Bermuda Trip Part One

July 31, 2023

“Meet Us in Bermuda!”

Last Minute Deal

“Hey, Brit!” I answered the phone on New Year’s Eve morning. It was Brit, my good old college roommate. I first thought she should be in Bermuda by now with her family, but her voice was a bit tenuous, “Flint (Brit’s hubby) got sick on our way to the airport and had to turn around and we couldn’t make it to Bermuda.” She was devastated and begged me to join her trip with her cute son, Alex, age 10, who has autism spectrum disorder. “Alex adores you and wants you to come with us. We’ve rebooked our flights leaving tomorrow morning and everything else is booked for the three of us and I don’t wanna waste them, just meet us in Bermuda. I am looking for your flight right now…” Brit kept searching for a flight to Bermuda for me.

Several months ago, she asked me to join this family trip, but I had already said clearly. “No” because I had different interests for this winter break. So, I was looking for reasons to discern what to do. First, I checked the weather in Bermuda. It was nice and sunny for an entire week with a steady temperature of low 70s, perfect! It was a very last-minute deal, and the flight can be expensive, but Brit has tried so hard to find a reasonable flight juggling her mileage benefits while I was driving back from a short getaway trip by the snowy mountain near my town after Christmas. “Found a flight! Can I book it for you?” Brit was keyed up and convincing. I finally said, “Alright Brit, you won.” I was low key excited but not fully. If she did not find me a deal on airfare, I wouldn’t be settled. Now what?

I opened my RIMOWA carry-on suitcase, unpacked all the winter clothes. All I needed was to replace it with summer outfits.

Speed Packing

I’ve already had all my travel essentials packed in the suitcase, so it really did save my repacking time. Also, I’ve learned what to pack and not to pack by traveling abroad for the last 35 years. For some of you, it might be relatable, but I’ve been struggling with overpacking for many many years and finally learned to pack light. I am still finding new & better travel essentials. Having the right travel necessities and accessories can help amplify the joy of your traveling. Here are some of my favorite items to pack and I am becoming a comfortable ‘carry on suitcase only’ traveler. I’m hoping that I get back to this topic for another time.

Where is Kokomo?

Done packing, whew! I’ve been repeatedly listening to Kokomo by The Beach Boys on my way to the airport. “ Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya, BERMUDA, Bahama …”. What a chill beat. I’ve never felt such an affinity for the Kokomo song before! My heart was beating until I was time for the New Year’s countdown waiting at the gate. “… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” Some people clapped their hands but did it pretty quietly. The flight has been delayed, we were all probably thinking, “We should have been on the plane 30 min ago.” Then one question crossed my mind, “Where is Kokomo? Wait, does it really exist?” My curiosity led me to google for the answer and found a city named Kokomo in Indiana. “That’s not it”, not the one in the Kokomo song. It took me a while, but I did find the answer. It sounds stupid but I needed to kill my time anyway at the gate to sidetrack from my whining feelings of a long wait. What I’ve found out is that there is no such place called Kokomo anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean. So, I am letting you all know that Kokomo IS a fictional place!

Finally, I got on board after a two-hour delay and an additional hour on the plane after fastening the seat belt. It was a red eye flight and good sleep was vital to enjoy the next day in Bermuda. I fell asleep as soon as I buckled up my seatbelt over my favorite travel Minky Couture blanket on my lap and locked my neck with a plane pillow aka my top life hack item on the plane. I was far from insomnia by the time I arrived in Bermuda, feeling energized because I slept like a baby during my 4&1/2 hours flight to JFK, NY.

Delayed flight

I only had a 3-hour layover at the JFK airport, so I knew my time was crunched to the connecting flight, due to the 3-hour delayed departure. JFK has 5 passenger terminals and I had to switch the terminal. I was running to catch an Air Train and lined up for another security check! “Oh sugar! It’s a long line…”, I was getting sweaty, and did not want to cut the line. In my head I say, “There is no way I will make it on board!” The last hope was that the second flight was delayed, so while I was in line, I checked my second flight status on my phone. “No way! It’s two hours delayed, Thank Goodness, Gracious!” I am soooo lucky! At this point, I felt a confirmation that this trip was meant to be because things are working on my side.

It’s been a rough couple of years and things weren’t working the way I wanted in the past three years; dealing with a hard divorce and could not manage save the 24 years of marriage or make it last longer. I felt like a failed wife at the beginning, but not anymore because I have gone through my healing journey. My divorce was finalized 4 months ago. The youngest child, Leilani is age 16, she had gone to visit her dad this winter break in Hawaii. Two boys, Ryan19 & Kade 21, are on their mission in Tokyo right now. The oldest child, Kali is pregnant and getting close to having their first baby anytime. I will be a GRANDMA soon! I was not planning on going anywhere this winter because I’ve been wanting to work on the basement project. And also, financially I’ve already spent money this year for other travels from last summer and fall. In addition to that, I also have helped my old friend, Ruby, to support her financially to get her life going on. She recently has lost her mom who was the only kin that she had on this earth. Ruby has been raised by a single mom and has been a single all her life, she has no kids, and lives alone. Ruby has been diagnosed as bipolar and has been struggling with her mental illness since college. She is also gifted in her writing and has a dream to become a novel writer. She has a book written already but it is not published yet. We got reconnected last summer and I felt a prompting to support her after coming back from my trip to Asia.

Anyways, back to the story, this Bermuda trip was not planned originally but definitely became an unexpected bonus handed to me.

