A bay opens up where the road bends, a handful of freshly grated nutmeg changes hands at a roadside stall, and a neighbour on a porch waves you over to taste something you cannot name. Small surprises like these fill the island, and they tend to appear just when you stop looking for them.

The weather is tropical, warm all year, cooled by trade winds, with a wetter season and a drier one. Mornings suit hills and swimming, afternoons suit shade and long conversations. A Local Friend picks the next stop when your plans run out, and that detour often becomes the story you tell first back home.