Barbados

[Uncle Siphuncle]

It has been a busy 5 years and my wife and hadn’t made time for a honeymoon...until now.  Greetings from Barbados, the only place I know of where you can order a flying fish sandwich, and if you aren’t paying attention, a gaggle of marauding green monkeys just might sneak it off your plate and head back up into the trees.

 

We’ve been here one day and found some fossils.  I believe I read that most of the island is a massive Pleistocene coral reef, and the beach cliff right outside our hotel is testament to that.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

More coral.  Close ip of excavated wall...all coral.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Having trouble loading photos, but we walked off dinner at a construction site on a steep hillside.  The excavation tore open a big reef, with large coral heads as well as branching corals.  The only non-coral fossil found there was the gastropod shown below.

 

If we run into anything else cool, I’ll post that too, if the monkeys don’t run off with my phone.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

More coral

[Fruitbat]

Hi there Dan!

 

Looks like you're having fun (and good weather) down there!  You know...if you look REALLY hard, you might find some Pleistocene corals! 

 

-Joe

[Tidgy's Dad]

Enjoy! 

Beautiful photos! 

[Plantguy]

Hey Dan, monkeys and flying fishfood in Barbados and fossils too...you never cease to amaze. Congrats on the trip/honeymoon. Enjoy yourself! 

 

Regards, Chris 

[Miocene_Mason]

Wow, those corals really was are great builders! Interesting stuff!

[Shamalama]

Congrats on the belated honeymoon Dan! Corals are cool in my book.

[Nimravis]

Greats finds from a different place.

[Jeffrey P]

Looks like you'll be bringing back some good souvenirs. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[Ludwigia]

Hey Dan! Thanks for the gastropod! Hopefully you'll leave some of the island behind when you head back home again, but in the meantime, enjoy your belated honeymoon and say hi to Ms.Brett for me.

[ynot]

Nice finds.

Have fun down there.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Off topic, but we found the monkeys.

[minnbuckeye]

@Uncle Siphuncle Did the Barbados get spared the hurricane damage so prevalent in the Caribbean this year?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

6 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

@Uncle Siphuncle Did the Barbados get spared the hurricane damage so prevalent in the Caribbean this year?

Yezzir.  Got a good shower today though!

[fifbrindacier]

That gastropod is really nice, and the coral reef impressive, thanks for sharing to your wife and you.

[MeargleSchmeargl]

A fossil island.

 

 

Sign me up.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

My wife needed a nap after a morning surfing adventure, affording me a time window to jump in our silly little rental car and drive across the island on the wrong side of the road in search of fossils.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

While climbing boulders on a windward facing bay, I eventually found a few things amongst the ubiquitous corals.  I dug out a few nice Pleistocene gastropods, plus part of a crab leg.  Cool stuff.  Oh, and my makeshift chisels were a nail and old brake show found in a parking lot, with any ole rock serving as a hammer.  The conchs aren’t fossils, but the backdrop shows the site.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

More goodies.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

My total haul.

 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Whenever I have a light fossil schedule, I often make a point of checking out old cemeteries.  This trip provided one of those opportunities, so I stopped at an old church to take photos of old graves as old as the mid 1700s.

 

Then things took a creepy twist.  I happened upon several disturbed graves that had human bones strewn about the surface.  I won’t show photos online, but I saw a full tibia, distal half of a femur, ribs, several radii, half a pelvis, and several vertebrae, including some that were fused and arthritic looking. 

 

Not sure if this was grave robbing, voodoo, or just morbid disrespect, but I felt bad for the departed.  I’m not one to get spooked easily, but this did wig me out just a bit. I’ve included some shots of the cemetery to convey the mossy, gloomy ambiance.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Cemetery pics

[Miocene_Mason]

I enjoy walking through old cemeteries and paying some memory of those passed as well. I live in a place with many old cemeteries, many civil war era and some from before (many famous names, Francis Scott Key, Barbara fritchie, etc). Sorry to here of the disturbed skeletons, someone must have really been trying as most graves in the Caribbean are in concrete boxes (hurricane proof, and easier than digging in the hard limestone) as your pictures show.