If you ever landed in Atlanta airport in the international terminal and came out of customs and immigration anytime in the late afternoon, you would see this place teeming with people. Waiting to welcome their near and dear ones coming in from abroad. Half of them would be my fellow Indian brethren awaiting the Qatar Airways flight!

Today, as you see – there was nobody. Nobody!! I almost did a double quick thinking I had come out of the wrong side!

The effect of Covid is still very pronounced!

Sharmila and I took a final beach walk this morning before heading back to the US. During our walk, we met another local couple. He is from here and she is from Canada.

Sharmila explained to them how I am interested in settling in a place like this. But she was worried of important things like medical support.

Remember Trisha from earlier posts? Yeah, she had to go to Nassau to give birth to her baby. No hospitals here.

The couple tried to calm us down by saying that in case of an emergency, we will be airlifted and in an hospital in Nassau within 35 minutes.

As Sharmila and they kept talking, I withdrew. Pondering over a question that seemed more important to me…

“Is the idea to live where we push death to a later death or is the idea to truly live a better life before we die (whenever that is)?”

What do you think?

ELH might be my airport #143 but it is top in the books in terms of people, hospitality and just island beauty. Where else can you order your burger and fries before security and as you wait at the tarmac for an hour for the incoming flight, the security guys run your order thru the X-ray and get it to you?

Island life!

You might recollect that our trip to Spanish Wells, while otherwise very successful, did not yield any local hot sauces. Not one to give up on her pursuit of hot sauces, Sharmila, one our drive back to the airport, went back to the restaurant where we had eaten first. They were closed. The owner lived in the house next door. She made them open their shop and bought these four bottles from them!!!

The woman will do anything for spicy sauces. I remember in Zapallar in Chile, where the chef had come out from the kitchen and gifted her a local spicy sauce bottle!

Reminded me of her dad when he left our house in Atlanta in 2014. (We lost him in 2018) Before he got up in the car for the airport, he looked at the pool one last time and had muttered under his breath – “Bye Bye, pool“.

His daughter’s pool just got bigger!

That is the Caribbean Sea meeting the sky in the horizon long after sunset!

Listening to old Bengali songs sitting in a landing dock jutting into the water. The memories of old days triggered by the songs and the gentle sound of the waves crashing into the dock posts was a heady mix!