Bermuda: No, They're Not Car Alarms...

The first time, we think it was in 1995 or 1996, we flew to Bermuda, we arrived as dusk was falling.  We didn't have any idea about the island except we were here on a real estate retreat.  And the first sounds we heard were akin to thousands of car alarm sirens going off continuously!  It was an eery sound.  One we couldn't place.  It sounded like ghosts or at least really spooky.  Asking our taxi driver, he laughed and told us they were the island's tree frogs, no bigger than the nail on your little finger.  Lots of noise for a teeny tree frog.  And they keep up the din all night long.

 In fact, in 1506, the Spanish, under Juan de Bermudez, were the first explorers to find the island, but fled after naming it "the Devil Islands."  Wonder if it was the din of the frogs that scared them?!  And trivia: Shakespeare"s "Tempest" is supposed to be about Bermuda.  Were their tree frogs in that??

But it was the English who ultimately settled Bermuda -- by accident.  Remember Jamestown?  Yup.  The one in Virginia.  Well, Sir George Somers set off proudly for Jamestown from England with 9 ships and 650 sailors and settlers.  Seems the weather didn't cooperate for one of the ships, the Sea Venture, and they were blown off course right into the reef surrounding Bermuda.  In fact, they actually WANTED to land on the reef, as they wouldn't sink totally that way.  Anyway, there were 150 people and one dog shipwrecked here.  For 10 months.  They tried to send out a longboat with a home-made sail, but those guys disappeared.  So, after a time, they cannibalized the Sea Venture and used some of the Bermuda cedar trees and built 2 new ships, the Deliverance and the Patience, to continue their journey to Jamestown.

Brave souls, they.  When they reached their destination, where 500 of the settlers had landed, they found only 60 remaining and they were starving and almost dead.  Luckily, the rescuers had brought some provisions with them from Bermuda, but not enough -- and Bermuda hogs that were running wild on the island.
(By the way, that is why the old Bermuda money was called the "Hog Penny" and it really has a pig stamped on it!  With all those sick people there, Somers decided to go back to England via Bermuda where he left 3 volunteers to keep the island for England.  Unfortunately though, Somers got so much pork, he died and they pickled him, stuffed him in a barrel and returned him to England as well!

As to why Bermuda got the reputation of being scary, it might also have been those pesky reefs!  You see, the island is surrounded by an almost complete reef.  And there are many many shipwrecks throughout the waters for divers to explore.  In fact, old privateers used to put lanterns on the reef to lure unknowing ships to their demise, getting hung up on the reef and ultimately sinking after the privateers stripped them of their booty!

The popularity of this island as a vacation spot began in the Victorian age where it was cooler in the summer and milder in the winter for all those women wearing corsets and long dresses.  And, since the island is only 21 miles long,  they had a railway system to go from one end to the other.  There was, at one time, a British Naval station here and we Americans also had one.  And those Victorian mothers, always looking out for their daughters of marriageable age, brought them here to get a British officer to marry them!

So, we've been coming here almost every year since 1996 -- time enough for the Bermudians to tear down our two favorite hotels.  But we come for their crystal clear (really) beaches with pink sand and gentle waves.  And we've come here long enough that they've rebuilt one of the hotels -- at our very favorite beach.  The restauranteurs know us, which is comforting.  And we've met very interesting people -- mostly New Yorkers!

At home, when we say we are going to Bermuda, people will say "Oh, we've been to the Bahamas too."  Folks, this is NOT in the Caribbean.  It is in the middle of the Atlantic halfway between Spain and North Carolina.  No other islands even close!!  BUT when we get off the plane and hear those little frogs and the din of the car alarms, we say, "Guess we're 'home' again!"