Nassau Bahamas

Nassau Bahamas is hot.  The breeze blows through the palm trees and the sea that laps at the shore is turquoise and clear.

For an island that is only 21 miles long and 7 miles wide with 190,000 inhabitants, they have a lot of gas-guzzling 4×4 cars and even more crazy, those huge trucks with the honking horns you see on road trip films in the USA.  We saw 4 pedal bikes the whole week, 3 belonging to policemen and 1 to a child.  The island would be perfect for bikes.  It’s flat.

 

They have ‘public’ buses, but these are minibuses run by individuals and don’t travel as far west as Clifton Point’s nature park and trails or to Gambier village where an original settlement is.  They go along the back of the hotels and gated communities and drop the workers off.  They do bus tours, but these cost $100s rather than the $2 the bus costs.

 

 

We were told that the biggest new hotels are owned by the Chinese.  I am not sure who owns Atlantis on Paradise island, but I don’t believe it’s Bahamian.  It looks like pictures of hotels in Dubai and it is vulgar.  It costs $100 per day for non-guests to visit the aquarium and hire a sun lounger and umbrella.  Even on the public beach a guy was charged $75 for 4 sun loungers and an umbrella.  As we arrived he came over and offered them to us.

 

Could we have had a better time with more money?  Other than having both money and time to move between islands I don’t think so.  The little isolated beaches with their white sand are quite beautiful. 

 

 

We enjoyed the annual wine and food cultural event at the Botanical Gardens on our first day.  I loved Ardastra Zoo which is in an exquisite landscaped garden, but needs more animals and more visitors.  It is owned by a local benefactor.  We were the only people to feed the lorikeets and two of four to watch the flamingo show.  Great for us.  Not viable for them.

 

What do I wish?  There is obviously a lot of money in the Bahamas, but the disparity of who benefits is stark.  The local people are lovely, with often cut-glass English accents, but Over The Hill Nassau looks like places I have seen in Africa.  Around the corner from the hotels, the pavements are Third World.  Half of the main street in downtown Nassau with its balconied, wooden houses is derelict.  Most of the stuff in the tourist shops is absolute tat.

 

Maybe because pretty much all the food is imported, Bahamians as a nation are predominantly overweight and unfit.  I guess there is a limit to how much peas and rice, chicken, fish, plantain and coleslaw you can eat.  We liked Sands pink beer made with red grapefruit.  Work opportunities are predominantly limited to retail, restaurants or room service.

 

I still enjoyed it immensely.  You could not be in that climate and not have a good time.