Snorkeling in Barbados, Fish, swimming with the Turtles and Fun

Snorkeling in Barbados is a fun and relaxing Activity.  My favourite location to snorkel is Payne's Bay and most weekends I am out on the reef swimming among the fish. On a few occasions I have caught sight of a turtle on the reef but that is rare. The turtles are usually further out. I have swum out to the turtles before but to be honest I do not recommend it for everyone. Firstly you need to be a good swimmer and secondly it is in open water where jet skis and speed boats zoom by. For this reason it is better to have a boat take you a to swim with the turtles then you can swim around the boat where you will be safe from this activity.

Many of the Catamarans and Glass Bottom Boats take you to swim with the turtles in Payne's bay and snorkel at a sunken barge in Holetown but personally I prefer the reef to the Barge because you see so much more there. Many of the fish especially the colourful ones swim close to the corals and being that the barge is so far down unless you dive you wont get to see all of them. I prefer a more up close and personal experience. Having said that it is also very important to respect both the turtles, the fish and their habitat. The Hawksbill and Green Turtles are critically endangered and only 1 in 1000 of young hatching's live to reach adulthood. The reefs are also in danger from many things including pollution and algae. Touching any coral harms it and touching some of them can harm you. One such coral is the fire coral. Touching it will cause your skin to burn you like crazy.

No two days are the same and there is always a wonderful adventure to be had. I will never forget the day I dove up my Conch shell or the day I found where the giant sea fan is.There are so many types of fish and coral and they come in many colours and sizes. Many of our Tours and Excursions at Glory Tours include snorkeling time and swimming with the turtles in Barbados.

For a list of our tours that do include snorkeling you can visit our website at
http://www.glorytours.org/beachsh.html

Best of Barbados and Explore and Discover Barbados visit Payne's Bay while the Carlisle Bay Boat Cruise and Beach day visit Carlisle bay.

Glory Tours Last Minute Tour Deals and Excursions in Barbados

Glory Tours launches in Last Minute tour deals and excursions in Barbados. Last Minute deals are a great way for you to save some extra bucks and for us to fill a few empty seats. 

Availability is dependent on available seats on scheduled tours. 24-48 hrs prior  to tour departure we at Glory Tour will list our last minute tours deals in Barbados on our website http://glorytours.org . To visit the last minute deals page directly you may select this link http://www.glorytours.org/last.html 

Glory Tours offers a wide variety of tours in Barbados visiting places like, Harrison's Cave, Flower Forest, The Barbados Wildlife Reserve, St Nicholas Abbey, Huntes Gardens, Bathsheba, Earthworks Pottery, Nort Point, Foul Bay, St John Parish Church. Some of the excursion include activities such as swimming with the turtles, snorkeling at a shipwreck, zip lining and beach time.

We are always looking to serve you our customer better and we hope that you will be as thrilled with this one "Our Last Minute Tour Deals and Excursions in Barbados".

Bajan Tour Girl News

The Bajan Tour Girl is now officily registered in Barbados woo hoo.

I have lots of new and exciting things to come but for now I just wanted to share a few of the new videos I recorded last week :)




















Provided with the compliments of your friends at Glory Tours. The #1 Provider of Sightseeing Tours in Barbados http://glorytours.org/

"Cricket Lovely Cricket" the sport of Barbados and the West Indies Part 2

The Language of the game... Understanding Cricket terms.

All Rounder: A player who is capable of batting, bowling and fielding competently. The most famous person to fall in the category just so happens to be a Barbadian, he is Sir Garfield Sobers.

Appeal: A loud call made to the umpire for a batsman given out.

Averages: Batsman average equals number of runs scored, number of innings played minus the number of times not out. Bowler’s Average eaquals number of runs Conceded over the number of wickets taken.

Bails: Two wooded cross pieces over the top of the stumps.

Ball: The ball is round and cased in stitched red leather. It can be up to 9 inches but must not be less than 8.8125 inches. The weight should also not be less than 5.5 ounces and no more that 5.75 ounces.

Bats: Bats are traditionally made from English willow with a cane handle. They should not be longer that 38 inches or wider than 4.75 inches. The flat part of the bat is known as the blade and is used to hit the ball.

Batsman: Every member of the team is expected to bat in a match but it is only the first 5 batsman in a team that are considered specialist batsman. The opening pair are given the task of setting the foundation for the others to build on. The most fruitful opening pair in test cricket were Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies who over a period of 13 years amassed 6482 runs in 148 innings at an average of 47.31.

Bouncer: A fast short pitched delivery which reaches the batsman at shoulder height or above.

Boundary: The perimeter of the playing field that should be clearly marked. The boundary is the part of the perimeter nearest to the umpire. When the ball crosses or touches a boundary marker the batsman is said to have “struck a boundary”

Bowled: To be “Bowled” is a form of dismissal. For a batsman to be bowled the ball must hit the wicket and dislodge a bail.

Bowler: Each team will have four or five specialist bowlers. They are either fast bowlers or spin bowlers or variations of either.

