One way or another you will have to do mandatory quarantine upon arrival in Barbados. While it is extremely inconvenient, I can appreciate the efforts to keep the COVID number of cases at a minimum or none at all. However, the accommodations that I experienced were bad in so many ways. A spoiled American citizen? Maybe.
Where do I start? A little bit of background first. The COVID-19 protocols instruct all incoming individuals to complete an immigration and customs form 1 day prior to arrival. That form clearly asks for your selection of quarantine location once on the island. I chose the Paragon Military Facility. It was free and close to the airport and my apartment. When I arrived at the airport, I was still asked where I was going to be quarantining. I maintained my answer of the Paragon. Once on the shuttle (hours after landing) to take myself and a few others to the Paragon, minutes before pulling off from the airport, we were told by the shuttle driver that we would be going to St. Lucy parish to quarantine. Paragon was full to capacity and we had to go to an overflow location that none of us knew about. Try to imagine the huffs and blows of sheer disgust on that shuttle bus. Now we’re making a 45 minute trek to St. Lucy.
ACCOMODATIONS
Now would be a good time to mention that no pictures or video whatsoever was allowed at the quarantine site. Strictly forbidden. Once we arrived at the old St. Lucy District Hospital, it was late in the evening if I remember correctly. We had to wait in line to get all of our belongings sprayed with alcohol. I mean EVERYTHING. Purses, shoes, suitcases, all of it. Some ladies even had their purses permanently discolored because of the alcohol. Once we were sprayed we were free to go to our room. Guys on one side of the building, ladies on the other. Think college dorm suite with 5 twin beds and a community bathroom, 2 toilets, 2 showers, 2 sinks; no shower curtains or stall doors. Yes, we were all in the same room together. How is this quarantining?
The room and buildings were so hot for lack of air conditioning. The windows were open with no screen protection. BUGS & FLIES! The doors to outside were opened during the day. I’m surprised we didn’t get anything more than bugs and flies during the 4 days we were there. The mattresses had plastic on them, further adding to the sweat factor. I mean I woke every morning in my own sweat. It was gross. This place was truly like a college campus. Different building connected to one another. We could roam outside if we wanted, wearing our mask of course. We couldn’t go passed the outer gate though; to be expected. Whatever was going on in the boys room, we could hear it. Loud TV, music, conversation. It was a lot to deal with.
WE GOTTA EAT THAT?!?!
OH! MY! FREAKING! GOD!
I was stunned at the food served in this place. I had no idea. I mean I figured it wouldn’t be a 3-course, 5-star meal but my goodness. Three meals a day, sometimes on a schedule, sometimes not. Let me paint you a picture. Imagine a small foam dessert plate. You know the kind you get served cake on at a cheap wedding? Yeah, that. A dessert plate with a spoonful of bland coleslaw and 1 scrambled egg for breakfast. Lukewarm at best. Or a slice of meat patty that closely resembles SPAM and a piece of cheese. Thank GOD peanut butter, jelly, and sliced bread was in abundance because otherwise I would’ve starved. Oan, the delicious chocolate chip toffee dessert bars I brought with me on the plane. Recipe here. They are to die for. There were a couple of days where we got a take out box of unseasoned baked chicken with riced and beans for lunch. It was a lot of it too. Those were treats to me.
I promise you there is still one of those small plates of meat that I still can’t figure out what that was. It was ground up, a shade of pink, a little slimy, with a liquid smoke kind of flavor. I didn’t eat that. A salad consisted of shredded carrots and cucumber. Only a small teaspoon of this so called salad. I wish you could’ve seen this stuff. Seriously, they gave us just enough to keep us alive. Ginger beer and tea was plenty. I got lucky one night when the new group of people came in to the facility. They didn’t have food for the new group so they collected money and went out to get food for them. I wanted in. I ordered chicken and potato wedges. I don’t know where they got it from but boy was it good.
I believe by my 3rd night in quarantine, I was ready to burst into tears. No more bland tuna and cheese please. I don’t know what the other facilities are serving but get your mental right and be prepared to eat what you can get.
IN OTHER NEWS
Myself and the ladies I was in the room with had gotten pretty comfortable around each other. They were all nice ladies. Three had come in from the UK and one was returning home from California. There was a 6th lady but I couldn’t understand a word she said. I have no idea where she was traveling from. We were all pretty sharp. We asked a lot of questions to make sure we were informed. We kinda had to. The communication was lacking from the facility staff. They were a nice group of ladies. But imagine our angst from day to day. “When we were going to be tested? What time will dinner be served? Are the test kept on site? They’re late cleaning the bathrooms.” We really had to stay on it with gathering information. Once one of us got a hold of some good info, we’d run back and tell the others. Overall, I hated it. The only thing that I took from the experience is keeping in touch with the ladies I was rooming with. We plan to have lunch this weekend. 🙂
