Beautiful Barbados

Canwest News Service

"People only come to Barbados to lie on the beach," declares a diminutive blond over rum cocktails on the beach. "Take a hike," say I, meaning it in the nicest possible way. Along with a perfect climate and wonderful beaches, Barbados boasts an English-style National Trust whose sites include 17th-century plantation houses, sugar mills, museums and a 1654 synagogue. Plus, every Sunday the National Trust offers free hikes – a fun way to explore the island.

I was lucky enough to be in Barbados for the Trust's Moonlight Hike, a once- a-month event. Here's how it worked:

At 5:30 p.m., our group – about 60 adults and kids – rendezvous at the St. Thomas Parish post office. Twenty minutes later we've left behind a rural village and its giggling children, who are amused by our twilight parade. On the outskirts we pause to admire exotic crops: cassava, breadfruit, sugar cane, guinea corn, pigeon peas.

Next comes Welchman Hall Gully, named for General William Asygell Williams. Island rumour has it that the shaddock (a.k.a. pomelo) and sweet orange spontaneously produced the world's first grapefruit (though the invention of the grapefruit is also claimed by Jamaica). Overhead, I hear the sound of birds, and ask the man next to me what kind they are. "Bats, actually." Oh.

As green monkeys crash about in the treetops, the group learns that the bitter bark tree yields a malaria treatment called Quashir's Remedy, and that Amerindians used the bark to make insect repellent for their crops. However, the swizzle-stick tree's purpose is obvious.

As darkness falls, National Trust Hike veterans – the ones with the walking sticks – now produce flashlights. Very smart.

On reaching a nutmeg grove, everyone stops and sniffs the spice-scented air – though it's no longer the spice-growing centre it once was.

Emerging from the gully, we loop across fields and meadows under a full moon. At a fence, helpers materialize, opening gates and hoisting us over. Stopping now and then, we examine unusual items such as the red sandalwood seeds that island schoolchildren rub on concrete until they get burning hot. We rest on a hilltop and gaze at the moon, Jupiter, Mars, Orion's Belt. The wind sighs through century-old cabbage palms that produce a delicious fruit, like heart of palm.

Three hours have sped by. Back at the parking lot, we have juice and homemade cakes. Organizers arrange my ride back to the hotel, and friendly voices calling out their goodbyes trail after me down the peaceful hillside.

– For more information, contact barbadosnationaltrust.com; barbados.org.

 

From http://www.kelowna.com/2009/12/04/the-barbados-like-to-hike-with-an-island-paradise-to-explore-theres-no-need-to-waste-time-lazing-about-on-the-beach/

Published Date: 23 August 2009

By Katie Wood

IT'S hard to be grumpy in Barbados, but I managed it. So am I a spoiled, pesky individual who would find fault in paradise? No, genuinely no. I just got rather hacked off hearing the Caribbean island constantly referred to as Little England.

Not only are there plenty of physical similarities on the east coast of Barbados to Scotland (hence it's actually called the Scotland District), but when you delve into its history there are countless strong links to north of the border. And, as we all know, nothing - well few things - irritate a Scot more than being called English.

So, since a sizeable proportion of the population has Scottish blood flowing through their veins, I politely pointed out to my new Bajan pals that it might be more accurate (and PC) to call it Little Britain.

As a break from the idyllic beach, delicious food and barrage of cocktails one normally associates with the Caribbean, I took myself off to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, where I discovered several interesting papers that took me through the background of the "MacBajans". The first "proprietor" of Barbados was the Scotsman James Hay, Earl of Carlisle. Following the establishment of trading links between Scotland and the West Indies, Scots indentured servants were in constant demand on Barbados plantations, and many married African slaves; hence you find black Hamish MacDonalds and the like on the island today.

Three major spurs caused Scots to be banished to the island: Cromwell's victory between 1648 and 1651; the Covenanter Risings in the second half of the 17th century and the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745. There were also voluntary immigrants, as throughout the colonial period a steady trickle of Scots sought to inhabit Barbados because of the various opportunities offered by the land.

