Well the walk up the hill certainly got mine beating faster but this island has had treasure buried on it and was the inspiration for the book Treasure Island by RLS. Tons of silver from a Spanish treasure galleon named Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe were hidden here on the island then recovered by locals from Tortola but the local authorities undersome bigwig from Britain made them hand it over. Still I bet there was some considerable shrinkage before the handover. I got to talking to one of the locals off a dive boat and he said that we were standing close to the site where they buried this treasure in the 1750s.
He said there are also persistant rumours of one or more chests filled with gold coins being found in caves around the coast of the island. He told of a couple of fisherman who took refuge in a cave from a storm and then gave up fishing, moved to St Thomas and bought a bar.
It made me look harder around the caves off the western end when I swam inside them while snorkeling to cool off from the walk ashore but no chests of gold to be found..
Still the crowds of white butterflies all around me on the walk up the track to the overlook and the shoals of iridescent fish flocking to hoover up the breadcrumbs bought by the snorkellers was treasure enough today. I shall sleep well tonight.
I would love to have a metal detector. I've wanted one since I was 12. There would be no place more fun to try it out than the Caribbean islands, that is for sure!!
ReplyDeleteThe walk with the butterflies sounds lovely.