Castries Market: THE MANGO VARIETIES and the big fruit haul back to Rodney Bay

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I’ll be honest and say that I was disappointed with the Cheapside Market in Bridgetown, Barbados, we visited on our first full day. I was hoping to see lots of different vendors selling specialized fruit and vegetables, but in the end, almost every vendor was selling the exact same spread. No one specialized in a handful of fruits or vegetables seemingly. A lot of the vegetables were wilted or rotting so badly that I wondered how they sold anything to anyone; would they even use these produce that looked so limp? And almost none of them sold any interesting fruit. Maybe three sold the same type of mango (mango longue). So when I read about Castries Market here in the capital of St. Lucia, Castries, it sounded like it would be what I was hoping for: a market with rows and rows of vendors specializing in very specific fruits and vegetables. As soon as we arrived this morning at the market, I knew I was going to be happy. The spreads were quite elaborate and extremely fresh: lots of dasheen (taro!) and root vegetables sold by one vendor, greens (lots of callaloo) by another, mangoes, papayas, and related tropical fruits by another. I knew for sure I’d find the right vendor to get me all I was thinking about and more: multiple varieties of mango, passion fruit, and if we got lucky, guava. And if I could find a new fruit to obsess over, my mind and belly were open to it.

So we stumbled upon one vendor who looked like she had everything we could possibly ask for: three varieties of mango (Julie, Graham, and Mango Longue), starfruit (a surprise for Kaia, as I knew she’d get a kick from seeing fruit in a perfect star shape), passion fruit, and multiple varieties of tropical bananas. And all the fruit were organized by ripeness. She had a large tray at the front of her stand where all the ripe, ready-to-eat-today fruits were grouped together by type. All the fruit that needed time to ripen before eating were in huge piles in the back. So, I kind of went to town on her fruit, but in piecemeal because I was so overwhelmed by the variety that I would miss something else she had that we would like. We bought four Julie mangoes, three fat Graham mangoes, one mango longue, one starfruit, two small red bananas, and seven fat, heavy passion fruit. We SCORED BIG at this market today!! This place was definitely my vibe and the produce market I was dreaming about experiencing while in the Caribbean.

Here are the Castries Market prices for our incredibly happy fruit haul (which we hope made our fruit vendor very happy that she got an unexpectedly big sale from us!):

Julie mangoes: four for 3 XCD

Graham mangoes: three for 4 XCD

One mango longue for 1.25 XCD

One starfruit for 2 XCD

Seven FAT, heavy passion fruit for 10 XCD

Two mini red bananas for 2 XCD

So in total for a very heavy load of the most beautiful, delicious fruit on earth (and with special gratitude to my fuzzball for carrying this very heavy load for a while all over town!), we spent $22.25 XCD, or about $8.23 USD. If that is what heaven costs, then heaven here is quite a good bargain!!

We had a very juicy, custardy, desserty evening with our mangoes and passion fruit tonight. I was so, so full after dinner and about half this fruit (the other half is being saved for our last day tomorrow before we leave!), but all of us were glowing from how complex and delicious these mangoes were. I can’t believe it took us this long to try the fruit from this part of the world. The closest mangoes we’ve had to this region before this trip have been from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Kaia especially loves the Graham mango and kept going crazy for more bites of it. This is how I know she will embrace food: she names the exact varietal she loves!

“I want the Graham! I WANT THE GRAHAM!” Kaia kept shouting excitedly as I hurried to slice yet another chunk of mango off the skin for her to eat.

And we all know Chris really, really embraced these mangoes because for the first time in my entire life, he actually started using his teeth to take every last bit of mango flesh off the inside of the skin. “You leave too much on the skin otherwise,” he insisted, as he continued his toothy mango eating. Usually in the U.S., I peel the ataulfos or Kents we get, but this was true dedication on his part!

Here is a description of each of the three mango varieties for drooling purposes only:

Julie mango: This is the mango that was talked up by people we spoke with in Barbados and here. It’s the famous “Caribbean favorite” mango, usually more on the small side, a little flat/oblong, and like a lopsided oval. The skin color changes but can be green-yellow to yellow-orange-red. The flesh is deep yellow to deep orange and the flavor is creamy, juicy, extremely fragrant, floral, tropical, and very tangy.


Graham mango: Chris’s mango palate is quite discerning, as when we cut the mangoes this evening, he immediately said that the Graham was the “partying version of the Julie.” He was right in that Graham is actually a Julie seedling from Trinidad, so the two are related. But these Grahams are significantly larger and more rounded and oval than a Julie. It ripens to be a deep orange/yellow with some pink/red. The flesh is rich, aromatic, sweet, dessert like. The flavor is multi-noted. A description I read about Graham said that it can be considered “Julie’s larger, slightly more robust cousin: still fragrant and dessert-like, but often less sharply tangy/floral than the best Julies.”