Barbados is also of special significance to genealogists, as it was the springboard for the settlement of other British colonies - notably Jamaica and South Carolina. One infamous inhabitant of Scots descent was Rachel Pringle - the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish sea captain and a local black woman, whose claim to fame is that she founded the first brothel in Barbados. That famous Scottish entrepreneurial streak strikes again.

Another link with home is the annual Celtic Festival, which takes place each spring. Pipers, dancers, choirs, a haggis night, a rugby tournament… sounds like a real home from home.

Okay, I won't pretend I spent all week leafing through dusty ancient manuscripts in the museum while it was 85 degrees of perfection outside. So what else should one not miss on the island? Well, a good start would be a trip on the Cool Runnings, a luxurious catamaran offering five-hour sails with snorkelling, lunch, hotel transfers and a free bar thrown in - well worth the £58 a head. It's great to get on the water and enjoy a rum punch, and it's a good way to see the beautiful Barbadian coastlines.

The aforementioned Scotland District, on the east coast, reminded me of Ardnamurchan. Battered by Atlantic seas (though turquoise, not the murky grey we know so well), the whole area is wild, uncommercialised and seriously beautiful. Here you find the little village of Bathsheba, huddling beneath cliffs and populated mainly by surfers.

What distinguishes Barbados from other Caribbean islands is its sophistication and infrastructure (and, come to that, the large middle class). Here you find a National Trust looking after many of the historically important buildings. Worth visiting are Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill, one of the oldest and largest surviving in the Caribbean, and Tyrol Cot Heritage Village, the former home of Sir Grantley Adams. This beautifully restored 1854 mansion, with its Barbadian antiques, is the centrepiece of an authentic chattel house village that features a market for local arts, crafts, food and drink.

The visit to the Foursquare rum distillery at St Philip is akin to a good whisky distillery tour. It's set in a beautifully landscaped park and occupies the site of an abandoned sugar factory.

The renovated St Nicholas Abbey, a Jacobean mansion dating back to 1658, is one of Barbados's most historic landmarks. There's also an 1890 steam mill, gift shop and restaurant. And don't miss the film of Barbados as it was in the 1920s, which is absolutely charming.

As a destination of only 166 square miles, but with more than 100 restaurants of every genre, Barbados is known for the quality of its food. Indeed, the range of restaurants is one of the primary reasons repeat visitors account for 40 per cent of arrivals in Barbados. If you want a really special meal, the Fish Pot, near Speightstown, is a great place to go. A favourite of Tony Blair and numerous A-list celebs, it is a relaxed beachfront location with an excellent menu and a Bajan chef who has worked in fine kitchens around the world. It has fabulous seafood, steaks, Asian fusion, creative salads, fantastic desserts and an excellent wine list - lunch costs around £80 for two.

The restaurant is attached to a cluster of luxurious suites that make up the accompanying Little Good Harbour hotel (www.littlegoodharbourbarbados.com). It offers peace, tranquillity and all the privacy of a personal villa while at the same time affording all the amenities of a hotel.

But if you prefer to lock your wallet away for the duration of your stay, Almond Beach Resorts has the monopoly on all-inclusives. It has three properties on Barbados: Almond Beach Village, with an impressive mile-long beach, five restaurants, comfortable rooms, a kids' club and all manner of land and water sports; the new Almond Beach Casuarina, which has good facilities but somewhat lacks atmosphere in the public areas and has no nightclub; and the adults-only Almond Beach Club, which has the best spa and a great location, right next to Sandy Lane, on the west coast (though service can be patchy and the beach is too small for comfort when the resort is busy). The value for money in all of them, however, is seriously good. And as a Scot, that makes real financial sense.

