Part 4

Nassau --We awoke this morning, early, to the sound of the harbor waking up. It was a comforting sound to hear voices and activities and made me think that finally the fun will begin. After doing chores, filling fuel cans for Jim and doing laundry for Mary, we decided to play tourist in Nassau. After exploring the Atlantis hotel, we walked across the famous Paradise Island Bridge and explored “the other side.” The shacks of the fresh fish vendors were a real contrast to the opulence of the Atlantis hotel, but we enjoyed the native experience. On our walk to Fred and Jane’s Marina, we stopped at a local stand for conch fritters. Jim spent nearly an hour talking with the Bahamian women about conch fritters and coconut milk. They loved him. The following day, we joined Fred and Jane at the Harbor Club Marina. Not as beautiful as Hurricane Hole, but more to our liking and pocketbook. We did the tourist thing again today--taking advantage of a free tour of the Atlantis aquarium and then on to the straw market. All this was a walking tour, but the trip back to the Marina was by local bus where we talked with people on the bus and scooped up local knowledge on where to eat dinner--Double D’s. We had lots to celebrate because we were finally in the Bahamas. The plan was to leave the next day for the true destination, the Exumas.