Mango longue/ Mango long: We first had two of these in Barbados. These are small, elongated, narrow, and have a citrusy, sweet-tart flavor, and are extremely fibrous. They are juicy, so juicy that the juices will run down your arms when eating them at their peak!  

In addition to all this fruit we hauled back (on Chris’s shoulder), at Castries Market, we also tried “cherry” juice, or acerola fruit juice, which was orange in color and a lot more citrusy than the bing cherries we are used to in the U.S.. We also bought and shared a golden apple ice pop. Golden apple is also known as a June plum or pommecythere; it looks nothing like any apple you’d find in the U.S. and looks more like a plumcot. It tastes like a mix of apple, mango, pineapple, with a citrusy finish. Both treats were delicious and added to our list of new fruits and varietals we’ve enjoyed on this trip!

Now I know that even if I don’t see the best produce markets on the Grenada or Trinidad legs of our trip that my heart and belly have been satiated with fresh, local, tropical fruit here in St. Lucia. And now when I think about it, why would you choose to come here when it’s NOT mango season…?!! What a true loss that would be!

Soufriere, St. Lucia, and its treasure: Les Pitons

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I told a colleague originally from St. Lucia that we would be visiting his birthplace, and he said that the one thing he recommended we had to do was to visit Soufriere, a town on the southwest coast of St. Lucia. Soufriere, which has strong French-Creole heritage, is near the famous Pitons, Gros Pitons and Petit Piton, the twin volcanic peaks that appear in almost every St. Lucia tourism ad. The name “Soufriere” comes from French and is named as such for the area’s sulfurous volcanic landscape. “Les Pitons” in French means “mountain peaks” or “pegs.” In English, they are another word for “metal spikes.” Given that St. Lucia changed hands between the British and the French 14 times, seven times to each side, ending with the Brits, you can easily see the British and French influence here. Because of this turbulent colonial tug-of-war, St. Lucia earned the nickname “Helen of the West Indies.” The French influence clearly persists in the island country given the naming of places like Les Pitons and Soufriere itself. But alas, while “Soufriere” pronounced the proper French way would be said “Su-free-AIR,” the British (and lazier) pronunciation of “Su-FRAIR” is more widely said by locals.

So today, we hired a driver to take us down the twisty, windy “hair pin bendy” roads to Soufriere. Everywhere we went, there were mango trees upon mango trees upon MORE mango trees. I just couldn’t get over how many mango trees there were everywhere. I’d never been any place quite like this before! It seemed like they just grew out in the wild and no one person even owned a lot of these trees. Some are so tall and gigantic that you’d never even be able to reach even a tiny fraction of the fruit available! And when there weren’t mango trees, there were bread fruit trees, more bread fruit trees, and endless other fruits like papaya, gooseberry, guavas, wax apples, and the list just goes on forever!

Along the way, we stopped at some really well staked out viewing points of the Pitons and Anse La Ray (Bay of Stingrays), had some delicious local tastes of hand-pounded cassava bread (cherry-raisin and pineapple, the latter of which Chris declared “tastes just like a hot cross bun without the raisins!”), also visited Toraille Waterfall (overrun by cruise ship tourists and was our first time really feeling like we were surrounded by other tourists this trip!), and did a quick tour of the Sulphur Springs. It’s described as the Caribbean’s only “drive-in volcano,” but that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. You can drive up to the edge of the area, and then you have to get out and walk around it. You are also assigned to a guide… who expects a tip at the end (damn U.S. tipping culture invading other societies!). When doing the tour here, of course the smell of rotten eggs was pervasive. As soon as we got out of the car, Kaia yelled out, “It smells!” The area also had lots of fruit trees, including a fruiting mango tree and a fruiting cashew tree. I’d imagine these trees’ fruit would be especially delicious!

For lunch with the help of ChatGPT premium and my targeted prompting, we went to Martha’s Tables just off Sugar Beach in Soufriere, a little quaint open-air restaurant that feels like you are eating on a huge deck of someone’s private home. They had a large, lush backyard filled with so many types of fruits and vegetables that I couldn’t even name them all. When we complimented our server and said we loved the garden (which we have to walk through to reach the restrooms), she went into the kitchen to tell the chef (maybe Martha?), and the chef came out eagerly to give us a mini tour of her garden, filled with guavas, pomegranates, golden apples (also known as June plums), wax apples, and so may pineapple bushes! None of the fruit were ready for picking except the wax apples, so the chef picked off a large bunch of the wax apples, and to my surprise, gave them all to Kaia! Kaia was ecstatic; she kept squealing nonstop every time she came across yet another pineapple bush! The meal and setting were amazing, but this level of warmth and hospitality was truly above and beyond. We left feeling very welcomed and taken care of.

