Barbados Life: Huffman Edwards takes World Rally Championship Ladies' Cup

Husband: I watched you on Find Friends (Find My) while you were driving. Looks like you stopped for awhile outside of the school?

Me: Oh yeah, I had to stop and wait for a goat to move out of the road and then a chicken.

This was an actual dialogue exchange. 

Driving in Barbados has been an adventure to say the least. It feels like rally car driving in an urban setting. The two major highways are in fair shape but the side roads are a force to be reckoned with where there are always spots of construction, erosion, and then there's the added obstacle of livestock.

I didn't drive for the first few weeks. Husband is a great driver and I like to do a little recon before I venture into something dangerous. So I remained a passenger for a bit. Also, they drive on the left side of the road and you sit on the right side of the car. I felt I needed time to wrap my head around That.

So the above exchange was on my first adventure, out on my own. I don't actually drive with my husband as a passenger because he does a lot of gasping and inhaling and grabbing that handle above the door. I am literally driving like 30mph but that's fine. 

In my inauguration outing I was dropping off our youngest to school. While not that far, you would think I am driving into the depths of the Congo with the condition of some of the roads and the things that I come across which makes the what should be a 20 minute drive more of a 45 minute drive. 

Coming from the school for instance, there is a tree that protrudes into the main road in front of the school that I have to skirt around and I'm fairly certain if measured, the road is not made for two cars to pass. The road leading to that road is concourse G and C (goat and chicken respectively) that I referenced above. Not sure why there are a large number of goats and chickens here. This neighborhood I also believe was not made to 'drive through' since the windy roads are so tight that I have to pull over to let the oncoming car pass. The road leading to that road while more roomy, has several pedestrians and is also curvy- so watching your turns and not hitting someone can be a delicate maneuver. I like where these two roads meet though. There is a gentlemen who stands on the corner who is usually doing his morning workout (seems to consist of mostly lunges and stretches) that helps direct you since the corner is blind. I actually don't even look anymore I just look to him to give me the "Go" motion. I find him quite helpful and always wave/double honk a thank you as I pass (I talk more about honking later).  After this point you are still not quite in the clear as the next road has no shoulder but has a nice buffer rock wall with vegetation where you can hear the branches hitting the sideview mirror sometimes as you round the corners. That's how close it is. 

After I successfully navigate all of this, my next obstacle are often the coconut salesmen. Located on the side of the road, any road, they typically have a small canopy over a folding table where they are selling coconuts and coconut water. If you want to purchase said coconut water, you are lucky if you find one of these vendors positioned at an optimal pull-over spot on the road. So instead, people stop. Just stop. Sometimes they pull over a smidge and if you are lucky there isn't oncoming traffic and you can go around but most of the time, you have to stop and wait for either the person in front of you who is purchasing coconut water, or for the coconut salesman to go back across the street.

There is a lot of that here too- pedestrian courtesy. Which I think is great, but it takes some getting used to. From our part of the US, we stop for people only if they are lying in the road or if there is already a light. So the courtesy here is if you see someone waiting to cross the street, you stop and wave them to cross. It can be anywhere mind you. Sometimes there is a cross walk but most of the time not. It can be on the local streets or even the highway.

Animals along the road are common in a lot of countries but I think the thing that always gets me is how they are In the road or just Part of the traffic.  Just the other day a herd of goats was walking down the highway, unattended mind you, but all seem to be moving with purpose. On another day, as we entered the main highway, we noticed a mother cow and baby cow making their way along the shoulder out of the ravine. This was a Main highway. A Cow. I took a million pictures as if this was the sacred holy cow of Barbados but everyone else just gently veered around the ambivalent bovine. 

My favorite are the monkeys. Much like my affinity for deer when we were States' side, I never grow tired of seeing the monkeys. They are quite cheeky though as the phrase would indicate. Our dog is not a fan and they are known for teasing dogs which I think he's aware of. So we keep a safe distance when out walking and when driving we only have to stop from time to time for these guys as they seem a bit more aware of their surroundings. 

If we are not avoiding livestock or coconut salesmen, then you are almost required to initiate your rally car skills and show your prowess in traversing the pothole landscape. 

This seems straight forward- see a pothole, drive around it. But there are several factors in play here, one is that there is not usually just one pothole. They can come in a series or are just spread out in some random pattern, making navigation almost deadly. These are not your Virginia city potholes, they are no-joke, flat tire making, axle breaking potholes. As referred to earlier, many roads are just two lanes without any shoulder, so it's just you - and the oncoming traffic. And those people are also trying to avoid a pothole, goat, chicken, coconut salesman. So it's like you are constantly playing chicken (no pun intended) with oncoming traffic, hoping they will divert back to their side of the road or that you can get back to your side of the road before you collide into a fiery ball. 

I don't think that has every happened but that is what is in my head.

This is especially intimidating with buses. They have three kinds, a white bus (looks like a large van), a yellow bus (looks like a small school bus), and a large blue bus (looks like a city bus from NY city). The last one is probably the most intimidating as it takes up most of the road and is not as quick to maneuver as the others. The yellow ones are a close second as these drivers have no fear and drive double the speed limit. These are our future rally car champions. I find myself naturally leaning to the left when I drive. Not sure if that is really going to save me in the chance a bus shaves off my sideview mirror.

I mentioned how all of this is done on what us American's would say 'the wrong side of the road' which takes some getting used to but I think the more crucial thing is as I just mentioned, this is all done at breakneck speeds. My husband's strategy is to try and break these speed records I think and attempts to keep up with the Bajans and their rally car ways. I, on the other hand, am choosing life over fame and speed and mosey along at a nice pace-car speed. I don't look in my rear view mirror much anymore so as not to feel the peer pressure of my fellow rally car driver tailing me. Unlike what the title of this blog indicates, I will not be winning any championships anytime soon.

The best thing about driving in Barbados has been the honking. There is a lot of it, but it's very rarely someone who is angry or mad at you. People will honk to let you into traffic. People honk to thank the person who let them in (hence my honking to my traffic director near the school). People honk if they see a coconut salesman they know. People honk at the bus driver who they know. The bus driver honks back to what seems everyone. It is literally happy honking. I think it's all the sunshine that makes everyone just so jubilated.

I know what you are thinking- where could you possibly find Zen in all of this? Letting it all go? Yes partly, but I think the biggest ideal that is very Zen is going with the flow and having faith in how this all works. I didn't mention it, but I have seen only two accidents in the 3 months that we have been here. I can't say the same for when I was back home. I drive safe and I keep faith that the other car also is not wanting to come into a head on collision with me. It's Risky Zen I think, but it's still Zen.