After a really long trip we finally arrived at our little island paradise. Even though my wife and I were exhausted from a long day of travel when we arrived at our cottage we had rented we knew this was going to be something special. It was late at night when we drove in but you could tell as you were driving in that you were in the middle of a lush green tropical paradise. With the time change it was about 3am our time when we got to bed so the first day yesterday we were pretty tired. My body is trying to process and deal with a fare amount of extra pain but I have some great distractions to keep me busy, and to keep my mind off the pain. All the flying and the pressure changes have caused some extra swelling and I’m sure it will take a few extra days for my body to sort things out.

Nothing could prepare me for what we saw the next morning as we saw our surroundings for the first time in daylight. No wonder they call this island the “Garden Island”! I can’t begin to put into words how lush and green everything is. All I can say is that my camera is going to get a real workout while we are here. I have to say it was worth bringing all my camera equipment with me. With the two of us being pretty jet lagged we decided that the first day we’d stick to driving around to get our bearings as well as take in some of the amazing sites and beaches along the way.

I started writing this post the other day but the internet connection in the place that I’m staying was having connection problems so I couldn’t continue! So here I am a couple of days later a bit more refreshed and over the jet lag. We’ve spent the last couple of days touring this amazing island seeing so many great things. We’ve even had the chance to go snorkelling a few times which was high on my list of things to try. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to do it because of my disability but with a little adaptation we made it work. All it took was a life vest so I could float and when I needed to move somewhere my wife was there to help me swim. There was a sense of accomplishment to just getting in and trying! Too often people say “I can’t” before they even try doing something. The way I think of things is that you try first and then your justified in saying that you can’t.

Without a doubt my pain level is up and down at the moment but I’m making sure that I take things easy and that I don’t push to hard. The hardest thing at the moment is trying to get my body onto the proper schedule. With a four hour time change my body starts needing my meds at all the wrong times, so it’s taking a little bit to adjust. What’s very nice here however is the constant temperature. Without the drastic swings in temperature it makes the CRPS easier to manage. Maybe I need to move!!! Wouldn’t that be nice!!

With yesterday being such a busy day I’m feeling the need to slow things down a bit. So today we’re going back up the east side of the island to visit some of the local markets and to watch some of the amazing surfers on the north shore. The forecast today is for 40ft to 50ft swells so I hope to see some great surfing and get some great shots as well. Well I guess it’s time to get out on the next adventure so I’ll update again soon.