Our next and final stop before heading back up to Rodney Bay was at the Tet Paul Nature Trail, where we’d go for a hike to see more views of the Pitons. The trail was originally developed as a community tourism/eco-tourism project, run and managed by the people of the town just below. Our kind and friendly driver ended up having to watch Kaia nap in the car because she passed out on our drive to the Nature Trail. This ended up benefiting us because if she had come, she would have whined endlessly about the uphill climb and how long it was (45 minutes isn’t that long, but for a four-year-old, that feels like an eternity without sitting…!).

The most interesting thing about this trail was that the entire time, it felt like I was in an open-air compost pile because of all the fallen, rotted fruit (mostly mangoes!) that were everywhere. There was so much fruit, too much fruit, that no one could ever keep up with all this. While the smell stunned me a little in the beginning, after a while, it actually just felt nice, like we were truly immersed in nature. And along with all the beautiful bird songs, it felt very special. The trail also had many other fruit, like the locally beloved wax apples and bread fruit. And we got really lucky when we saw not one, but two different Antillean crested hummingbirds. I have loved birds since I was little, likely due to the influence of my dad who loves birds, and whenever I see a new, colorful species out in the wild, I always get excited. These little hummingbirds are a stunning blue and green irridescent shade with some black, and most notably have a funny tuff of “hair” on their heads. The hair almost looks like a bumpy mohawk! One of them posed for us for what seemed like a very long time, and our guide (as with the volcano, a guide was required here) noted that it is actually very rare to see these hummingbirds; often he will go weeks with multiple tours and not see any. So the fact that we got to see two was very, very special.

When we finally reached the pinnacle of the trail, known as the “Stairway to Heaven,” we got to see the sweeping views of the Gros Piton et Petit Piton we had originally come for. We also got to see different angles of Sugar Beach, Jalousie Bay, and the south coast. After this hike and all the spectacular views we saw today, I can understand why people love St. Lucia and think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Some people like mountains, while others prefer the beach and ocean. And for those who don’t like either, they have rainforests. St. Lucia has it all — and in a single view point and region!

On the 1.75 hours drive back to our hotel, I still admired all the mango trees we passed by every other second. I know that soon, this will not be my view out the window, and so I want to soak it all up as much as possible. Mango. Trees. Everywhere. I was just floored. I will likely be thinking about this for months to come.

Kaia’s expanding thoughts and feelings on breastfeeding and equality

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Today was our last day in Barbados before heading to the second destination of our trip: St. Lucia. We spent the morning at the pool, switching off between three pools and one jacuzzi. I was thinking a lot about Kaia’s interesting thoughts and feelings during the trip. While showering together after the pool, she grabbed the hand-held shower head, sprayed it on each of my breasts, and yelled, “Mama! Look! I have milk! And I’m spraying it into your boobies! Now you have milk to feed me!”

She’s still talking and thinking about how she saw her little cousin H nurse, and she still thinks about how she can possibly make it work for us... today.

Kaia also has a strong desire for equality — when it suits her, that is. After a quick flight, we arrived in St. Lucia. We checked into our room this afternoon, and after a housekeeper came to make up Kaia’s sofa bed, Kaia noticed that the two pillows on her bed were smaller than ours. If I had to eyeball it, I’d say her pillows were maybe 20 to 30 percent smaller? She whined and cried, saying that she wanted to have a big pillow… just like us.

“That’s not fair!” Kaia cried. “I want the big ones, too!”

Chris would not relent and said she not only had those two pillows, but also the two throw pillows from the sofa. After crying and then quiet whimpering for some time that seemingly had no end, I decided that we had to let this go. I told her I’d trade her one of my two big pillows for her small pillow. That was when she immediately stopped crying, gave me a big hug and kiss, and finally went to sleep… with my “big” pillow directly under her head.

Each stage of development has its challenges and fun. I feel like I have to document these now because I am scared I will forget how fun and endearing hearing these types of comments is.

Harrison’s Cave, a much-known tourist attraction, and a lesser explored part of Barbados: the northern rugged coast

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Today, we rented a car for the day and explored some further away parts of the island. Barbados is known for its ubiquitous potholes. We got warned by the couple from the snorkeling cruise that we needed to keep a close lookout for them. On their very first day in Barbados, as they were just leaving the airport in their rental car for the day, they hit a pothole so badly that the rim was destroyed to the point of the car being unusable. So they had to pay for the damage and immediately go back and switch the car out. “What a great way to start our vacation!” they laughed. So, we kept their warning in mind on our day with the rental car.

The first highlight of the day was Harrison’s Cave, which is located in the central uplands of Barbados. It’s a crystallized limestone cavern carved by water over hundreds of thousands of years. The cave is known for its massive stalactites hanging from the ceilings like icicles, and its stalagmites, which grow upward from the cave floor. The cave also has beautiful (and incredibly deep!) emerald-green pools and underground waterfalls. It’s 2.3 kilometers (about 1.4 miles) and stays a humid and warm 24.5 C (76 F) year-round. Each year, the tram guide told us, each of the stalactites and stalagmites grow the thickness of a piece of paper per YEAR. It’s one of the features of Barbados that makes the island unique versus other Caribbean islands in that it was originally formed from colliding tectonic plates and thick coral limestone rather than volcanoes. The cave was formed by rainwater that dissolved this limestone. The caves were first documented in historical records in 1795 but were largely unexplored for about 180 years.

