The Bahama islands we visited on SBC VIII
On Monday we docked in Nassau the least interesting stop of the
week for me. Yes, it's the capital of the
Bahamas
, and a fairly colorful and active town . . . but the town caters to the
tourists who disembark from the humongous ships that regularly dwarf ones
the size of the Regal Empress. We were next to a Disney ship that disgourged
families that probably headed straight to McDonalds for a real Bahamian experience
(sorry, I shouldn't be that cynical . . . they were probably having a wonderful
time). Shops selling anything you wanted . . . if it was cheap tee shirts,
cigars (Cuban . . . though you could never be sure), ticky-tacky island souvenirs,
etc . . . I realized this wasn't where I wanted to spend my time, so I headed
out of that area, over the hill and into a residental neighborhood that gave
me a little bit of a look at life on the island. After a short, but
invigorating walk, I ended up back near the dock where I found an Internet
cafe and checked my email (and for a lot cheaper than on the ship!), ran into
Brian and Julia for lunch, and then headed back on board. Not a real exciting
afternoon, but at least a chance to walk around. But I also know others had
a wonderful day in Nassau . . . I received the following from Jack Scully,
the Derailers' ace webmaster:
I enjoyed Nassau. Teresa and I got off the boat and passed
the first set of tour guides and said we would just walk around.
We decided to take a carriage ride around and we realized that we
would have to take one of the tours around the island. We hooked
up with a tour guide named Perry. There was 6 of us on the tour which
took us all over the island. As he put it we visited all the different
classes on the island. At the end we went to Atlantis and then stopped
at one of the fishing huts near the bridge to Paradise Island and
had some conch salad. We lucked out with our tour guide.
Cool! I probably should have found myself a good tour guide, but I was
probably being cheap!
Tuesday was another beautiful day in the Bahamas and we were anchored
a few miles off the coast of the island of Eleuthera. A long narrow
island (actually three of them separated by narrow inlets), it is famous
for it's pink sand beaches and history as the last stop for Spanish ships
to take on water before heading across the Atlantic to Spain (and undoubtedly
laden with anything of value they plundered from the natives of the Carribbean
and Central/South America. . . including slaves, but that's another story).
There were a whole series of shore excursions that I could have done
(like deep sea fishing, snorkling, golf cart island tour), but all I wanted
was a warm beach to park my pale white body . . . and that's exactly what
I found.
After a short ride on the tender boat, I chose to skip the taxi ride that
would take me to another boat to get to the pink sand beach. Too involved,
and I figured plain old beige sand would do just fine. A good sized group
of cruisers seemed to have felt the same, so we wandered down the road to
find a good place to settle for the afternoon. We really didn't have to go
very far, and I soon found that near perfect spot to throw down my towel.
Spent a couple of quiet hours reading, writing, swimming, and taking a few
photos. It was a great counterpoint to the activity of the ship and a welcome
contrast to docking in Nassau the previous day. Bought a couple of woven
items from some very nice island residents who set up stalls at the dock
. . . they hadn't had a cruise ship dock near them in quite a while and seemed
quite pleased we were there . . . all in all it was a wonderfully relaxing
afternoon.
On Wednesday we were supposed to go to San Salvador, presumed landing
place of Columbus in 1492. Given the historical significance and not being
a typical cruise stop, I was looking forward to another quiet island beach
experience. But because of rough weather, we headed back to Nassau instead
. . . which most people didn't realize until they were on deck in the
morning ( gee, why does that island look familiar?). The good thing
was that we didn't dock in town, but off the island and to the north . .
. near a resort beach called Blue Lagoon. We had tender boats to take us
there to spend the day. 
I was a little skeptical, but I was happily wrong. Yes, it was set up
for tourist visitors, but it had a funky island charm and hammocks! . .
. hundreds of double-wide hammocks slung between palm trees . . . with a
gentle island breeze, a tiki bar, food (which was free for us), a beautiful
lagoon to swim in, snorkling, and even swimming with rays and dolphins if
you wanted. It was actually a really pleasant place to spend the afternoon.
Best feeling - floating on my back in the lagoon . . . completely
relaxed, womb-like. . . . . . aaahhhhhhh.
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