Fact file: Barbados

Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia (020 7636 9448, www.barbados.org)

A seven-night stay at the Almond Beach Village starts from £1,179 per person. Seven nights at the Almond Casuarina Beach starts from £999 per person. Seven nights at the Almond Beach Club & Spa starts from £1,069 per person. These prices include return international flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick or Manchester, direct to Barbados, and return transfers - based on two adults sharing a standard room on an all-inclusive basis.

To book, call 0844 5573 859 or visit www.virginholidays.com/almond

For more information about the hotels, call 0871 871 2828 or log on to www.almondresorts.co.uk

 

From http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Barbados-Little-Britain.5577599.jp

Whether it was the pounding rain or the nagging reminder that I hadn't yet written the post about the races, I woke up very early this morning.  I guess the rain was a part of one of the hurricanes that are out at sea somewhere - Hanna or Ike.  Gustav had already been past Cuba and headed towards New Orleans.  Maybe it was just rain.

Anyway, I woke up early and wrote my last blog entry.  When I went online to upload it, I found that  my hacked site and my 2 sites with the error messages were back up thanks to the hosting company.  WooHoo!  That takes a lot off my mind.

Today is Island Safari day.  Island Safari is one of two 4x4 jeep Land Rover companies that takes people on off-road tours of the island.  The other company is Adventureland.  As we later found out, Island Safari bought out Adventureland recently, anyway!

My (Our?) favorite is the Island Safari because I like the places it goes better.  The IS goes to more coastal places while Adventureland seems to go for inland places.  In the past on Adventureland we have gone to Chalky Mount into a potter's studio (stuff was for sale, of course), Welchman Gully (rain forest), St. John's Parish Church (a nice, old, parish church on a cliff but too many souvenir hawkers in the parking lot), Mt. Hillaby (the highest point on the island), Hackleton's Cliff (Hackleton wanted to commit suicide so he and his horse went off this cliff.  It is not known if the horse had wanted to commit suicide), and Bathsheba for lunch.

Ian, our driver, picked us up at 7:50AM.  Although the "official" trip hadn't started yet, he gave us a running commentary of everything we were seeing on the say to pick up people from two other locations.  5 of the other people were other "O'Connors" from Wales.  So, the O'Connors had the non-O'Connors outnumbered 7 to 4.

Ian told us all about chattal houses, various types of plants and much more as we headed to our convoy meeting place, the lion at Gun Hill Signal Station.  This signal station was restored by the Barbados National Trust and has military memorabilia and great views.  The lion was carved out of a single piece of rock in 1868 by a British Army Officer serving on Barbados. The lion has a large globe under it's paw, signifying England's world domination.

The others in the convoy were there already and had seen the lion and were just waiting for us.  We had to exchange vehicles (Scooby-Doo for Garfield) because the Scooby was too low on gas.  After getting our new vehicle, we took off to join the others.

Through the sugar cane fields, past crops of yams and eddoes, past the still-working Andrews Sugar Factory, through mud and ruts, the Land Rover took us all over.  Sugar used to be a very important crop here and it was used in another important crop - rum.  Now the main industry here is tourism but you can still see lots of sugar growing around the island.  It's a rotational crop and they rotate that with the eddoes, yams, pumpkins, cassavas, peanuts and other ground crops.

 

We went past an interesting cliff that has been painted on over the years.  Part of the outcroppings suggest a lion, so a lion was painted there and other areas features highlights of Barbados.  Here's a painting of our jeep and it's headed towards Bathsheba according to the caption.

 

 

 

This section of a bridge is over a gully - a collapsed portion of an old cave.  When this would happen, rainwater would leak in or be funneled in from the streets and birds would drop seeds in making a new forest or rain forest. 

This bridge is particularly interesting.  When they made it a couple centuries ago they ran out of building materials so they used what they had on hand - molasses, eggs and eggshells.  And it still holds up to this day amazingly well.

 

Our next stop was on a high cliff overlooking Bath.  It's hard to tell from this picture how high the cliff was but we had several warnings not to get to close to the edge - No Way!

I suspect that this cliff is part of the cliff that Hackleton and his horse leaped off.