The cave was named after Thomas Harrison, a prominent landowner in the early 1700s who also founded a college on the island. Even though we’ve already been here for about four days, it still feels funny to me that the majority of tourist sights here in Barbados are named after a bunch of White people, who were likely either colonizers or slave owners themselves. The majority of Barbados’s population (over 92 percent) is of Black/African descent. Though it is good to read that the local population is recognizing how terrible this is and slowly renaming important historical sites after prominent Afro-Barbadians. One major example is Trafalgar Square, which was officially renamed National Heroes Square.

We did the tram tour, which was a bit simpler given Kaia was of course with us, and she likely would have whined and whinged endlessly if we did the longer (and much more slippery!) walking tour. What I loved the most about the cave were all extremely different shapes and sizes of the stalactites and stalagmites. Some really unique ones were pointed out, like the formation of the Great Hall (it really felt like a great big hall in a grand home), several chandelier-like formations, and stalactites that looked like real drapes and shawls. The guide warned us at the beginning of the tour that touching any of the cave formations is against Barbadian law, and we could be fined as much as $50,000 USD for just a simple touch! I will say that after seeing so many of the cave formations so close up that it was tempting to see what they felt like. They look like they could feel like a cross between jade or pearl!

The second highlight of the day was our stop at Little Bay, Pie Corner, which is located in the rugged northern parish of St. Lucy. It felt very secluded and remote. Other than one other man who was wandering the area, it was just us. There, the waves were a lot more forceful constantly crashing against the large rocks and cliffs, and the water was darker and more treacherous. Swimming is strongly advised against given how strong the currents are in this area. Here, there are also lots of interesting rock formations like sea caves and geyser-like blowholes. We also saw lots of interesting sea shells, and so many tiny little crabs hurriedly scurrying around.

Kaia fell asleep on the way to Little Bay. So instead of waking her up and dragging her out (which would have been unpleasant for all of us), we let her sleep in the car while we spent a little time exploring the little area. I picked a bunch of shells for her and presented them as a gift when we got back to the car. By that time, she had already woken up and was wondering where we went and when we’d come back. As soon as we opened the car door to see her, she had a big smile on her face to see us. I told her she missed out on seeing the teeny tiny crabs crawling around everywhere. The quick video I took of them moving around definitely amused her.

The last highlight was our stop at Tapas Restaurant, which is a short drive from our hotel and was recommended by a local we met and made small talk with at a coffee shop on our first full day. They are known for their open-air restaurant setup with great beach views, as their large selection of local rums from Foursquare Rum Distillery, an internationally awarded maker of rum. Chris tried two rums: one was a Clifton Hall Great House, made in a bourbon cask, and the second was an R.L. Seale 10-year aged in former bourbon casks. I enjoyed a really well made and smooth dark and stormy, likely one of the best versions of it that I’ve had.

Although rum became a thing in Barbados during the 1640s and 1650s as a byproduct of the island’s booming sugar industry, today, the majority of the rums produced on the island are not made with locally grown sugar cane. The island country just isn’t able to produce enough local molasses to meet the global demand for Barbadian rum. Barbados produces significantly less sugar cane today due to global market shifts making the industry unprofitable. The country is now restructuring its traditional sugar industry by transitioning toward rum production, specialty sugar, renewable energy, and agricultural research.

Despite its downward shift of sugar production, Barbados still continues to be recognized globally as the birthplace of rum, still operating historical sites like Foursquare Rum Distillery, Mount Gay Rum Distillery, and St. Nicholas Abbey. The Geographical Indication (GI) Rules state that every stage of production — distillation, aging, blending, and bottling — must take place entirely on the island using limestone filtered water. The laws intentionally do not restrict the origin of raw sugarcane or molasses. We did pass by many fields of sugarcane, but it still didn’t seem like it could possibly be enough given how much rum is actually still produced here.

It was a a beautiful and tasty way to end our time in Barbados, with lots of culture and learning along the way. Tomorrow, we are off to St. Lucia for another cultural experience!

On a catamaran in Barbados to see sea turtles, shipwreck, and endless colorful fish

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As soon as I read that Barbados was known for sea turtles, and there were near-guaranteed chances to see them when snorkeling, I told Chris we had to do a catamaran tour here. The last time we did a snorkeling excursion, it was in Cebu, the Phillippines, on New Year’s Day this year. We were spoiled given the exchange rate, and so we had a private boat for just the three of us. Here in Barbados, tourism (especially from Westerners) is massive, and of course they are going to capitalize on that. No one’s going to fault them for that! If you want to do a private charter for a day, it will cost close to a thousand USD! So we went with the 36-person max five-hour catamaran tour, which takes you snorkeling at two stops in Carlisle Bay. It includes a Bajan-style lunch and swimming stop near Holetown, and then we’re back to our starting point in Bridgetown.