Byes: These are any runs that are made when the ball passes the wicket untouched by the bat or body of the batsman.

Caught: This too is a form of dismissal. A batsman is out caught if he hits the ball with the bat, glove or hand holding the bat and it is caught by a fielder within the playing area before it hits the ground.

Century: 100 runs made by an individual batsman

Chinaman: The left arm bowlers off. Break to a right handed batsman. It is said to have derived its name from Ellis Achongh, a Trinidadian of Chinese decent who played for the West Indies. It was his unorthodox delivery getting and English batsman out that is said to have prompted the remark that he was “done in by a Chinaman”.

Crease: There are 3 sets of creases marked at each end of the pitch

1. The bowling crease is the line along which the stumps are set
2. The popping crease is positioned parallel to the bowling crease with four feet between them.
3. The return crease is at right angels from each end of the bowling creases extending past the popping crease.

Declaration: The Captain of a batting side can declare an innings over at any time. However the declaration is usually used in effort to effect a result in a game rather than let the match draw.

Delivery: Each time a ball is bowled it is called a delivery. There are six deliveries in every over.

Dismissal: A batsman can be dismissed in one of the following ways:

1. Bowled
2. Caught
3. Hit Wicket
4. Hitting the ball twice
5. Handled ball
6. Leg before wicket LBW
7. Obstructing the field
8. Run out
9. Stumped.
10. Timed Out

Dot Ball: The dot (period) is used instead of zero (0) by the scorer in the score book when no run comes of a bowled ball or delivery

Draw: Any match which fails to produce a result. Not to be confused with a TIE.

Duck: When a batsman is given out without having scored any runs. Courtney Walsh holds the record for this shameful term. He was out 39 times without scoring in his career.

Duckworth Lewis System: A mathematical system which sets revised targets in rain interrupted limited over matches.

Extras: Runs added to the bating teams score other than the batsman scoring. These include byes, leg byes, wides and no balls.

Fielding: There are 34 basic positions for a field set for a right handed batsman.

Flipper: A leg spin delivery with under spin that bounces lower than normal. An action first accredited to the Australian spin bowler Clarrie Grimmett who played Test Cricket between 1924 and 1936. The Flipper was perfected by Australian spinner Shane Warne.

Follow On: In a match two innings per side the team batting second can be asked to continue batting if at the end of their first innings they have failed to reach the total runs set by the first team or come within range of the total. This shortfall is determined be the number of days the game is to be played. In a five day match 200 runs. In a four day match 150 runs in a three day match 100 runs.

Free Hit: In the twenty/20 version of the game a NO BALL is followed by a free hit. The batsman cannot be bowled or caught from this delivery but he can be run out.

Full Toss: A ball which reaches the batsman without touching the pitch/ground.

More to follow.....

"Cricket Lovely Cricket" the sport of Barbados and the West Indies Part 1

For some people when they hear the word "Cricket" they think of a insect that is somewhat related to a grass hopper and makes a terribly loud and irritating sound. This sound is especially irritating when one is woken in the night by its high pitch screeching. I have spent many a night searching the rooms of my home to find one of these menacing creatures that always seem insistent on continuing in their tortuous performance.



For most of us in the Caribbean it is the sport of cricket and for many of us the word conjures up images that beguine in our childhood and stretch throughout our lifetime. For me my first memory of cricket is of my dad standing behind me with his arms over my arms showing me how to correctly hold a cricket bat. My father’s name is Mark Taylor and no not the Australian cricketer Mark Taylor but none the less he was a cricketer. He played for the Wonderers Cricket Club in Barbados as a young man and he had a real love for the game, a love that he tried to pass on to his children. I also have memories of beach cricket games and snapshots of the traditional cricket whites with the bowlers pants stained from the red cricket ball still reside in my brain.



So what exactly is the game of cricket?

To be honest I have drifted quite far away from this beloved Caribbean sport and have decided to invested in a few books to help refresh my memory and to rekindle my interest in the game.



Cricket was being played in England as far back as the 1550’s. The game developed among wealthy land owners who fielded the teams and their workers were the players.

Popularity for the sport spread and had become such a popular spectator sport that in 1787 Thomas Lord (a professional English cricketer) leased a piece of land in Marylebone London and established a private cricket ground in order to keep commoners out. The club moved location several times until it came to rest at its current location named Lords after Thomas Lord. Lords remains the bastion of English cricket to this day.



Although the United States is not known for cricket today it was there that the first international cricket game was played in 1844. It was after the American Civil War that cricket dies off in America and baseball emerged in its place.



The popularity of cricket outside of England can be attributed to English colonization. Wherever the English army had a garrison there was provision made for a cricket pitch.



First class cricket was first played in Barbados in 1865. By 1895 the sport had developed enough in the Caribbean to attract a team from England. So successful was the first tour that no fewer than four English teams came back to the Caribbean within the next ten years. Cricket was seen as having been played at a very high standard in the West Indies by the year 1900.



