A week in Nevis

As I was saying..

A week ago we flew from Paris to the Caribbean island of Nevis with a 4 hour stopover in St. Maarten. G and I did the only sensible thing during the stopover by settling into the airport bar to pass the time away. Three Caribbean beers later, (appropriately named Carib) the staff informed us the bar was closing and we were kicked back out into the tiny airport with a beer buzz and no idea what to do next.



Night fell, the rain began to pour down and our plane was delayed. The beer buzz faded and I turned from tipsy to tired and grumpy, covered with what I have long referred to as "airtravel grease". You know how your skin feels coated with shmutz as soon as you step into an airport and only worsens with each hour you spend on a plane? I was fully shmutzed and not happy about it.

Finally we boarded a small shitbox of a plane, which seated no more than 10 people. You could almost reach out and touch the pilot, who looked so young I felt compelled to point out the lack of hair on his arms to G. Yes, we were that close to the cockpit. So I sat there, cursing my fading beer buzz, while the windows were pelted with rain and the dark sky lit up with lightning. I'm not normally a nervous flyer, but this time I was. It felt like something out of a movie that I didn't want to be in.
And on the way back, we had an older pilot, but he seemed much more relaxed a few thousand feet up in the air than I expected him to be.


The pilot, catching up on the latest.
No, we were not on the runway. We were in the air.


Nevertheless, we survived the trip and Nevis was stunning. The Four Seasons Resort made it even more so. The resort staff kept us cool while we sat on the beach by delivering ice cold water, and cool peppermint doused towels right to our little beach loungers. It's hard work lying around on the beach and they sure know how to take the edge off.

Don't be asking me about my tan though. When I said I was going to be heavily armed with SPF, I meant it. You might laugh now at my pasty white skin, but wait until we're all 60 and you'll be wondering how come I look so fabulous.




And then came the conch fritters. Conch, famed for its large shell (I think I bought one at a Florida airport when I was a kid once) has an edible marine snail inside. If I had known it was referred to as a "snail", I wouldn't have been so adventurous, because I'm not a fan of snails. But someone convinced me that it would taste more like squid or octopus, so I indulged. Though my fritters were fabulous- moist and served with a delicious curry mayonnaise dipping sauce- there wasn't a whole lot of conch in there for me to get a sense of what it tasted like. I did taste some rubbery bits, but it was more about texture than flavour. In any case, I tried something new and that's the whole point right?

But don't let me mislead you-- this indulgent trip was company sponsored. The Four Seasons Resort was a dream and our nights were filled with free dinners and unlimited beverages of the alcoholic variety.

You can see why I need some time to recover. Aside from the excesses which took a toll on our systems, we are also suffering from a severe case of jetlag, getting up at 2pm and having breakfast at 3pm.
But we'll get it sorted out.
At least I hope so, because in 3 weeks we are off to Canada for a long overdue visit with friends and family.
Air travel grease. I just can't escape it.