As I am about to change jobs here on TCI, the law requires me to leave/return to the island between jobs (odd I know). There are 3 realistic destinations - Miami, Dominican Republic and Bahamas. I chose the Bahamas as Glen North (friend/instructor I used to work with in Gozo) works there. He managed to get a couple of days off work, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with him.
I flew out on a small 21 seater plane (still can't get used to seeing the pilot) and an hour and a half later arrived in the capital, Nassau. I had booked a guest house downtown and caught a taxi there (10 miles). The first thing that stuck me was how much more fertile the island is, with lots of trees, plants, grass verges and far less of the scrub I have become used to. The island is also far more structured, with a proper town centre and better laid out infastructure. It is evident that it is geared to tourism and Americans, with all the usual fastfood joints featuring.
I booked into the guesthouse (dump but cheap) and wandered the old town. The town exists due to the vast number of cruise ships that stop here, the main street shops are a mixture of Gucci, Cartier, Versace, Rolex etc etc. I watched the hive of activity at the portside, there was a constant flow of snorkel & beach trips, dolphin excursions, and other tours.
The highlight of the first day was finding an Indian restaurant (not having had a curry in nearly a year since last in the UK), where I had a great Madras, washed down with Kingfisher lager - Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The next day I headed to Stuart Cove to go diving. I was picked up and after 40 minutes arrived at Stuart Cove. The place is at the opposite end of the island to everything else and completely self contained. It is a hugh operation, appears very professionally run, offering everything including after dive burgers and beers. I had gone for the Shark Adventure dive and was not disappointed. We jumped off the boat and there were probably 10 sharks swimming beneath us. The first dive was a wall dive, with the sharks in constant view. We swam along the reef wall, around a couple of wrecks and back. It was great to see the sharks, the reef was nothing special, certainly not as nice as TCI (less coral and fish life). The second dive was the shark feeding dive. We descended, sat on the bottom and then a guy in chainmail (?) arrived with a box of fishheads. There were sharks everywhere, probably 40 - 50 in number, swimming all around us (and nudging into us). Check out the youtube link on this journal entry. It certainly was an experience, something I am glad I did, but would not feel the need to do again.
That evening I met up with Glen and we spent the evening drinking and catching up (until we got kicked out the bar because they wanted to close). The following day we chilled, shopped abit, ate and then spent the evening following a similar pattern to the previous night.
Glen left the following day, so I took the opportunity to sightsee, wandering around the straw market, parliamant square and generally enjoying the sights.
It was great to catch up with Glen, for those who know him, he seems pretty content with his lot here, although he still drinks like a fish (my poor liver).
As for the Bahamas, I only saw a part of one of the smallest (although most populated islands). It was more of what I had hoped & expected TCI would be like when I first arrived in this part of the World. There is lots of colour, activity, and vibrancy about the place and all the people I met were friendly.
I am awaiting some dates now from Glen, with a view to meeting him next year in Andros (another island in Bahamas) and spending a week diving the inland and sea blue holes - now that will be sweet !
