the cultures of the world--the Asiatic, the Mediterranean, the European, the African--would be represented in it, its humane variety more exciting than Joyce's Dublin. Its citizens would intermarry as they chose, from instinct, not tradition, until their children find it increasingly futile to trace that genealogy . . . This is Port of Spain to me, a city ideal in its commercial and human proportions, where a citizen is a walker and not a pedestrian, and this is how Athens may have been before it became a cultural echo. "

I relish in hearing of Americans having a great experience in Trinidad. Last November, we met a U.S. diplomat-type who had just spent six weeks in Trinidad and you know what she said? "I loved it there. I am Trini to de Bone, and all of that." If you want to witness a true melting pot, take the time to visit Trinidad.

While living in Trinidad, there wasn't much mention of Barbados by Trinis, however, there was a clear animosity towards Jamaica...dat place ent safe, guhl...too too much crime gwan on der. Well, we come to Barbados in September, with a love for Trinidad in our hearts and what do we hear? Trinidad has so much killins der, it ent safe, dahlin'! I doh go der, ya know! Does every place have to have another place they fear or feel superior over?

All I know is that we loved Trinidad and want to go back there while we live so close. The children were too small to remember the feeling of all those cultures mixing and living and blending together. Frankly, that is not a phenomenon they are seeing here in Barbados, but my thoughts on that may have to come in another post.

I'm not going to lie, since coming to Barbados, where the living is easy, folks are friendly and every last beach is divine, we have fallen for the place. There's a lot to like here in Barbados, but there's a lot to appreciate about Trinidad and Tobago. Let's put it this way, Trinidad is so much more than Carnival.

Image of coconut vendor in Port of Spain is from tuchodi's Flickr account.

Exercising on the Beach

Prior to moving to Barbados, I tried to figure out as much as possible how I could set up my life as similarly to that of my life in Poughkeepsie. Back home, I went to the college's gym. It;s either cold and snowy or sweltering hot and the gym is climate-controlled. In August or so, about a month before our move, a spoke with Kim about a couple of research-related things and then asked about gyms in Barbados. She didn't actually laugh at me, but she did say something like, 'well, I don't ever go to a gym. I've got the beach.'

I haven't been to a gym here. I've got the beach. I run barefoot along Carlisle Bay beach or on my own beach at Alleyne's Bay, where I can jog all the way to Mullin's Bay. The west coast has lots of long stretches of firm-sand beach, perfect for long walks or quick runs.

Lot's of Bajans workout after work. If they don't happen to live near the beach, you can see folks power walking, running or biking along the highway. It looks odd and seems dangerous, but the highway gives one an open stretch of pavement on which to get in the exercise time. If you're driving at dusk in Barbados, be cautious of the exercising crowd.

Creative Commons Flickr photo is by johncooke.