I recently had the privilege of spending a few days on the lovely island of Barbados.

I found the island to be somewhat similar to Cayman in terms of development and friendly people, it is however a much bigger island and also much further from Miami (a 3.5h flight) that I expected. Although I did not have a lot of time, I did get some time at the beach and to see a few local attractions.

First up, the beach near my hotel.  Very nice.

This was my favorite part on the beach.  Starting just a few hundred feet from my hotel, there was a boardwalk that was +-1/2mile long.  Awesome for an early morning jog.  Actually, at 6am this boardwalk was already full of walkers and runners enjoying the scenery.  I cant blame them.

View from the restaurant where I had lunch with some work colleagues.   Great view.

Did you know that the first rum ever produced (invented?) was from Barbados? I certainly did not.  Well, it turns out that the Mount Gay Rum company, which produces its rum entirely in Barbados started production in 1703. We got a nice visit of the facilities one evening as organized by our local office. Very nice.

Of course, we got to taste the various types of rum ; the main difference of the different types are the age/color.  When tasting them back to back you can really tell the difference.  That was some strong stuff 🙂

Finally, an evening at Bert’s sports bar. This place is owned by Eugene Melnyk, a Canadian expat who is also the owner of the Ottawa Senators hockey team.   There are TV’s all over the place to see the hockey games.  I was lucky enough to go on an evening where my home team, the Montreal Canadians were playing ; it was definitely “Hockey Night in Barbados” with nachos, pizza and local beer!  Awesome