It feels luxurious that this is the third time we are going snorkeling this year (and the fourth time in my life, after the Great Barrier Reef / Cairns, Queensland, in December 2014), but if you’re only going to be here once, you might as well dive in (literally). While one of my lifelong dreams has been to swim with dolphins, I have always wanted to see sea turtles up close, and what better way than to see them in their natural habitat in the ocean? I love wildlife, and the ocean, while terrifying to me given I have a fear of deep water and scary things that could potentially kill me (okay, the last part is a lesser fear, but you get it), has always been one of the most beautiful sights for me. I still remember my very first time snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and how surreal the coral reef was to see, and being rendered speechless by exactly how many colors are under the sea. That feeling of being in the water and seeing it all just feels magical to me.

In Carlisle Bay, there are two types of sea turtles that all catamaran cruises say you have a 98 percent chance of seeing: green(back) turtles and hawksbill turtles. Green turtles can grow up to 1.2 meters (just shy of four feet) in shell diameter and weigh over 180 kilograms (about 400 lb). These little guys eat seagrass and algae, and the greens of their diet colors their fat and cartilage, giving them their name. Hawksbill turtles, on the other hand, have shells that can be about 0.8 meters (three feet) in diameter and weigh between 45 to 80 kilograms (100-177 lb). Hawksbill turtles eat sea sponges, giving them the name “spongivores.” This diet helps coral reefs, as these turtles eat aggressive sponges that then prevent the overgrowth of coral colonies, contributing to a healthy coral reef system. Shape-wise, they have narrow, bird-like curved beaks and serrated, patterned shells. In Barbados, sea turtles are protected by law, and they have one of the largest nesting populations of this endangered species in the Caribbean. I spoke with a couple yesterday at the resort we visited, who said that just a few days before, they actually saw a sea turtle come up to their shore to lay their eggs — what a treat to be able to see that in real time!

Our cruise was really, really well run: the staff were extremely warm, friendly, hospitable, knowledgable, and hands-on. When we had our two snorkel stops, they had two crew members act as guides/helpers in the water to show us where to look for wildlife. And because Kaia was the youngest person on the boat, one of those two guys was so kind that he stayed with her (and a floatie) the entire time, which allowed Chris and me to enjoy swimming and snorkeling with more ease and on our own. We brought our own life jacket fitted for her, which she wore the whole time in the water. The cruise offered her a child-sized snorkel set, but she refused to wear it (she was probably still hating it from when we tried to get her to wear one in Cebu, and well, that one was likely malfunctioning as ours did). And when they said we were guaranteed to see sea turtles, they were not joking: during our first snorkel stop, we saw two green turtles on the very bottom of the ocean floor, which was fully clear and just endless white sand in that area. The water was extremely clear, and we could see both of the green turtles waddling around the ocean floor separately as though time did not matter.

For a while, I didn’t even really move while I was watching each of the sea turtles walk around on the ocean floor. It just felt so captivating, watching them move in slow-motion, one or two legs moving at a time. They looked so graceful, so purposeful, with fluid and effortless strides. Given that sea turtles evolved over 100 million years ago and outlived dinosaurs, I think it’s pretty clear they live steady, purposeful lives, and their swimming pace reminds all of us to slow down a little bit and to really enjoy the moment. I could probably spend hours just staring at these gentle little giants swim and waddle across the ocean floor.

While reading about sea turtles, I read this quote that stayed with me: “Watching a sea turtle swim is knowing they are following an incredible, invisible roadmap. They use the Earth’s magnetic field—an innate ability called magnetoreception—to navigate thousands of miles across open oceans to feed and return to the exact beaches where they were born.” I rely so heavily on Google Maps for everything, whether it’s trying to see how long it will take me to get from point A to point B, or just identifying where a restaurant is. I guess I will never be as intelligent as a sea turtle. The fact that sea turtles are so smart and can do this, especially the part about returning to the exact beaches where they were born, is mind-blowing.

During the second snorkel stop, we saw lots more shipwreck, coral reef growing on top of said shipwreck, and endless colorful fish. Many of them are likely the same or related to the colorful fish we saw in Roatan and Cebu, except this time, I definitely know I saw a handful of different parrot fish that were even more than all the colors of the rainbow. I saw lots of scorpion-like fish, endless varieties of angelfish, sergeant majors (just like in Roatan!), and many schools of blue tang fish, which were like dark blue florescent fish with rounded flat bodies and cute little tails. We also got to see THE fish in Barbados, which are the flying fish (very popular for eating, as well. We had these, breaded and fried, at the Trini rum and roti shop we ate at during our first full day in Barbados). They really do “fly” out of water in packs. If a crew member hadn’t pointed them out to us, I barely would have noticed them. They almost looked like little darts coming out of the water in very specific semi-circle patterns. And because of their color, they blend into the water and you need to really look for them.

