Barbados is wonderful place. Such good-natured souls, a low crime rate, a fabulous climate, beauty all around, and, if not everything, then most of what a city girl like me needs to be comfortable. What Barbados may lack in department and upscale grocery stores it makes up for in creative business endeavors that tickle me to pieces. To wit:
Barbados: Need a Taxi? cheap all inclusive holidays in Barbados How About an Undertaker?
1. A combination taxi/funeral business. Located in St Michael, Bryan's Taxi Car & Funeral Service can either help you get around ... or leave for good.
2. The mattress so-called "factory." I was told to go directly to the factory to get some window seats cushions I wanted cut. Isn't a factory a building or group of buildings in which goods are manufactured? This one was a clearing in the country with a pile of foam, a man, and a saw. The chickens running around - what were they, factory workers? (No matter. I left with my window seat cushions and a new definition for an old word.)
3. The under-the-tree mechanics surrounded by cars they can't or haven't gotten around to repairing.
4. The mobile vendors. Usually of Indian descent, these folks sell clothes and household items from their cars to people living in the countryside of Barbados. They often offer a payment plan of a $1-down-$1-a-week.
5. Sno-cone sellers. Sno-cone push-carts are a welcome sight on a hot day when a cup of ice drowned in sugary-sweet syrup hits the spot. With or without condensed milk added.
Barbados: Kite-Makers and Relaxed Book Sellers
6. The used-book seller on Hwy 7 across from Accra Beach who is either ultra laid back or catatonic. Customers browse the handful of books that are not arranged in any particular order while the owner sits at a small desk reading. I want to shake this gentle soul until he sees he needs to organize the books, keep the stock fresh, and engage customers, most of them tourists, in conversation. On the other hand, maybe he has the right idea: read the day away.
7. The 9 to 9 grocery store in Quayside that's open 8 to 10.
8. The kite makers who, for the few weeks around Easter, the windiest time of year, sell their beautiful, colorful homemade kites at roadside stands.
9. Suicide transportation. They're officially called route-taxis but are more commonly known as Zed-R vans for the "ZR" designation on their license plates. They drive too fast for our laid-back culture.
10. Ice cream trucks that play "Home on the Range," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and other campy tunes. Now I know where the ice cream truck from my childhood disappeared to: He ran off to Barbados, added soft serve to his product line, and is living happily ever after in the sunshine. Smart man.
