Bahama Mama

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Back in December, 2011 Dylan and I went on our first trip together to the Bahamas. We chose to go there because it was the furthest I could get for free on the amount of frequent flyer miles I had. And it also looked fairly nice of course!

HIGH FIVE!

For our first few days, we stayed at the Towne Hotel in downtown Nassau. Nassau looks like a city that was spruced up about 30 years ago for the growing cruise ship industry, and then never received the promised volume of tourist dollars. Many shop fronts are faded, closed, or halfway burnt and left to rot. Some areas were decent, but the most exciting thing we could find to do was to get drinks at the ubiquitous Senor Frogs restaurant. 

We tried going to a local grocery store during our first day, but the further we got inland, the more locals stopped to tell us we were in the wrong area. Despite this ominous warning, nothing seemed too dangerous. But after being served our conch fritters and fries through a bullet proof glass window, being buzzed into the gated grocery store, and ducking our heads to avoid the barbed wire extending out into the sidewalks, we decided to head back to the beach.

4 weeks old!

The next day we took a boat trip out to Blue Lagoon Island to swim with the dolphins. We took the first boat out and last boat back so we could enjoy the whole day on the very pretty beach. It wasn’t tourist season, so we had most of the island to ourselves. The dolphin encounter was a lot of fun, and we even got to see a baby dolphin! Can’t really top that.

The next hotel we stayed in is called the Comfort Inn Suites, and it is located on Paradise Island, over the bridge from Nassau, and a short walk from the Atlantis Resort.


We were able to stay here for around $100 a night, which includes free day-passes to the Atlantis pools and aquarium (which can cost about $100 alone!). We spent a lot of time at Atlantis; the aquariums and slides were amazing.

Our last hotel was the Wyndham Resort. While calling it a resort is a bit of a stretch, the view from our balcony was like a postcard, and we were able to use the nearby Sheraton’s pools in addition to our own. At this point, we had been in about a dozen different pools, and we were beginning to notice that we hadn’t found a single hot tub! There were hot tub shaped pools, sure, but not one was HOT, or even close. Atlantis has at least 10 different tube rides and slides but not a single hot tub. And though it was hot in the Bahamas, it definitely was not hot enough to render hot tubs useless.

Finally, we had some luck. We snuck into the Sandals resort to wander around the crazy expensive villas and the nicely groomed beach when we finally found it! A real hot tub. Unfortunately, it appeared that a foam noodle or something similar had disintegrated into the tub. A bazillion tiny foam flecks stuck to every inch of our skin. But it was hot!

To finish our trip, we took a couple of day trips. We rode a catamaran to a nearby island and stopped on the way for some gorgeous snorkeling opportunities, including a swim above a group of reef sharks. I got bit. Not by a shark, but by an aggressive Yellowtail Snapper, who succeeded in getting me to drop the bag of fish food we were given. Later that night, I succeeded in eating a Yellowtail Snapper for dinner. We were also served a free mixture of 95% punch, 5% rum, the so-called “Bahama Mama.” Definitely tasty, but you could get drunker at communion.

        

Lessons learned: Fish are mean, birds are nice, and petting a random shark at Atlantis is very easy to do.

For our last trip out, we managed to find a diving company that would take us both out, though Dylan was certified and I was not. I was given a quick lesson on the boat ride out, and was given a guided tour. Taking my first breath underwater was very intimidating, but definitely worth the view. We saw tons of fish, and even a small (BABY?) sea turtle.

One of the most interesting parts of the trip was seeing first-hand the interesting mix that is Bahamian culture. We attended a free taping of a Bahamian game show that was being filmed in the auditorium of the Wyndham. It was a completely local crowd, not catering to tourists at all. The questions asked of the contestants were a mix of US pop trivia and Bahamian history questions. I’ve always wanted to go to a game show taping, and this did not disappoint!

Colonel Flamingo keeps the troops in line