It's less than two weeks until we are back down!
I love when the warm breeze hits my face and lifts my shirt when I step out of the air conditioned plane at the airport, stepping down the metal staircase, walking across the hot tarmac, the salty smell of the ocean that is just feet away, squinting in the bright sunshine watching the sway of the palm trees on the hills nearby, and languages in my ears that aren't the ones from home.
I love the hectic drive up the island, scooters zooming around us, work trucks piled with workers in the back, tourist vans and the little white cabs all plying for space on the two lane roads. Men with machetes clearing brush from the roadside. Donkeys, horses and cows munching on grass along the way, some inside fences, others seemingly roaming free.
I love stopping at the grocery store, loading the cart to make sure we are well supplied. Veggies, beer, wine, rum. Rice & beans, pasta. Everything but the seafood which we'll buy from the end of our dock at home as the fishermen pass by in the mornings on their way into town - choosing what we want before the rest makes it to the market.
I love leaving French Harbor for Oak Ridge, where we'll walk the dock at BJ's to hop on our little skiff and cruise through the fishing village, brightly painted homes standing tall over the water on stilts, shrimping trawlers at their docks along the way, passing through cuts in the mangroves, inside the reef for a mile or so until we head out to open ocean. Salt spray dampening my face, my skin, my shirt. Bouncing over waves, heading straight into them until we reach and pass back through the reef at Port Royal, back in the calmer waters the coral barrier provides.
Each step on the island during the process takes us from a faster pace to a slower one, busy to serene, West End to East End. Island Time.
It's another world to us, one we are getting more and more used to and feel more and more at home in. We have a lot planned this trip, exploring new parts of the island and hanging out with some new folks (and newer dear friends we've already made there). We'll try new food, prepared and shared by others and plenty we'll cook ourselves. We'll relax and nap. We'll stare at the stars at night with no TV and just a bit of music, or maybe just the sound of the waves.
Dear little island, we'll see you soon!
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