The first West Indians to travel to England to play cricket was a group of 15 in 1990. Only 5 of the 15 were black men and at that time the Victorian press took the view that “men of color” were incapable of playing such a sophisticated game as cricket with the same patience and intelligence as Anglo-Saxons. It is sad to say but at the turn of the century cricketers were not selected based on ability but on their skin color, social standing, and age. Many historians arge over whether the liberalism and democracy of the colonies paved the way for the liberalism and democracy cricket or the other way around…… Even in a game one can find politics and society play a great role.


More Tomorrow……



Provided with the compliments of your friends at Glory Tours. The #1 Provider of Sightseeing Tours in Barbados http://glorytours.org/

Hello from the Bajan Tour Girl: Time to begin exploring Barbados again

Much time has passed between my last post and this one. It was a very busy winter season for this Bajan Tour Girl and all of us at Glory Tours. I have missed my time blogging and researching the many rich and colorful stories that are spun together in such a marvelous fashion to make my Island home Barbados what it is today.

A very dear friend has inspired at least two of my upcoming blogs. They are both extremely important parts of our history and culture and by omitting them I would be doing not only myself but them a great injustice.

They have both in their own way, along with those that have represented them the best, added much flavor not only to Barbados but the Caribbean as whole. Leaving them out of the story would be like trying to mix a “Rum and Pepsi” or a “Rum and Coconut” without the Rum. It simply cannot be done.

What are these two things that I speak of you may wonder. They are of course Cricket lovely cricket, the sport of the Caribbean and Calypso the songs of the people.

LOL off the buy some books tomorrow (smile)


Provided with the compliments of your friends at Glory Tours. The #1 Provider of Sightseeing Tours in Barbados http://glorytours.org/

Barbados Coat of Arms

I can still remember learning about our National Coat of arms as a child.  Today when I look at it it means so much more to me.

As I look over it, the things that it includes and that which they mean. Many things come to mind.

It includes a image of a fish to represent our fishing industry.The fish of itself  is said to be a dolphin however though wonderful looking it bears no resemblance to the dolphin fish.

The Pelican which for me is one of the saddest part as we no longer have these wonderful birds in Barbados.

The Bearded Fig tree on the shield holds two memories for me. It takes me back to my childhood when I would grab on to the hanging beard like vines and swing off the cliffs by my home. The other story I recall carries the story as to how Barbados got its name. This of course was when Pedro Campos saw these trees and said "Los Barbados" The bearded one.

The Flowers are of coarse our national flower "The Pride of Barbados" These are wonderful delicate yellow and orange flowers that can still be seen growing along roadsides and garden beds across the island.

Above the shield is a helmet and mantling and on a wreath is the arm and hand of a Barbadian holding two crossed pieces of sugar cane symbolic of the sugar industry. After studying the African Slave trade this means so much more to me.

 This is a saltire cross, the cross upon which Saint Andrew was crucified. Independence day in Barbados is celebrated on November 30, Saint Andrews Day.

The grant of arms conveyed by royal warrant was presented by Her Majesty the Queen to the President of the Senate of the island on February 14, 1966 on the occasion of the Royal Visit to Barbados.



Prior to this grant of Arms the only other heraldic device was the seal of the colony. It represented the British Sovereign in a shell chariot being drawn by two sea horses through foaming waves. The seal was changed when there was a new monarch. King sits in the chariot while the Queens stand.


The Coat of Arms carries the motto "Pride and Industry."


The Barbados Coat of Arms was designed by Mr. Neville C. Connell. Mr. Connell was a director of the Barbados Museum for almost 24 years. He was a prolific writer and contributed a great number of articles for the Museum Journals, local newspapers as well as publications overseas.

He was educated at Harrison College, Barbados and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar at Grey's Inn. He served in the Royal Artillery on the outbreak of war. After his discharge he worked in an Antique Dealer's business and was also Assistant Secretary of the Institute Practitioners in Advertising.



The Design of Barbados Coat of Arms was the result of extensive research conducted by Mr. Connell who was a student of Heraldy. He was assisted in this work by Mrs. Hilda Ince (now deceased), an excellent artist. The developmental sketches of the Coat of Arms remain in the possession of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.



Mr. Connell died on January 19th, 1973 at the age of 66.



Bellow is a Extract from the Royal Warrant



Know ye therefore that We of Our Pricely

Grace and Special Favour have granted

and assigned and by these Presents do grant

and assign the following Armorial Ensigns for

Our Island of Barbados that is to say:-

For Arms: Or a Bearded Fig Tree eradicated

in Chief two Red Pride of Barbados Flowers

proper. And for the Crest; On a Wreath Or

and Gules A dexter Cubit Arm of a

Barbadian erect proper the hand of grasping

two Sugar Canes in saltire proper. And

for the supporters: On the dexter side a

Dolphin and on the sinister side a Pelican

proper, together with the Motto "Pride and

Industry", as the same are in the painting

hereunto annexed more plainly depicted

the whole to be borne and used for

our Island of Barbados - on Seals or

Otherwise according to the Laws of Arms.