For a month long visit to Scotland, I decided to hunker down in just one spot—on the remote and rarely visited Isle of Eigg. At twelve square miles and with a community of just 83 residents, Eigg is a blip in the sea—a smudge of land in the Northwestern Inner Hebrides....

I fly down the hallway and frantically dig out the yellow pages from the kitchen drawer. I look under ‘H’ for hurricane. Hurricane Concrete, Hurricane Fencing, Hurricane Shutters.  

Sheets of rain slap the King palms that earlier shrouded my rented residence in lush secret coverage. The...

As I lay on my back in my over priced jungle-view suite, I consider the chore of carting out the tailless iguana that has taken up residence in my room. The trapped reptile sulks in the corner, and like me, he’s contemplating his next move. I watch his nub of a former tail visibly thump and pulse;...