We also got warned several times to stay away from a certain area of coral, where it got shallower and there was plenty of fire coral. After my Roatan incident of getting my butt burned by what appeared to be dead coral, I will heed those warnings and stay TF away.

Kaia loved being on the boat. She enjoyed being doted on by crew members, being in the water, and fighting over foam noodles with her mama (i did not quite enjoy this, but, well…). She enjoyed the outing so much that she actually ended up napping out on the catamaran (on Chris)! Pookster even attracted the attention of a younger couple just finishing up med school who are planning to have kids soon. They kept raving about how cute and good she was being (even though she had several tantrums and they witnessed first hand her fight with me in the water). We told her the next time we’re out in open water again, she needs to try to put her head in the water so she can actually see the fish and the sea animals. I was bummed she didn’t get to see the sea turtles, as I know for a fact she would have loved them. She’s an animal lover like me after all, so I know she’d get a kick out of seeing these beautiful, graceful gentle giants. I guess there is always next time.

The “dine around” exchange program and the unexpected brand-new swimsuit

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While in Barbados, we’re staying at a south coast all-inclusive resort, which is part of Marriott and their Tribute Portfolio collection of hotels. While in flight to Barbados, Chris looked up additional benefits and perks of staying here, and he found out that we could get access to what is called the “Dine Around” Exchange Program. This means that guests can utilize the “dine around” option at other participating Marriott resorts on the island. So this would not only give us (free/included) access to other properties and their food/drink/amentiies, but also give us an opportunity to enjoy a different part of Barbados. So we chose a hotel to visit today that was on the east coast, which is supposed to have calmer, more child-friendly beaches.

While we had to pay for our transport to get to the second hotel, all our food and drink would be included at this property, so the Uber would be the only real extra expense of the day. And it was really nice to see another part of the coast and see how a sister property was laid out. Of course, Kaia was thrilled to know she was having a full pool/beach day. She went back and forth between the white sand beach with calm, crystal-clear waters back into the east coast hotel’s pools, which were better situated than our hotel’s given that they directly overlooked the beach the way they did at our Roatan hotel last month. We ended up befriending a couple from Edison, New Jersey, and their daughter, who was born 11 months before Kaia. So they played together as we all had our own separate adult conversations.

One funny thing that ended up happening was that while we were on the beach with G and her mom, Kaia suddenly started scratching her crotch area and tried to take off her rashie/swimsuit. I asked her what was wrong, and she said the swimsuit was hurting her leg. G’s mom was so thoughtful that she eagerly offered to give Kaia one of G’s own brand-new swimsuits given she said she overpacked and probably wouldn’t need all the swimsuits anyway. She went a short distance back to their room and brought out a really cute turquoise and white one-piece swimsuit with a big bow on it — so new that it still had its tags on. Kaia happily took off her rashie, put on G’s swimsuit, and went back to splashing.

When it was time for all of us to go, I dried the swimsuit off as much as I could and tried to hand it back to G’s mom, and she insisted that we keep it because they didn’t need it due to having too many swimsuits for G, and they would be leaving in a couple days anyway. I was floored and just in shock.

“You have so much more of your trip to go, so it can’t hurt to have an extra swimsuit for her,” G’s mom insisted to me. “It’s really nothing! I got it from Target!! It’s not like I gave you a Burberry swimsuit or anything…”

I told her it wasn’t about the cost; in most cases of generosity, money has little to do with it. In these and in so many cases I’ve experienced with Kaia, it’s truly about the gesture itself, the selflessness to offer a swimsuit to a child you do not even know when you can see she’s uncomfortable and you know you have an extra one… and then to just let them keep it! We were total strangers who met just hours before, and she was giving one of her daughter’s brand new swimsuits away — who cares that it’s from Target! To be honest, I am not totally sure that if I were in her shoes that I would have done the same thing. And so when I think about cases like this, it just makes me realize how truly kind other people really can be. Being a mama to my Kaia Pookie opens my eyes to that fact every single day.

Culture in the Caribbean Islands

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As long as I’ve lived in New York, I’ve been surrounded by colleagues, ex-colleagues, and friends who are regular vacationers in the Caribbean islands. The most common Caribbean destinations that Americans go to are Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (simply due to not requiring a passport since they are technically part of the U.S.). But the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, Aruba, and St. Lucia are also high on my anecdotal list of working and living in New York City for the last 18 years. Before this trip (and technically Roatan, Honduras, since the Bay islands that Roatan is part of is technically in the Caribbean), the last time Chris and I had been anywhere in the Caribbean was in November 2012 when we went to Puerto Rico for Thanksgiving. What I can definitively say is that no one I’ve ever known who has visited any island in the Caribbean has ever come back telling me about the rich cultures and their unique foods that they experienced and learned about. Most Americans aren’t going to these places for a culture trip; they’re going to relax, escape work and their usual day-to-day lives, and hang out by a tropical white sand beach or pool. Many are staying at resorts, some all-inclusive, and may never leave said resort (or resort network). Before I used to think this was silly, to spend all that money and time to fly all the way down to the Caribbean just to stay on a single property the entire time and not actually experience anything new. But my opinion on this has changed over the years (I’m trying…): people obviously travel for different reasons, and demanding jobs/stressful lives may leave you so drained that you just do not want to put in the work (yes, it’s really work!) to meticulously plan a trip. So you spend money on the all-in-one packages to reduce the mental load and just give your mind and body a break for a few days or a week. I finally started getting this in my mid-30s, and now that I have a child and am 40, I definitely empathize.

