Day 15 - Christmas Eve

Day 15

It is Christmas eve, but you wouldn’t know it. After breakfast we bumped down the mountain into Roseau. We visited the market and then continued through along the coast to the dead south end of the island. The road literally ends here, and the name of the place is Scots Head. The island ends here in a narrow spit, which rises back up to a ragged peak about 500 feet high. On the left side of the 20 foot wide spit, when facing the sea, you see the atlantic, frothy with big rollers. On the right is the Caribbean sea. Calm, and impossibly green and blue. It is strange to see the two so close together, and to see their different temperaments. Snorkelling here proved to be the best yet. The water was as clear as any I’ve ever witnessed, cleaner than what you would find in an aquarium. Metallic and fluorescent fish, alone and in schools, surround swimmers here. It is amazing how many organisms can change colour in this underwater garden, and what a palette they have to work with. . . Many urchins, flounder, swordfish and tuna inhabited the anemone and coral-rich reef. The bay was teeming with life – my mother even reported a sea turtle, which I did not have the good fortune to see. We spent the day here, and as the sun hung lower in the sky we navigated the tight and loud ghettos, now rife with staggering drunks, some getting into cars. We made it through the city and back to our cold mountain home without incident. Merry Christmas. Tonight there is some sort of Chicken bake for dinner, which is hopefully good, and I am pondering the idea of decorating some local tree. . .Also, we had heard that although Laudat, the country’s highest village (in which we now reside) was fairly safe, there was one incident recently. Yesterday we found out it was a murder. Yikes. Today we found out the victim was a tourist. Awesome. Merry Christmas.