"Goodbye San Salvador"

It's our last evening here on the island. It feels like we've been here much longer than one week. It's that "island time" thing...one tends to lose track of time when you're surrounded on all sides by water. Since the water was too rough to go into (the visibility was about five feet), we spent the morning exploring a cave, requiring swimming through one chamber into another bat encrusted one. We climbed up to the top of a lighthouse, which was built in 1859 by the British to foil the pirates who were luring unsuspecting ships toward the fires they would build on the beaches. The ships would be scuttled on the reefs and the pirates would plunder their booty. So, the British government built lighthouses on several Bahamian islands to protect the ships. We also toured the ruins of former plantation, believed to have belonged to one John Watling (there is some debate whether he was a pirate himself or an upper-class Englishman. At one time there were 31 plantations on this 60 square mile island.
Tomorrow morning we will be packing our bags and bidding the island farewell. I hope to return someday and walk the same beautiful beaches. It has been an amazing week and I will come away with many precious memories and lifelong friendships.