Mango Bay's Hot, Hot, Hot Summer

Mango Bay’s start of summer occupancy rate is up for the second year in a row according the owner, Peter Odle, who is quoted on Travel Daily News.com attributing the increase to a $10 million renovation and the growing appeal of Barbados’ beaches, wide range of activities and sophistication. Located in Holetown in the very heart of the west coast, the 76-room all-inclusive resort has seen its off-season occupancy rate for the month of June move from 60% to 75% last year and up to 89% this year.

THE CANADIANS ARE COMING, THE CANADIANS ARE COMING!

According to a press release today yet another Canadian airline may be heading for Barbados in the near future. 3-year old Sunwing Airlines has secured the designation to operate scheduled international air services between Canada and Barbados. This follows hard on the heels of the announcement yesterday by yet another Canadian airline, WestJet, that it will be launching its new service to Barbados in time for the upcoming winter season. If these two new services really do come onboard, they will probably more than make up for the fuel costs related cutbacks in service recently announced by the major Canadian airline in the area - Air Canada. Airlift is key to sustaining a viable tourism industry in Barbados so this news today will be music to the ears of the players on the West Coast and elsewhere on the island. Now, if we can only get one or two of the US low cost carriers to follow the lead of their Canadian counterparts…

Brian Lara In On Apes Hill

Every few months we go through these exercises where Sir Charles boasts to the press about how well land sales to foreigners are doing at Apes Hill. Today’s article in the Nation about Apes Hill is no exception as he seems to relish the free publicity to hawk his project with the usual name-dropping of one or two of his celebrity clients. This time around it is former West Indies cricket captain - Brian Lara. I suppose Lara should feel right at home at Apes Hill as neighbor of England’s cricket captain - Michael Vaughn, whose name Sir Charles also dropped last year.

So, basically, we have learned nothing really new about Apes Hill from this exercise. We already know (according to Mac Fingall) that “Barbados belongs to Trinidad” so there is no real surprise that Trinidadians are the majority land owners at Apes Hill. Bajans still cannot fish off Tobago without being arrested even though we took the Trinidadians to international court over it, but Trinidadians can apparently buy whatever they want in Barbados including Shipping & Trading and the vast majority of Apes Hill. I suppose it helps when they own the very bank - Barbados National Bank - bankrolling the enterprise. Hey, I am not knocking regional integration, but at a time when there is an obvious crisis for access to land for housing for Barbadians is it too much to ask for a little fairness on the part of Trinidadians and the Bajans who are facilitating them?

We all know and understand that Barbados needs the foreign exchange and tourism development is the way to get it, but the critical question continues to be - at what costs? We have already lost the south and west coasts and now with these huge land-grabbing inland developments like Royal Westmoreland, Sandy Lane, Apes Hill, Lion Castle, Sugar Hill and Black Bess it looks like the very heart of the country is being ripped out. Do we really need more gated communities like Port St. Charles which cannot even successfully support a single restaurant, and maintenance people have to be walking around turning on showers every few weeks just so they would work for the two or three weeks of the entire year when the apartments are occupied?

Fire On First Street

Word has reached the West Coast Blog that the popular Ragamuffins Bar and Restaurant on First Street in Holetown was completely gutted by fire earlier tonight. Ragamuffins was arguably one of the most sought after dining and entertainment spots on the West Coast particularly on Sunday nights when its famous drag queen show was staged. Housed in a mostly wooden Bajan chattel house the restaurant specialized in local dishes and attracted both locals and visitors to the island. There is no word yet on the cause of the fire or its scope on the short, narrow street tight-packed with other restaurants and night spots.

Click here for Zagat's review of Ragamuffins.

Sandy Lane Boulders Impede Beach Access

Boulders recently placed along the main road near the Sandy Lane Hotel have come in for serious criticism and has reached the press. Many people feel the sole purpose of the boulders is to further restrict parking in the area and hence access to what is supposedly a public beach on which the super luxury hotel is located. Parking in the area has become an issue which has been exacerbated lately by the massive construction of condos in the area.

Good-Bye Barbados - Hello Havana

After the Prime Minister’s promising the nation only a few short weeks ago that entire east coast from the north in St. Lucy to the south in St. Philip would be reserved as a national park a senior government appointee has come out in favor of the complete opposite. According to the Nationnews.com Ralph Taylor, chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority, is now suggesting that “Barbados "earmark what is left of its existing coastline" for tourism development."” He even said that Barbados should borrow a page out of the (surprise surprise) Cuban tourism manual where the communist dictatorship “has "earmarked every square foot of its coastline for tourism development and has clearly recognised that tourism is its best economic resource."" It is unbelievable that someone in Taylor’s position would be spearheading a move like this which is diametrically opposite to the views of most locals and visitors alike. We have already seen government go back on its pledges on the Greenland landfill, now it is good-bye Barbados – hello Havana! Is Taylor and Thompson singing from the same hymnal? He must be taken seriously not only because he heads the tourism authority but also as head of Almond Resorts which is the most successful local hotel operator. As what is left of the west and south coasts disappear under concrete it appears that some people cannot get enough of it. This is very, very sad news indeed. When are we going to wakeup and realize that we are selling our birthright for the proverbial mess of pottage?