 

 

 

 

Here are all the Land Rovers lined up ready for our next adventure.  They all have the names of cartoon characters and the jungle stripes are different colors.

The sides are plastic and roll down in case of rain, as we'll have a chance to discover a little later.  This reminds me of "The Surry With The Fringe On Top" from the musical, Oklahoma:

"...and isinglass windows that'll roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather..."

 

Looking over the banana trees into Bathsheba.  This was taken from a solid - I hope! - bridge.  To the right is one of many types of palms found on Barbados.

There are also several types of bananas, including plantains.  The smaller, green ones are called "fig" bananas and they're cooked green and mashed up and used for their large iron content with pregnant women or people with anemia.

Banana plants are often used here to help prevent soil erosion.  Also used to help prevent erosion are gabions.  These are rectangular wire baskets filled with small rocks and strategically placed so that water can flow through easily but the soil is held behind.  These gabions can often be seen near bridges.

Bathsheba and one of its curiously eroded rocks in the ocean.  These are being eroded away from underneath as the tides come and go.

Bathsheba is a beautiful little seaside town.  Although it is too rough here to swim here on the Atlantic side, surfers practice and hold competitions here.  This surf area is also known as the "Soup Bowl".

Also here is Andromeda Gardens.  Although on this trip we didn't stop here, we've been there before.  The Gardens were founded over 50 years ago by horticulturist Iris (great name for a horticulturist!) Bannochie.  There are 650 plant species there from all over.  It's an absolutely beautiful, peaceful 6.5 acres of plant heaven.  There are naturally-growing orchids, palms, flowering trees, lily ponds...and animals such as green monkeys, birds, lizards and fish.  It's a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.

Bathsheba is also a place to pick up lovely beaded jewelry and island crafts.  Here Tom is looking for a new band to replace the last one he got here.

The last time I got one was the year that Sue was with us.  We all three had them and when mine finally broke Tom fixed it a few times.  The last time mine broke and became unfixable I decided not to get any more, at least not for awhile. For me, the bracelet was a reminder of Sue (like Cocomos, in an earlier post) and when that broke, it was like a little part of Sue's memory leaving me.

And here come the rain!  We didn't roll down the curtains, at least for a while.  The rain felt good and cool on my face while riding along.

When we finally put the plastic curtains down they didn't help all that much - rain dripped off the corner of mine and into my molded plastic seat making my human seat soaking wet.

We stopped taking pictures because we didn't want to get the camera wet but we probably have some from a previous year that I can insert into here when we get home.

From Bathsheba we headed north on the Ermy Bourne Highway past Cattlewash (where they used to, well, wash cattle)  Most cattle on the island is for dairy only.  Most people here eat chicken or fish. 

After that, past Barclay Park, a popular area for locals to take a picnic or relax for an afternoon.  There used to be a railroad coming up to this point but it stopped service in the 1930's.

Further along was the side of the cliff that they call the Sleeping Giant.  When looked at it from the right angle, I could see how it got its name. 

At some point, we went through Joe's River Forest.  This Tropical Rain Forest consists of 85 acres of woodlands situated in the parish of St. Joseph. With the imposing Hackleton's Cliff on one side and the picturesque Atlantic Ocean on the other, this site is a nature-lover's paradise!

Here we saw fiscus, white woods, cabbage palms, mahogany trees (used for high-end furniture and boats, and the bearded fig trees for which Barbados was named by the Portuguese.  We also saw massive termite nests on some of the trees.

We went past the Morgan Lewis Mill, the last complete windmill on the island.  Originally there were 530 windmills, used in sugar production but the others have all fallen into disrepair due to changes in the sugar refining process.  The Morgan Lewis is kept in good running order now as a historical landmark and it's operated on certain occasions and for school tours.

Then up to Pico Teneriffe.  From this point, the next point of land is Teneriffe in the Canary Islands.  This is a very interesting part of a cliffy-beach with waves coming up through breaks in the rock as huge water spouts.