Bermuda Facts

I did not know much about Bermuda, but I am not the only one who thinks of a place in the lyrics of Kokomo song. Here is some basic background of its history and culture. Bermuda was founded by Europeans in 1503, became an English colony in the early 18 century and until now. It’s located in the North Atlantic Ocean, only a little over a 2-hour flight from JFK-NY airport. Pink sand and sea glass beaches are well known along with the wondrous Crystal Cave. Logistically, it has a unique blended culture of England and America. The population is around 64,000. 52 % African descendant, 31% Caucasian. The economy is stable. The GDP per capita is $111,000 USD. Food is expensive at both restaurants and grocery stores, due to importing everything but I witnessed that we had some great food there. I will write more about it in my Bermuda story Part Two.

Since we visited in the winter season, people were wearing sweaters and long pants. I was fine wearing my summer clothes, but it was a bit too cold for me to dip into the water. The beach temperature is on average 68F in January, but my friends Brit and Alex had no problem playing in the water at the beach. When we had gone on the diving excursion (it will be in Part Two), we wore a wetsuit for diving. I’ve been used to warm Hawaiian beach water during the winter season, on average 78-80F, but hanging out at the Bermuda beach was still pleasant with sunshine. Many people were enjoying sunbathing as well. FYI, anything below 25C (77F) is considered cold to swim with bare skin. No wonder many resorts have heated pools even in Hawaii!

People in Bermuda

… are extremely friendly! That was my first impression when we stepped into this beautiful island of Bermuda. The cab driver was informative, and this Airbnb happened to be his driver’s cousin’s house, coincidentally. It is a small island. We checked in at this lovely yellow house that Brit had booked. It was on New Year’s Day when we arrived, so the owner of this house was having a New Year’s party at their spectacular ocean view backyard by the poolside, gathering around with family and friends with fun music sounds through the light reflective speaker. They love partying. Brit and I went to greet the owner as soon as we arrived. One started to shake hands with me and one, after another. They even invited us to join their party and offered us drinks, but we politely said, “No thanks” and went back to our room to relax. We found friendliness everywhere; bus drivers, the local passengers, and even pedestrians, they always say, “Good Afternoon!” The majority of the locals, even our Airbnb owner, were mostly black descendants and they are happy, polite and the friendliest people that I’ve met! I have lived in America for the last 30 years, but I do not recall anyone telling me “Good Afternoon!” in a casual setting like passing by the sidewalk. Normally it’s only, “Hi & hello” to strangers. So, I felt like it was a bit formal, but I loved the politeness of the local culture because I am originally from Japan, one of the politest countries in the world. I felt like I was at home and feeling proper and welcomed by their helpful and friendly greetings. Bermuda also has another charm; it has a very low or no crime rate to the tourists. That is one of the important elements to attract the tourists. I did not see a lot of homeless people either, we felt very safe going anywhere we went around the island. Bermuda became one of the destinations on my list where I would love to return again, because of its beauty and the sweet spirit of Bermudian.

Crystal Cave

The little Alex is a big time Godzilla fan. One of the reasons why he likes me is that Godzilla is made in Japan, and I am from Japan. How simple is that? He also loves going to the caves and has gone to many fancy caves such as Chauvet Cave in France because Brit and Flint traveled all over the world with Alex. His recent trip last fall was on a cruise tour called, Autism on the Seas with his dad. Lucky child! In Bermuda, there are a couple caves called Crystal & Fantasy Caves at one location, so we went to check it out as our first adventure! On that day when we visited, only Crystal Cave was open. There was a daily local tour guide that led us away. Bermuda is a small island, so I honestly did not expect a lot from this cave, but I was wrong. After about a 10-minute walk, I kid you not about what I saw! There were white and blue colors everywhere. I have been to many caves before, but I would nominate Crystal Cave as one of the most spectacular and the purest caves that I have ever been to in my life. What I saw was thousands of whitish crystal speleothems hanging from above everywhere. Those speleothems are made of calcium but subtly transparent. So, when the tour guide spotted the flashlight directly onto the crystal, it glowed inside just like you can see in a Himalayan Salt Lamp.

Purified

Those long pointing down speleothems’ color was such a nice white/ivory looking color. I felt it was so clean, pure, and majestic looking, and to be surrounded by it, I also felt as if there was some healing power to it. Maybe this was because I have not felt that way being in a normal cave with gray or brown colored speleothems with dry ground. This is not the end of my surprise story, but it continues. What fascinated me the most was this crystal-clear turquoise water that is absolutely transparent. It is crisp clear to the bottom of this underground lake. I have seen some clear water in St John Island’s beach, or rivers in Alaska, but they have currents and ripples with high transparency. In this Crystal Cave water, I could see everything there was in this secluded silenced, still-water! There are two speleothem columns on the bottom of the lake as you can see in this picture. As far as my understanding, they were dropped on the ground and started building the calcium upward over time and water was pooled after. These formations have taken thousands of centuries. We were told that those speleothems grow an inch per 100 years. It just blows my mind that this cave is about 1.6 million years old. So how in the world was this magnificent cave found? In 1905, it was discovered by two teenage boys who went looking for their lost cricket ball that fell into the hole in the ground. This hole happened to be the entrance to the marvelous Crystal Cave. It is a fascinating adventure story! Since I love visiting all kinds of healing and power spots worldwide, I felt no doubt that this is one of the most purified places, I would call “A power spot” (this is a Japanese way of saying, a place where you can recharge and heal your mind, body, and soul.) So, what did I do? I closed my eyes and took a moment to feel this purity of mother nature that has been preserved for more than a million years. I opened my arms and inhaled the air deeply. I felt uplifted & empowered through my lungs and every pore of my skin by soaking in this pure energy at one of the most exquisite beautiful, yet mysterious underground spaces! I would love to return and meditate a little longer for my next visit!

To be continued!

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