Barbados – Oistins Fish Market

Friday April 15. On Easter Friday, they don’t serve alcohol until after sundown.

Pre-trip research and several of the locals informed us that the Oistins Fish Market was THE place to be on a Friday night. It turns out it’s also the ONLY place to be, as everything else is closed for the Easter holiday. Easter closures also meant we were forced to spend the day at the beach. I know, I know. But we struggled through. Beach days are kind of blending together now, but for probability’s sake, let’s just say we went snorkeling around the breakwater (now believed to have been built by our mafia neighbour Michael Tabor), swam in the ocean, and played in the waves. Seems right.

This may also have been the day that Dave and I snorkeled out to a sunken wreck to check it out. Lots of assorted boats and catamarans anchor there each day so that people can explore, but it’s also close enough to our resort that we could fairly safely swim out. The ship wreck turned out to be a sunken barge, less thrilling than anticipated. However, there were many, many schools of fish that would swim all around us and that was wonderful!

With nothing else to do, we decided to take the local bus down to Oistins to get there a bit early and look around. There are two kinds of buses in Barbados. The “fancy” buses, which are air conditioned and do not give change for the fare, and the “party” buses, which play music, and also provide change. These are the details that were provided by the resort concierge. We picked the party bus because a) it arrived first and b) party! Jeff was convinced we would end up sitting beside locals carrying live chickens (his experience in past travels), and although there were no live chickens, he wasn’t far off. But it was an adventure and we saw a lot of Bridgetown and Oistins alons the way.

The fish market and surrounding area didn’t actually warrant an early arrival, but we made the best of it. We walked out onto the pier and saw turtles swimming (important to note, as tomorrow we will be shut out vis a vis the turtle viewing). We watched a monkey steal peppers from a food vendor.

We wandered through market kiosks that varied from selling dollar store crap to lovely sun dresses and leather sandals. As we walked around, dozens of people tried to lure us to their food trucks. Eventually we settled on some grilling place and had the most amazing food for dinner! Dave and I had grilled barracuda (delicious!!!!) while Jeff and Andi had mahi mahi. Because we are old, we left before the fish market party really kicked it up.

The one way trip on the bus was sufficient, so we cabbed back and ended up with chatty Cathy as our driver. First she mocked us for staying in the “quiet” (aka boring) part of Barbados and took us on several side trips to show us where the parties would be happening. Then she drove us past the house that Rhianna grew up in. After the Rhianna home tour, she spend the rest of the trip (about 25 mins) carrying on about whether Rhianna was true to her roots, or a sell out, and whether she betrayed her friend “Chantal” by stepping into her spotlight out of turn. I have lots of “facts” about Rhianna now, give me a call if you ever want a download.

Back at our quiet and boring resort, there was finally a piano player for the evening entertainment, and he was a fantastic piano player. However he ruined it by also singing. Or rather “singing”. There is an actual piano bar at the resort, but it’s sadly closed due to Covid because the space is too small for regulations.