The rain let us and we could roll the curtains back up, thank goodness!  Without the breeze, it was getting kind of muggy.  But the good stuff was finished.  We headed across the island to Six Men's Bay, down past the ritzy condos of Port St. Charles, through Speightstown, past Mullen's Bay, and into Holetown for lunch.

We had a nice lunch, similar to the one I described last week in the Cool Runnings post but with the addition of macaroni pie, in a very nice outdoor restaurant attached to the Sandridge Hotel.  Unfortunately, this hotel is doomed to be torn down soon, to become the parking lot for the hotel going up next door.

After lunch it started raining a bit again and we were going fast on the ABC highway and the rain hurt.  It almost felt like hail but I knew that couldn't be.

Finally, back to the Crane and some dry clothes!  What a great day, even with the rain.  I like seeing the various sights and hearing the local guides describe his/her island but what I like most is the ride, the jouncing up and down through the fields, over cliffs, into forests, though mud.

From http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/barbados/bridgetown/sd4-6barbados_synagogue.htm

Who were the 'Bearded Ones?'

Reclaiming the Jewish past in Barbados

San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, April. 6, 2001

By Donald H. Harrison

Bridgetown, Barbados (special) --In just a glance, a visitor may see evidence of the decline and subsequent rise of the tiny Jewish community of Barbados.

The 17th-century cemetery is adjacent to the synagogue, which recently has been restored in large measure thanks to the efforts of Paul Altman.

CEMETERY AND SYNAGOGUE-- Paul Altman stands in 17th century cemetery adjacent to original synagogue of Barbados, which has undergone renovation. The grave of his grandfather,
Moses Altman, who led the family's migration from Poland to Barbados in 1931. also is in this cemetery.

When his grandfather, Moses Altman, came to Barbados from Poland in 1931, he found that the Jews had all left the island. Members of the once thriving community had scattered in many directions.

"Some went to Britain because of Barbados being British," Paul Altman told me. "Some went to the United States when the U.S. opened up. The various hurricanes were another reason some left. A lot of them became assimilated.

"Today, Barbadians of all creeds and colors will tap me on the shoulder and say, 'you know my grandfather, or my great-grandfather, left us something from the synagogue and we would like to contribute.'"

In 1925, Edmund Baeza, who then was considered the Caribbean island's last Jewish resident, sold the synagogue which had been capable of accommodating 300 congregants. Baeza donated the proceeds of the sale, amounting to 500 British pounds, to the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, England.

There had been a longstanding relationship between Bevis Marks Synagogue--which follows the Sephardic rite--and the synagogue in Barbados, which was established approximately in 1654 by Sephardic immigrants from Brazil. While the exact date that the first Jewish settlers arrived in Barbados is not known, it is believed it was as early as 1628--one year after British settlement on this Caribbean island began.

FUTURE MUSEUM-- This old schoolhouse building, adjacent to the old Jewish cemetery, has been obtained by the Jewish community for a future museum.

After Baeza sold the synagogue building to Henry Graham Yearwood, it was used for a variety of purposes, including as a law library, turf club and warehouse. Except for weathering, the adjacent cemetery meanwhile was left unchanged--and now requires considerable renovation.

E.M. Shilstone, a local historian, had proposed to Baeza that the synagogue be maintained as a monument to Barbados' early Jewish settlers, among whom were members of the de Mercado family, who were credited with bringing to Barbados the sugar refining industry. After Baeza rejected his offer of a lower amount of money for the synagogue building, Shilstone carefully photographed the interior of the synagogue as well as the inscriptions on the gravestones in the cemetery.

Among them was an inscription on the tomb of Benjamin Massiah, extolling him for having been "a reader of the Jews' Synagogue for many years without a fee or reward and performed the office of Circumciser with great applause and dexterity..."

Moses Altman supported himself as a peddlar, gradually working himself up to a shop keeper. In 1932, his son Henry, followed him over, and eventually a new Jewish settlement of approximately 40 families took root in Barbados. They built themselves a small synagogue, which they named Shaare Tzedek, in a neighborhood of Bridgetown called Rockley. They continued to use the Jewish cemetery adjacent to the old synagogue building for their burials, however.

