Our hike ends at the sixth ecosystem: a cave that is a bat nursery during May, June and July. Luckily, the bats are all in Cuba during my visit.
Grand Bahama boasts some of the world's best diving, mainly because of its numerous coral reefs and shipwrecks, and for the major dive company, UNEXSO, that operates from the island. But for a certain breed of expert diver, this cave is the reason to visit.
A guide points out the lush vegetation on a nature tour of Grand Bahama Island.
(Bahamas Ministry of Tourism)
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It doesn't look like much from our perspective: A spiral staircase leads to a stony enclosure about the size of a small hotel ballroom with a cathedral ceiling. But tunnels beneath a pool of water in the center of the cave lead to one of the world's largest underground cave systems. According to Sam, divers there found skeletons that were determined to be, through carbon dating, the bones of humans who'd lived in A.D. 1400.
Grand Bahama's beaches and shorelines are, in my mind, the only dramatically beautiful ecosystems on the island. But Sam has raised my appreciation for the flat, scrappy landscape beyond the shores.
Grand Bahama is lauded for its biking, because of the island's lightly traveled, flat roads. I've moved so far into relaxation mode that pedaling doesn't seem as appealing now as it did from my desk at work, but I go looking for a bike rental place anyway. Then lo, there appears a rental shop with rows of shiny motor scooters.
Initially, I'm so tentative and cautious on mine that I feel like an old lady in a Wal-Mart, riding one of those electric, wheeled chairs with big wire shopping baskets across the front. Finally I turn off onto a dirt road for some confidence building. By the time I return to the paved roads and rev my bike up to 40 mph, I feel as if I could fit right in with a gang of Harley Davidson riders ready to hit the open road.
I ride without a destination in mind, making lots of turns for no reason whatsoever. So of course, when it's time to return to my hotel, I have no idea how to get there.
No problem.
Twice I pull to the side of the road. And twice, before I've had time to fully unfold my map, locals pull in front of me and get out of their cars to ask if I need directions.
I'm not surprised, really, because I'd been on the island three days and had already witnessed the friendly, helpful attitude of Grand Bahamians.
