Amazon Adventure# 17. The ruins of Royal Island.

Royal Island has RUINS, and that`s a good thing. After a day spent mostly sleeping after our night crossing we do some snorkeling and then motor up the bay to anchor into the mangrovesfor shelter from the gale. We have seen old buildings ashore and look forward to exploring the next day.

The journal:
Jan.10th.
Today we woke up, had breakfast and mom and dad had a saltwater shower on deck. We got ready to leave and then Ian from ‘Action’ came and offered us a ferry ride in his Zodiac! What a relief not to have to do it in Hippo. It was a bouncy and splashy trip. We had to lift ourselves up onto the jetty. When mom tried to get up, dad dropped her - SCAREY! - She scratched her leg and banged up her toe. PAIN!

Next, the ruins. We climbed up the cement staircase posted with such slogans as "Use your island and stop abusing it!" " Be good to your island!". I see their point because there are lots of coke cans and garbage. We reached the top of the stairs among coconuts and red and white flowering bushes. All these old buildings were built in the 1920`s ( You can tell because of the type of plumbing) but made to look much older with stone masonry etc. The main house was very pretty once but now we struggled through bushes to see it. There was also a guest house, a dining hall, servants quarters, kitchen, school, pool hall and many more little buildings. All of these are joined by cement roads twice as wide as the ones on Green Turtle Cay. There were fruit trees and a lot of other trees and bushes that must be lovely in the Spring. We saw lots more and then blew the horn and Ian came and got us. With him he brought an Eleuthera pineapple and a book on the Loyalists in the Exumas called ‘Wind from the Carolinas’, - very good! Not a bad day. Anne.