Pilot Perks

As if it weren't enough that I happened upon a wonderful, caring, strong, and gentlemanly man to share my days with, he also happens to be a magnificent pilot who enjoys sharing his day job with me in the off chance the schedules align.  What this meant a couple weekends back was that I got to spend the day in the Bahamas with him for the price of a rental car ($50 cash monies, sign here -- they're not strict about these things in the Bahamas).

See?  I'm taking this picture from the right seat.  Co-pilot style.  Once we took off, Andrew passed over the controls and took a nap.  (No he didn't. Thank goodness.)

We set off early with the passenger in tow, having had him sign off on me being co-pilot for the day.  The sun had risen and was breaking through the clouds in a beautiful way that can only be experienced from the air.

It was a peaceful over-hour journey and I spent the time cloud-gazing and learning about the different islands as we passed overhead.  The morning sun shone clear and bright at 8,000 feet and made the cabin cozy-warm.  

Before too long, we began our descent to North Eleuthera. 

Approaching Eleuthera

 After getting the passenger set on his way and changing into our civvies, we asked about hiring a car for a few hours, not wanting to spend all our money on cab fares.  We were offered a car for $60 for the day, but were told it needed to be cleaned, which, apparently in the Bahamas, takes a couple hours.  We were only to be there till about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was already past 10:00 in the morning.  It wasn't looking good.  No other car rentals had anything available, so we called the lady backed and promised her that we did not care how clean or not clean it was, we just needed the car.  She said she'd have it to us in half an hour.  Of course, this is island time, so it was more like an hour fifteen.  Good enough, we'll take it.  She ended up knocking $10 off the price for us because of the wonky dash.  There should have been an additional $30 off for the shaky transmission, clattering suspension, and smell of sweat and the years of caked-in dirt and human bits, but we had a car and that was all that mattered.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of our trusty steed.  Just picture the most unfortunate red Chevy Cavalier you can imagine.

We drove through streets that looked like this, which the native islanders just barreled through at breakneck speeds.  We knew they drove on the wrong side from what we were used to, but we didn't realize that meant straight down the middle.  It was like taking your life into your own hands each time you turned a corner or topped a hill.

It was totally worth it, though, because this was our final destination:

About half a mile of beachy nothingness.  There was nothing and no one.  Just us.  We explored a little more before setting up camp, hiking back into the jungle a bit to find Preacher's Cave.

This was the vague sign that pointed us in the right direction.  We followed a small path for a ways and then happened upon the mouth of the cave.

The mouth of the cave.

This was the sign that greeted us at the mouth of the cave.
It reads:
"WILLIAMS
SHIPWRECK
AT DEVIL BACKBONE
FOUND REFUGE
HERE
SERMONS HELD 100 YRS"

Looking up, while standing in the cave, you could see through.

 Looking out of the cave.

The cave itself was not large and only went back a little ways, but it was fun to explore and it was interesting to imagine the shipwrecked group, holding a service there, preaching from the rocks.

We returned to the beach and found a spot we liked to set up our picnic and chairs.

This is pretty much the life, right here.

I went exploring a bit along our private beach.

A boat that had washed up on the rocks.

Snail Tree

Treacherous Rocks

Some sea moss

We spent a good while there, sunning ourselves in the winter sun.  When it passed behind a cloud, you could feel the nip of winter in the air, but with the sun beating down, it was a little slice of paradise.

We returned through the winding, narrow streets to the little airport and began to get our things in order for the trip home.  We waved goodbye to the island and headed West, towards traffic on the right side of the road and customs that actually pay attention to what you're bringing into the country.

Bye, Eleuthera!