Welcome back, boys and girls! It's 36 degrees outside and work's been slow, so what better time to get a post up about our 6 days in the Bahamas :)
I've wanted to go to the Exuma Islands for a few years now, but it's pretty dang expensive. I ended up getting a Delta flight with my Skymiles back in like, June and then paid for $450 Brian's ticket, so it balanced out a bit. $225 each to fly to paradise is a small price to pay if you ask me.
We flew over to Nassau on Wednesday and spent the night there before continuing on to Georgetown. This portion of the flight cost another $200 and I honestly wasn't sure if would be worth it, but flying over the islands was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip...I've never seen anything like it and the views blew my mind. The clouds were so cool and the islands and water and the way the sand swirls around...I was so happy that we had a relatively clear day and that I'd chosen the morning flight. I considered it almost as an excursion in itself and for $400, it was worth every penny.
Disclaimer: There are a TON of photos in this post, but it was just so stinking beautiful and we had such an amazing time and this is more for me than for anybody else, so just keep scrolling if you're overwhelmed with what looks like the same thing over and over.
Disclaimer: There are a TON of photos in this post, but it was just so stinking beautiful and we had such an amazing time and this is more for me than for anybody else, so just keep scrolling if you're overwhelmed with what looks like the same thing over and over.
I must admit, the first day was kind of a mess and I was super grumpy. It was the culmination of a couple of weeks worth of terrible communication by our Airbnb host.
Months ago, I'd found a little house on the island with excellent reviews and the option to book tours, excursions, and a rental car through the host. I also had a Superhost reward to use up, so I got a killer deal on it. Rental cars there can be kind of tricky and are quite expensive, not to mention few and far between, so I immediately sent our host our flight information and asked if she could arrange the rental car for us. She replied, "Yes.". Fast forward to a week before our arrival, I sent her a message asking about how much the car was going to cost and insurance and details and if we'd get the rental car from the airport or if she was picking us up, etc. No response. When we arrived at the Nassau airport before flying to Georgetown, I messaged her once again, asking if she was picking us up and how to meet her. Nothing.
We landed in Georgetown pretty early in the hopes that we could get our rental car, drop off our backpacks, and then hit the beach for the afternoon. After still not having heard from her, I finally just called her and she answered, saying that she was right around the corner...perfect! We hopped in her Suburban and were anxious to get the show on the road after lots of travel. We waited for another couple from the Czech Republic on a different flight and then hit the road. About 5 minutes in, our host told us that she just needed to run a few errands before taking us to the house and that our rental car (and the other couple's scooter) would be brought to the house. We proceeded into town (while she answered about 6 phone calls) where she parked and told us to go grocery shopping while she took care of some stuff.
Generally, I like to check out our accommodations before shopping so I know exactly what we'll need. Sometimes, the place will have coffee, popcorn, granola bars, cereal, tea, orange juice, seasonings, olive oil, etc. and that's just less that you have to buy. We looked over the listing and saw that it came stocked with coffee (which we later found it was not), so we grabbed a little container of cream and waited outside with the other couple...since the Suburban was locked and it was 80 degrees.
Over an hour later, I saw her come out of the bank and go into the grocery store, so I went in to tell her that we were ready to go. She followed me out until she spotted an old pal that she hadn't seen in a while and felt the need to catch up while we all stood in the sun waiting. After over 2 hours, we were finally on the road to our little house. She showed us and our Czech friends our places and then disappeared. I sent her another message asking about the status of our rental car. No response. At some point while I was changing to go to the beach across the street, she found Brian and told him that she was making us dinner that night. I sent her another message saying that we were going to walk over to the beach for a couple of hours.
On the bright side, we had a great time on the beach and playing in the water. It was the same beach that the Sandal's resort (which is pretty much the biggest, fanciest resort on the Exumas) is on, Emerald Bay. We had it all to ourselves and played in the waves and the warm, perfectly clear, fluorescent aqua water. The sand was soooo soft...it was like flour. I thought it was interesting that all of the shells we found were basically buffed to a high sheen because the sand is so soft.
