Barbados

Another glorious sunny day with white sand beaches along the turquoise Caribbean Sea greeted Celebrity Eclipse to Barbados, the easternmost island in the misguidedly named West Indies.

Calling the natives "Indians" might not have been as silly as it seems now, because the ancestors of diminutive Arawaks are conjectured to have been Asian pioneers who crossed a frozen land bridge to Alaska and then proceeded down through North America to what is now Venezuela.  From there, Arawaks paddled long dugout canoes through the Caribbean Sea to the West Indies.  Obviously, this wasn't a weekend trip, and the migration probably took several generations.

Then again, by the time Europeans "discovered" this New World, the bigger and more violent Caribs had conquered and in some cases probably eaten the Arawaks.

That's just the beginning of an ugly history belied by the natural beauty of the region.

While the Portuguese had originally founded the island, in 1625 Captain John Powell planted the British flag and claimed Barbados for King James I of England.  In 1627, an English colony was established.  Somewhere along the line, the native Caribbeans ceased to exist in any significant number in Barbados, as the culture clash engulfed them as it had some other indigenous peoples in Latin America.

It's not possible, however, to fairly judge any historical era based on Western Civilization standards of today.  Slavery had been a fate for conquered peoples throughout history.  You may be surprised to learn that the first slaves imported to Barbados were not black but rather indentured Irish "Redlegs," who got their nickname because their fair skin burned and blistered while working long days in fields under the unrelenting Barbadian sun.

It wasn't long before manpower with natural pigmentation better suited for the tropics arrived.  Unfortunate Africans who had been captured in wars and enslaved by conquering African tribes were sold to Europeans to slave in their labor-intensive sugarcane fields.

By 1720, its sugarcane dominance had waned, replaced by more productive fields in much larger Jamaica and the Leeward Islands, but the easternmost location of Barbados made it a natural first stop for slave traders.  Barbados had become the unofficial capital for that unsavory but burgeoning business.

About thirty years before President Abraham Lincoln declared all slaves to be free in the United States, the British eliminated slavery in Barbados, with a transitional four year "apprenticeship" requiring "only" 45 hours per week of work in exchange for a free place to live, followed by complete freedom.

Despite the fact that 90% of Barbados citizens are descendants of British slaves, upon gaining full independence in 1966, Barbados chose to remain part of the British Commonwealth.  Ergo, our cruise had actually gone from the Kingdom of the Netherlands to a country whose monarch is Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.  And just in case that makes you think we must have been close to Europe, see the map of the West Indies below.

Sugarcane and its alcohol derivative rum remain important exports for Barbados, but the most lucrative industries for the wealthiest country in the Eastern Caribbean are now offshore banking and tourism. Those industries have brought Barbadians the highest per capita income in Latin America.

Did we spend a lot of time in Barbados worrying about the cruelty of the past and contemplating how it somehow resulted in its population descended from African slaves now earning 50 to 70 times as much as present day West Africans descended from the tribal conquerors who originally sold their ancestors into bondage?

No.

Our taxi driver brought us to Payne's Bay, where he assured us we would find good snorkeling, possibly seeing turtles

After securing a lounge chair and umbrella from our driver's friend on the beach, Julie took the first snorkeling swim, and sure enough she saw a turtle right away.

We enjoyed another day swimming with denizens of the offshore shallows (brightly colored tropical fish, not bankers) and lounging on the beach.

I should say that the average cruiser visiting Barbados might want to take advantage of one of the many wonderful shore excursions, of which Barbados may offer more choices than any island in the Caribbean.

On a future trip, I definitely want to tour Harrison's Cave, a natural limestone cavern with stalagmites and stalactites, making it a rather unique attraction in the Caribbean.  Those who went there described it as awesome, but then again, a shady spot on Payne's Bay is how most people imagine Barbados when they're daydreaming on a seemingly endless work day.