Mullins Beach Gets Webcam

Royal Westmoreland has added a webcam to their recently acquired beach club on Mullins Beach in St. Peter.

West Coast Round-Up 06-07-08

Beach Widening To Start In Holetown

The Nation reported this week that work will start this month or next on an ambitious plan to widen the beach at Holetown a la what's currently underway between Rockley and Hastings on the South Coast. ...more

Coral Reef Club Adding New Amenity

It has come to light that the Coral Reef Club is now closed for yet another major refurbishment. This time around, realizing that in the highly competitive business of attracting guests to a Caribbean resort requires more than just offering sun, sand and sea, and a place to sleep, Coral Reef Club is building a US$3.5M 5,000sq ft “sleek” and “zen-like” resort spa to offer Caribbean-inspired treatments. It will have four treatment rooms, each with a private garden and there will be a couples’ outdoor treatment pavilion and a hydro pool.

To make way for this stunning new development the Coral Arms block (formerly the Coral Arms Hotel) and other buildings on the beachfront property will be demolished. Mr. & Mrs. Pierce who built the Coral Arms Hotel back in the early 1970s must have turned in their graves now that their dream project which first fell into the arms of the Coral Reef Club [no pun intended] has finally literally bitten the dust. The resort will be closed until October 11 and the spa should be ready by December.

Mullins Beach Gets Webcam

Royal Westmoreland has added a webcam to their recently acquired beach club on Mullins Beach in St. Peter.

Beach Widening To Start In Holetown

The Nation reported this week that work will start this month or next on an ambitious plan to widen the beach at Holetown a la what's currently underway between Rockley and Hastings on the South Coast. The Coastal Zone Management Unit which has oversight of the estimated US$2.75 M project which is already out to tender hopes to stabilize and widen the beach, and provide continuous public access between the defunct Regent Hotel and Discovery Bay Hotel. This would be achieved through:

Constructing a
new walkway and revetment from the beach at Discovery Bay (northern extreme of project site) to the north of recently sold Chefette Restaurant.
Constructing a new walkway protected by a stone revetment from the existing beach in front of Chefette going south to the north side of the beach at Vauxhall reef.
Building two headlands (one fronting the Regent Hotel and the other The Beach House restaurant).
Using 2500m³ of sand from the stockpile at the Bridgetown Harbour to nourish the site.

While this blog lauds this attempt to improve the beach amenity at Holetown (if done with care and all due diligence) for the benefit both locals and visitors, it is regrettable that it is coming at a time when almost all of the entire length of the scope of the project is being lined with condos for wealthy foreigners - residences that will be only used two or three weeks of the entire year.

Superyacht For Sale: US$178 Million Anyone?

Maltese Falcon moored off Port St. Charles Marina April 2007
(Click photo to enlarge)

Maltese Falcon moored off Port St. Charles Marina from Dover Fort/Colridge & Parry Secondary School on the terrace above Heywoods, St. Peter.
(Click photo to enlarge)

If you own or stayed at beachfront property on the west coast for any length of time in recent years you have probably been awed by the number and size of the mega and/or super yachts which parade up and down the coast on what seems like a daily basis; at least, either voluntarily or involuntarily, you have become something of a yacht-spotter. So when last night one of the superyachts that I previously photographed off the west coast made it into the national news in the USA I had to sit up and pay attention. CBS rebroadcast a segment of its investigative news show, “60 Minutes,” that was first aired back in November of last year which dealt with the luxury clipper superyacht pictured above, “Maltese Falcon,” and its billionaire venture capitalist owner, Tom Perkins.

Apparently, less than two years after its maiden voyage, the Maltese Falcon is now up for sale. I took the above photos of the Maltese Falcon on April 10 last year (2007) when it was moored at one of the two offshore anchoring mooring buoys at the Port St. Charles Marina. The six superyacht berths at Port St. Charles can only accommodate boats up to 250 feet - 39 feet too short for the Maltese Falcon which holds the distinction of being “the largest privately-owned sailing yacht in the world.” It was quite a spectacle off the west coast with its three 20-storey masts easily much taller than any building in Barbados. With Mr. Perkins and others already busily working on their next big boats and Barbados contemplating more marinas the West Coast could be well on its way to becoming the next St. Tropez or Portofino.

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