However, I will say that it’s still a miss to overlook that each of these Caribbean islands has a distinct culture with its own histories and traditions. Barbados, for one, is supposed to be the most “British Caribbean” of the four islands we are visiting on this trip, but its identity is very much Bajan, rooted in West African and European history. Barbados was colonized by the British from the early 17th century, with an intense (and inhumane…) sugar plantation system. From that, to this day rum is still in heavy production here; the most premium rum, as with many other countries, gets exported out of the country to places like the U.S. and the U.K. For food here, flying fish is one of the most popular fish to eat. Fish cakes, fish cutters (fried fish sandwiches), pudding and souse, rich and peas, macaroni pie, and fish fry are also common foods. All of these foods have multicultural influence from the English/Irish, West African, East Indian, and the indigenous Taino people.

While I enjoy beaches and nice hotel pools, it’s hard for me to imagine traveling to any place and not trying to experience some local culture. One thing I’ve noticed in our short time in Barbados is how much Trinidadian and Jamaican food influence there is here. It feels like a pan-Caribbean vibe every which way we turn. Barbados gets lots of people coming into their country for work and study from other parts of the Caribbean, and a good number of those people are coming from Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. More and more Trini and Jamaican style food trucks seem to be opening up in Barbados, likely due to the demand from Jamaicans and Trinis who have temporarily or permanently relocated here. Jamaican food is prevalent here because it has one of the Caribbean’s strongest global food brands, with dishes like jerk, patties, oxtail, curry goat, rice and peas, and Scotch-bonnet-heavy hot sauces instantly understood and widely enjoyed.

I love learning these types of things — these are things I never would have known unless I came here. This is not a part of the world I’ve ever had high on my travel list, but now that I am here, I’m learning as much as I can about the local and very distinct cultures of each place, and I love it.

Off to the Caribbean (again)

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There are lots of good things about having Juneteenth recognized as a federal holiday in the U.S. For the obvious reason, it celebrates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the U.S. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the last enslaved people in the state were free. The sad part about this is that through the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in January 1863, so over a year and a half earlier, it wasn’t until the end of the Civil War in 1865 that the Union Army could enforce this in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas. Concealment of the Emancipation Proclamation was no longer possible after June 19, 1865.

Since former President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, that means that now, I can get a total of four summer holiday days off from work: Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Labor Day (I never complain about having another day off or holiday). Memorial Day and Labor Day mark the beginning and end of summer for me (at least, mentally speaking), and now Juneteenth can be the beginning of our annual summer trip. Kaia ended Pre-K yesterday, so today is the official start of her summer! Today, we left early in the morning for a direct flight to the first of four islands on our Caribbean trip: Barbados! We’re so used to connecting somewhere during our trips that it felt like a little luxury to be able to fly directly from New York to Bridgetown today. We arrived just past noon and arrived at our hotel, which is the very first all-inclusive resort experience we’ve ever had. This means that all food, drink, and activities onsite are included. It even includes things like made-to-order coffee, the mini bar items in the rooms, the onsite ice cream parlor, any and all meals onsite, as well as the kids club, which runs activities for children age 4 and up from 9am to 9pm every day (and acts as an onsite, included childcare center).

We’re not really relax-at-resort people and never have been, so this is a different experience for us hotel-wise. Before Kaia, we may have used our hotel pools a few times, but that was really it. At a resort we stayed at in Cancun when Kaia was about 1.5, we did have a good amount of pool time, but that was balanced with exploring the real Cancun outside of the tourist area, driving around the Yucatan, and seeing Chichen Itza. We’re interested in local culture and food, and we’re definitely seeking to get that — off property. It was funny for me to hear about things like all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks included, including specialty coffee drinks, and an ice cream parlor, though. I am used to hearing ridiculous costs for at-hotel food and drink items.

