Oistin's Fish Market for Dinner

After all that we still needed dinner.  We heard that Oistin's Fish Market was the place to go for local food, and was a real party on the weekends.  It was Tuesday, but there was still a crowd for the karaoke, of course, and the rum shops.  

We went to one of the first stalls we saw and I had the grilled fish (the recommendation of the cooks) and a nice salad.  They made a huge plate of food for Alex full of macaroni pie (a bajan favorite), salad and rice.  We topped it all with pepper sauce and burned our faces off.  

Alex walked over to the famous "Lexie's Rum Shop", a hole in the wall, and grabbed himself a Banks and me a rum punch.  It was so strong.  Wow.  A couple sips into my second one, I realized I might no be able to finish it.  Don't worry, I did.  

At this point we met our new friend Reds who educated us on Rastafarianism (in a completely non belligerent way).  He also shared a lot of about the political state of the island and the sad state of many of its residents (visible nearby asleep on benches) who could afford too much rum (it's really cheap) at the rum shops, many of which stay open 24 hours a day.  

Pepper Sauce!

The fish market is adjacent to the fishing pier and Reds wanted us to see the sea turtles that frequent the nearby waters if we could.  Remember how everyone in Barbados is nice?  He grabbed a small fish off the floor left over from the day's fishing and we set off down the pier ruminating about where turtles sleep, if they have claws, and the like.  Remember the rum punch....  So, turtles are not visible at night in pitch black waters.  But they would be visible next to my face later that week when I went back to the same spot for snorkeling per Reds recommendation.  

We decided it was time to go, but not before I met the conch shell vendor, i ponds - really, that's his name - maybe it has something to do with Rastafarianism???  He assured me I would be able to hear the sound of the ocean in any one of the shells and we bartered to a reasonable price for a touristy token I really wanted to take home.  It's lovely.