Caribbean Seasons

Most people think it’s Summer all year round in the Caribbean. In fact, there's a noticeable difference between summer and winter weather. Summer, like up north, is hotter, more humid and it rains a lot more. Winter weather in the Caribbean is far more comfortable with less humidity, less rain (most of the time) and the skies are much clearer. We're just ending Hurricane season—which starts officially in June and ends at the end of November, and entering the dry season, which lasts through winter and ends as summer up north officially begins.
Growing up in the islands, the fresh local produce has got us pretty attuned to fruit seasons. Mango season is early and mid-Summer while ginep season is late Summer and into October (coming soon to the HIHO blog: weird Caribbean fruit. We'll go further into gineps then). Locals get obsessed in September, the height of sea grape season. The stout, mostly low-growing sea grape trees (Coccoloba uvifera), which mainly grow on beaches, produce round purple berries that grow in grape-like bunches. The berries are sweet with a bitter skin and fleshy inside that surrounds a small seed. During sea gape season, we flock around the sea grape trees to gather as many grapes as possible.