So matters stood until the late 1970s, when the government of Barbados acquired the old synagogue building by condemnation and made plans to level it so that the lot it stood on could be used for the expansion of the nearby Supreme Court building.

Historical preservation was far from a governmental priority at the time. In fact, Barbados' original Parliament Building once had stood next to the synagogue, and it was destroyed to make room for expansion. Known as Codd's House, it was a building which had housed some important history. It was there, for example, that the Emancipation Bill had been signed during the 1800s, forever outlawing slavery in Barbados.

As destruction came to Codd's House, so too was it planned for what once had been God's house.

Henry Altman became concerned, however, when the government proposed not only to destroy the former synagogue building, but also to take about 10 feet of the Jewish cemetery, which would require the relocation of some of the bodies buried there.

The Altman family immediately began a campaign to preserve both the synagogue and the cemetery.

RESTORED INTERIOR-- Almost every thing inside the old synagogue in Bridgetown, Barbados-- whether the chandeliers, bima, the reader's table or Ten Commandments-- have stories attached to them attesting to the dedication of the current Jewish community to remembering the past.

Henry Altman had an important ally in his son, Paul, who then was serving on the board of the Barbados National Trust. The son went to the Shilstone Library of the Barbados Museum and found Shilstone's photographs which showed exactly how the synagogue's interior once had looked. So armed, he paid a call on Barbados Prime Minister Tom Adams, who told him "if you can find the money to restore the building, we will give you the building."

Fired up, the small Jewish community in Barbados set about contacting potential allies throughout the world.

"Everyone said we were crazy; 'you will never do it!'" Altman recalled to me during an interview at the old synagogue, located within easy walking distance of the pier where our cruise ship, MV Olympic Voyager, had docked that morning.

"Where were we going to get $1 million U.S. currency to restore an old broken down building which no one might ever use?" Altman asked rhetorically. "We set about our task by simply putting one worker to chip away at the building, because that was all that we had funds for at the time. We told him to tell anyone who came and asked what he was doing to say that he was just getting some facts because a major restoration was starting, and that they could contribute to that."

The preservationist eventually attracted contributions from the Commonwealth Jewish Council in Britian, the American Jewish Congress the Canadian Jewish Congress, and individual donors.

BRIDGETOWN SHOPPING-- The flags of many nations wave over the crowded shopping avenue in Bridgetown Barbados.

"I went and attended various meetings, invited them here, and got people to write articles for newspapers in different areas, and people saw that we were serious," Altman recalled.

With the help of Shilstone's photographs, the community set about to restore the old building to its former self.

"It was like putting a puzzle together," said Altman. "One of the first things we did was we found out that the University of Florida had a program called PIC-- Preservation in the Caribbean. ...They sent us a School of Architecture graduate student who came and spent three months and worked with a firm in Barbados, who offered their services."

The Barbados Museum had a few pieces from the synagogue, like an original bench, and other pieces were located both on the island and elsewhere. Last year, for example, "a lady from the Winterthur Museum came here ... because she wanted to discuss the original chandeliers. But they wouldn't give them back, and I went as far as speaking with Mr. Shapiro, who was then president or chairman of Dupont (which underwrote the museum).

"He happened to be a Jewish man, whom I thought I could appeal to in terms of the cause, but he said it would be up to the curator of the museum and he couldn't impose his wishes on her," Altman recalled. "The feeling was that if you returned artifacts such as those chandeliers to their places of origin, then the museum would cease to have a reason to exist. I argued differently of course. I said this was one opportunity that presented itself, whereas many wouldn't."

Even though the synagogue couldn't recover its original chandeliers, it was able to commission artisans to make replicas, which were installed in the old sanctuary.

