Living in Barbados, I now understand the meaning of “a feast for the eyes.” Every day is a visual delight.
Years ago in BC, a visitor admiring our view of forests, mountain and ocean down Howe Sound told us we wouldn’t even notice it after a few months. They were wrong. I appreciated it every day of my three years in Squamish.
After 5 months in Barbados, I am still enamoured. I am not as likely to pull out my phone for a picture, but I will still stop, flabbergasted, and stare.
I see locals doing the same. Bajans of all ages will stop their car while driving home, put down their fishing net or line, walk from their house, sit on a rock or bring a chair down to the overlook, and watch the sunset.
It’s not just the natural beauty of sky and water, beach and trees, rocks and flowers. Houses are painted colours that would seem garish under a northern winter sky, but here the tropical light makes it seem so right.
I’m not one to wear black or neutral tones; travel companions have a running joke about my green wardrobe. But here, my greens have got brighter and orange is no longer just an accent colour. Perhaps in the riot of colour that is the Island, colourful IS the neutral, and colourless would be jarring.
Of course, pictures cannot do it justice. The light changes and the wind blows. Tied up in the colours are sounds of rustling leaves, the feel of the wind, the smell of salt and heat and flowers.
They may become more familiar but I will always appreciate the colours of Barbados.
Brave Travels 