Make your own memories at Colony Club by Elegant Hotels from only £1,621pp
The second place we called home was Colony Club by Elegant Hotels. As soon as we arrived we were greeted with the obligatory rum punch and smiles that defined a typically Bajan greeting, and set about discovering the ins and outs of our new base of operations. Colony Club has a character all of its own, different from Tamarind but noticeably its sister in the crystalline attention to detail and organic elegance found in everything from the table arrangements to the passionate distribution of colour throughout the gardens. But where Tamarind seemed to relish the daylight, a certain majesty descended onto Colony Club with the setting of the sun.
In the evening we were treated to the Manager’s Cocktail Party as daylight faded into twilight, and it was one of those pastoral, transitional moments that can never be entirely encapsulated by language. The sunset view at Colony Club is remarkable, as the bright golds and reds of the evening set the casuarinas and parasols into pastel silhouettes. In the spirit of such a backdrop, the company was enlivening, the drinks inviting, and the atmosphere unconditionally welcoming. It was the type of evening that held the promise of a great tomorrow.
Having gained the taste for shoreline exploration at Tamarind, our first day at Colony Club involved glorious amounts of seafront antics. Inspired by our tiny turtle encounters, we decided to go one step further and venture out into the wild blue yonder to swim with the big ones.
Treating your holiday as a journey of discovery is, if my own experiences are anything to go on, the most rewarding aspect of travel. To put it conservatively, I was somewhat excited to go swimming with turtles. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by wildlife documentaries, as a child by their plethora of shapes and colours, and as an adult by an unquenchable desire to better understand the world around me.
The prospect of swimming with turtles enabled me to enact – to animate – a lifelong passion: something which before only existed in documentaries, would now be expanded to all the other senses, both submersive and immersive, in the silky warmth of the Caribbean Sea.
Our boat driver, like many of the people we met on Barbados, had an inspiring tale to frame our adventure with an anecdotal flavour. He told us that turtles gather in a handful of spots across the island because, historically, fishermen would clean their hooks in the waters of the bays and harbours, and slowly but surely the turtles discovered that they could prosper by feeding on the fishermen’s scraps. These turtles served as another symbol of the intimate relationship between the island and the people who live there.
In the water you can truly appreciate the alluring magnificence of the Caribbean’s marine life, as the turtles bobbed up for air between their acrobatic inquisition of the strange pale creatures that had donned masks and entered their realm. Our pictures speak for themselves, showing the window you find into a world that defines and shapes the nature of Barbados:
More than just a fabulous experience, these turtles mark the same symbiosis I felt between Ian and the island, evidenced by his passion for how Barbados acted in countless ways as a monument to all that was meaningful in his life.
Their preservation not only ensures that the rightful inhabitants of the oceans remain alive and well, but also salvages and reinvigorates the idea that we as people can work with our environments to make the world around us a better place.
Barbados was a beautiful example of this coexistence, and our journey through its many beauties still wasn’t over.
Make your own memories at Colony Club by Elegant Hotels from only £1,621pp
By Tom Malbon
