Barbados: Day 7

3/14/2025

Friday, March 14, 2025: This is our laziest, aka relaxing, day this week. It felt wonderful to sit, read, snooze, and just feel completely immersed in the elements. It's been mostly cloudy with a few periods of very light rain which made the air smell even more intoxicating. This morning, I spotted a bright orange ball floating on the waves. I kept expecting it to get pushed up onto the beach but it never did. Then, I noticed it kept moving along in front of the property and I saw something black come to the surface. It was a fisherman diving for lobster! Amazing!

Yesterday, while we were walking in Bridgetown, it had rained a lot in the morning and the streets were still quite wet by the time we arrived. It was just slightly sprinkling on us as we walked for the first 20 minutes. It was a comfortable spritzing in the hot sun but the smell of the rain is different at the villa than it was in town. It has a sweet smell mixed in with the salty air that I wish I could bottle up and take home.

I'd forgotten that one of the workers talked to us while we were waiting for Rodney to pick us up yesterday morning. We were sitting beneath some trees for shade and she commented on the hot sun and how she just can't get used to it. I asked, "aren't you from here?" and her reply was, "YES! I was born here" and then she bent over laughing so hard. She is one of many people we have talked to who were born and raised here with no desire to ever leave.

There is a hummingbird that comes to the bush just beyond our terrace each day. It fascinates me with how quick it moves. It comes and nestles it's beak into the bush for a few seconds and then flys out of sight again. I saw one in person for the first time in my life a couple of springs ago at home. I had just finished planting red and pink Rio in the pots hanging on the fence. A hummingbird came out of nowhere, hovered in the flowers for a minute or two and I've never seen one again until this trip.

The sound of the waves is continuous and it seems as if we're not noticing any more until they stop momentarily. It's as if someone turns a switch and it's perfectly quiet for a few seconds before another one crashes in.

Larry and I have joked all week that we've never lost weight on a vacation before. We aren't impressed with the grocery stores here and have bought very little food items; just enough for a light breakfast and some snacks. We've gotten accustomed to eating one big meal each day since we have no desire to keep driving into town. We've become very familiar with the menu at Surfer's Bay which suits us perfectly...it's the ambience we enjoy most. We are getting ready to walk there in a few moments for dinner. Of all things, I'm craving a quiet night back here to watch a movie before bed.