14 Nights Bridgetown to Manaus

The most easterly of the Caribbean Islands, Barbados stands as a welcoming sentinel at the gateway to the West Indies. The island has for centuries been the first landfall of any sailors venturing westward, beginning with Spanish and Portuguese adventurers who came to Barbados in the 1500 in search of gold and riches. Instead they found a densely vegetated island inhabited by a small population of Amerindians, some of whom were captured and taken to other islands as slaves. Although the Iberians opted not to settle on the island, they did give it a name, Los Barbados the bearded ones, which is generally believed to have derived from the aerial roots of the bearded Fig trees.