Altman was more successful with the "Ten Commandments" which originally had been placed over the aron kodesh. It turned out the tablets "were hanging over the swimming pool in the former residence of an ex governor general of Barbados." Known as Illaro Court, the house later had become the residence of the Prime Minister of Barbados. (I couldn't help but wonder if anyone had posted near the tablets, an 11th Commandment saying "Thou shalt not run near the pool.")

"When we were assembling the (synagogue) building, the Prime Minister at the time was Bernard St. John, who is now Sir Bernard St. John, and his wife, Stella," continued Altman, waving off my dive into humor. "Stella had a particular link with a man called Teddy Reitman, who was the honorary consul of Barbados in Israel. He had befriended the St. John family in Israel, and in fact,they had visited his house near Tel Aviv. Teddy Reitman approached Stella, and Stella was immediately willing. She said 'Come and take them,' and we put them back here."

Local artisans were commissioned to reproduce the old wood bima as well as the reader's table, which faced each other in the configuration typical of Sephardic shuls.

"We have superb craftsmen in Barbados, just like the ones who would have made the original ones back in the 1600's," Altman said. "These were done by a very talented man by the name of Andy Tempro-- our families have known each other for many years. He builds furniture. In fact, he is connected with Princess Margaret's son, Lindsey, who is in the area, and they have a common interest in the reproduction of antique furniture and that type of thing."

Altman said although there were always monetary pressures, he insisted upon quality. "For example, someone said they could do these moldings a lot cheaper if they did them out of fiber glass, and I said 'absolutely not. What was here was wood.' We used mahogany. I suppose because of my National Trust hat and links that I don't believe in synthetics when it comes to doing a restoration of an old building."

During the winter months, the Jewish community holds its services in the old synagogue building, which, as in days of old, has no air conditioning. But during the hot months of summer, they retreat to the smaller, but air conditioned, Shaare Tzedek for their services.

Besides restoration of the old synagogue, Altman has arranged for the repair of the cemetery and plans a Jewish museum in a nearby school house following renovation.

The cemetery project started only after "we had someone we could have 100 percent confidence in. We found that person in Evan Mielner-- a British fellow, who has a degree in stone work, and has experience as a hobby in archeology. ... He has done a tremendous amount of research. He belongs to the Bevis Marks Synagogue...so he understands all the religious requirements that attaches to that type of Spanish graveyard."

Restoration of the cemetery "is a slow process, and he has left instructions for the gentlemen who are here. He (Mielner) comes three months a year and works on his hands and knees with them doing the work and then leaves a detailed set of instructions, and they continue. We have two men who slowly, laboriously, piece by piece, are doing it. If it takes ten years, it will take ten years, but it will be done right and that is my concern."

One of the local artisans is Charles Leslie, "who must be given full credit for what he has done," Altman said. "He has put years of his life into this work, and although he is not Jewish, he considers this his purpose in life to continue this job. He is so committed to it."

Besides repairing broken stones, the team has chiseled onto the stones lost letters, using for guidance inscriptions from Shilstone's book--as well as some records found at the Bevis Marks Synagogue.

I asked Altman to try to put in words what motivates him.

"I will tell you what is in my heart," he replied. "When I walked into this building for the first time, people walked me around and said that these tiles here were the original tiles, although at the time they were so dirty you could hardly see them, and that under the fake ceiling there was another ceiling. As I looked around, I saw the graveyard and I recognized the significance and the history, and I felt a part of it for whatever reason...

"Barbados has something special," Altman added. "It has that history; it has that attachment to the Jewish presence here, the African presence here, the British presence here. "

According to legend, the name " Las Barbados," meaning "the bearded ones," in Portuguese, refers to a type of fig tree found on the island by explorers. While he can't disprove the legend, Altman prefers his alternative explanation for the island's name.

"If you check anywhere in Barbados, the only Portuguese names that are in Barbados, and the ones which are from the original settlement, are in this graveyard," he said. "So I suggest that 'Las Barbados' really referred to those bearded Jewish settlers who came here..."

Who'd have thought? A Jewish island!