Phoebe’s trip to Bados-Day 0

In the last 36 hours I have had about 2 and a half hours sleep BUT, I am sat in the poolside restaurant with a rum punch and dinner on the way, in Holetown, Barbados. I am sincerely hoping that I have somehow avoided supreme jet lag having spent a few nights in the run up to this trip going to sleep at 3/4am...alcohol did play a part in one or two of these, but thats the best way, right?

So, this is actually my second rum punch of the day and Antonio, my waiter, tells me this one is his special rum punch and the best on the island. At the end of 30 days I'll either have had far too many rum punch's to tell the difference, or ran out of money trying them all across the island. Watch this space for that I think!

Oh yes, by the way, I am in Barbados for a total of 28 nights.... Antonio has just asked me if I think I can hack it here that long...I very confidently replied yes, but with the A/C an extra cost, time will tell! The journey to get here was not a simple one, from a last ditch effort to see friends on Friday night and trying not to act hungover in front of my parents on packing day, to the 3:30am wake up call to drive to Heathrow to actually catch the flight-its been a trial. Did I mention I only booked this three days ago..?

The main purpose of the trip is to gather data for my masters dissertation looking at the implications of climate change on the transmission of disease and how it jumps from animal to human. However, I also reached out to the Barbados Environmental Conservation Trust and will be doing some work with them too-from turtle watching to mangrove conservation, it is all very exciting. Fingers crossed I have some free time to work on my tan!