There are many reasons to visit the beautiful area known as Hope Town on the island of Abaco. The word quaint is one that is heavily over-used particularly in the brochures of travel agents, but the scale, tranquillity and the sense of escape in Abaco are hard to believe. When we landed off the ferry, it felt as if we had gone back to a calmer, quieter time.
After our flight to the Marsh Harbour International airport (which is much smaller and manageable than it might sound), we wasted no time in getting off, walking around and taking in the atmosphere.
We stopped off in the small, local shops owned by people with stories to tell of Hope Town history; we popped into the Wyannie Malone museum as a good point to start in terms of exploring the history of Hope Town. But without doubt the jewel in Hope Town's crown is the Candy Striped Lighthouse.
When I stepped off the ferry, I was hit between the eyes by the lighthouse. It stood out as a beacon through the island, as it is both the most prominent sight and visually distinctive, with its red and white horizontal stripes.
The walk up the steps to the top of the lighthouse was certainly worth the effort as the views from the top were breathtaking. But what really surprised me was the story behind the lighthouse. As someone who loves these human stories and traditions, I was intrigued to hear about how the lighthouse and its bizarre history, with a sense of the old "Pirates of the Caribbean".
You see, we'd been told early on in our trip that the word "Bahamas" came from the Spanish expression "Baja mar", or "shallow waters".
So it seems that because the local waters were famously shallow, many ships found themselves wrecked off all the different quays (or "cays" as they're called here).
So, it became a bit of a tradition for the locals to gather when a ship was wrecked and scavenge around for they could "rescue" We were told by our guide that in 1860 there was one wreck per month at Abaco alone and it became quite a lucrative "business" for the locals.
That obviously wasn't a good thing for the ship owners and the authorities so in 1863 the English authorities decided to clamp down. (Why do the Brits always play the bad guys?).
So, they built a lighthouse to prevent further shipwrecks. Being normal human beings whose livelihood and local industry had been threatened, the local townsfolk ganged up to try and stop it being built. There were even reports at the time that some locals sank a supply barge one night and also refused to serve fresh water to the workers.
So I reckon that The Hope Town lighthouse is not only the prettiest in the world, but is officially the most unpopular lighthouse in the world: two very good reasons among the many to visit Abaco.