So while we did have drinks and lunch at the resort today, as we approached dinner time, we took an Uber to Oistin’s Fish Fry, which is in an area that was originally an old fishing village turned into a fun hangout for both locals and tourists alike. Oistin’s Fish Market is just steps away from the Fish Fry area, and it’s a true Barbados institution. Oistin’s stretches along the water with multiple little bungalow-like buildings where different vendors grill and fry fish, meat, and vegetables to order, as well as local popular side dishes, like macaroni pie, rice and peas, coleslaw grilled breadfruit, and fried plantains. And of course given we’re in Barbados, there are many rum drinks and bar options everywhere. There’s a huge stage in the middle of the outdoor market area, where music was being played, live music and performances happen, and people can congregate and dance.

We ended up choosing a spot at Oistin’s called Yvonne’s Bar & Grill (my namesake has to be good, right?). After reviewing multiple vendor menus and coming to the conclusion that everyone had the exact same fish selection, almost the same sides, and all the same drinks, we figured that there was no way we could go wrong. We chose a whole grilled red snapper, which was grilled perfectly with super moist, flaky flesh, and smothered in a really delicious and addictive Bajan seafood seasoning blend. I kept licking my fingers after taking bites of the fish because the seasoning was just that good. The fish was served with coleslaw, green salad, potatoes, plantains. and grilled breadfruit.

Kaia got to have breadfruit for the very first time here, and she seemed to like it. Though to be honest, by dinner time, she was clearly so exhausted and looked like she wanted to pass out. So she may have just been eating the breadfruit mindlessly… Breadfruit is one of the funniest fruits to me in that it really is exactly as its name sounds like: it’s a very carby, starchy, “bread-like” fruit that hangs round and heavy from large trees, and is eaten like potatoes or bread would be eaten. In the Caribbean, breadfruit is usually served grilled or fried. It’s not “fruit” like you would consider something like a mango or orange at all. It’s a hundred percent savory and not the least bit sweet! It reminded me of her former Jamaican nanny, who said grilled or fried breadfruit was on regular rotation at her house. Once, she even brought a piece to share with me; that was my very first time having it. And today at Oistin’s marks my second time ever having it.

While the Caribbean islands have never been an area that has been on the top of my list of places I want to see, I do think it’s fun to see how different the culture, customs, and food are amongst all the islands. And I’m always happy to embrace the local food and fruit! After having locally caught red snapper tonight, I’m looking forward to having more local fish, including mahi mahi, flying fish, and marlin. And I will most certainly be on the lookout for interesting local fruit, and of course mangoes because it’s mango season here now!

Kaia’s last day of Pre-K and the red envelope handout

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Here in the U.S., where teachers are generally under appreciated and underpaid, especially if they are in the public system, it’s kind of semi-expected and customary to give teachers gifts, whether that is around the December holiday period, Teacher Appreciation Week, or at the end of a school year. Since this is Kaia’s last school year at this school, we thought it would be a good idea not just to give cards to her teachers and the admin, but also to the cook/cleaner, and to the doorman at her school building. They all play a part in helping the school run and thrive, and so we wanted to thank them for their support and kindness.

Given Kaia is 4.5 years old now, she knew what I was doing and that I was handing out envelopes to the teachers. And while she knew this, she didn’t mind that I was handing out the envelopes to the teachers. BUT, she insisted on handing Ah Gong, the doorman, his red envelope. So we went downstairs after signing in just to have her hand the envelope to him. Ah Gong was shocked and flattered. They gave each other high-fives, and Kaia was super excited.

Ah Gong remarked how cute, smart, and mature she was. It’s strange to think that after summer camp ends in August, we will no longer be seeing Ah Gong every day, even in just casual acquaintance. But I guess all these everyday people you have even the smallest interactions with do play some parts in your life, and their kindnesses will be remembered.

Cleaning out the fridge before travel

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Some things I always do before we leave on a trip are 1) clean out and use up all produce / perishables in the fridge/on the counter (NO WASTE), 2) clean all sinks, toilets, and bathroom/kitchen floors before we leave (to ensure I am coming home to a clean slate), and 3) run a load of laundry so that we don’t have dirty clothes on top of more dirty clothes from travel to do when we come back home. That also means clearing all our used bath and kitchen towels and ensuring all clean ones are on the racks when we get home. It’s another extra step, but it also means that when we get home, things are calmer and I don’t have to think about refreshing anything — it’s already done! I also make sure all the trash bins are cleared out and lined with new plastic bags — no one wants rotting trash in their house while they’re gone!

One thing that is slightly different this time when preparing to be away for about two weeks is that Chris decided it would be a good idea to have about a dozen Ataulfo mangoes and a pineapple our last week in town. All the mangoes started ripening at the same time, along with a very, very ready pineapple, so I ended up peeling and cutting nine mangoes and an entire pineapple today, with three more mangoes, a kiwi, and a nectarine to go for cutting tomorrow! Whatever we do not eat (which will be the majority!) will go into a freezer-safe ziplock bag into the freezer. And that fruit will inevitably get thrown into smoothies, shakes, or popsicles for Pookie when we get back home. I usually tell Chris he has to be the fruit manager who checks on ripening fruit, but before family trips, I end up being the ultimate fruit manager doing all the manual work!