By 5 pm, we were starving. We walked back to the house where there was no sign of our host's car our our rental car, so I sent her another message saying thanks for offering dinner, but we were just going to see what we could find down the road. As we were walking along, we crossed paths with the Czech couple who said that they hadn't gotten their scooter either and weren't sure what was going on. They saw someone stop by our place, but we weren't there.
We walked for about 2 miles in the dark along the narrow road in the bushes (which were slithering with little black snakes, btw) before I just boiled over with frustration and started crying. I was pissed that this lady had wasted so much of our time and I wished that we had just gotten a normal rental car at the airport and done our own thing. We walked back to the house and Brian got a hold of the host to tell her that we needed our car. 5 minutes later, a lady showed up and whisked him away for about an hour. It ended up being about $100 more than I'd thought it would be and they demanded payment in full and a $250 cash deposit. This required a very expensive trip to the only ATM on the island. It was all a little sketchy and I had a sinking feeling that we weren't going to get that deposit back and that there wasn't anything we could do about it. Anyway, the rental car was hilarious.
Our host back in Nassau told us about how people there could order little cars from Japan online for a couple hundred dollars and have them shipped over and it got so out of hand that the government had to step in.
Guess what our rental car was? And when she called them "Japanese cars", she wasn't kidding. The driver sat on the right, the screen for the stereo (which didn't work) and air conditioner was all in Japanese, the windshield wiper control was on the left and the blinkers were on the right (so every time we turned on the blinkers, the windshield wipers would turn on), and every time we turned it on or flipped it into reverse, it literally spoke to us at length in Japanese. Not to mention that the wheels sounded like they were going to snap off every time we hit a bump (and the roads were covered in very large, very deep potholes, so we had a few close calls). Oh, and did I mention that it was citrus green and also the local pizza parlor's delivery vehicle (it actually said "VEGAS PIZZA" on the windshield)? At first I thought it would be nice not standing out as tourists while driving around, but it occurred to me that they probably rent that thing out all the time, so the local's know anyway. I must say that it's one hell of a money maker because we paid $300 for 4 days and that's probably more than they paid for the car when they bought it online. The island is only 37 miles from end to end and that little car had 6000 miles on it. I didn't care though, I was just so happy to have wheels.
We drove to a little Conch shack which was literally a little potting shed on the side of the road with a bar and some stools and a few dogs hanging out for scraps. It was totally a local's spot and Sandal's wedding planner bought us a round and welcomed us to the Bahamas :) They had a cooler on the floor and a little sink and a pile of fruits and vegetables. Brian ordered conch salad and I ordered the tropical salad (eating what looks like a huge snail raw didn't look too appealing but I did try a bite). It was just chopped up apples, pineapple, mango, cabbage, tomatoes, red onions, hot peppers, bell peppers, celery, lime juice, and herbs. I could have eaten that all day every day and I pretty much did! We also got the famous "Sky Juice" which is Gin, Coconut milk, and cream. It was pretty delicious.
Once we got back to our Airbnb, while I was taking a shower, the host came over and told Brian that she'd booked us a couple of excursions for the following day to go swim with the pigs at a rate of $210 per person. I can't figure out why...we never asked her to or even implied that we wanted to go swim with the pigs. Ugh. We ended up getting in touch with her and told her to cancel the reservation and she did and it was fine. It was bazaar that she kept talking to Brian when I wasn't around and he didn't really know what was going on so he couldn't argue with her.
I had looked into renting a boat to go to some remote sandbars, but the tide really high during the day, so I'm not sure that we would have been able to find one anyway. And really, the only reason you pay a couple hundred dollars to go to a remote sandbar is to have it all to yourself, right? Well, we ended up having all of the free public beaches to ourselves anyway, so why bother?
Our first full day on Great Exuma, we found a little spot for breakfast and continued to Cocoplum Beach, famous for it's swings in the water. The original swings were built as an attraction for the infamous Fyre Festival and got taken out by a storm, so they've rebuilt new swings in their place, but the remnants of the old swings were washed up in the bushes and rocks nearby. The night before was full moon and the tide was really high, so there wasn't a ton of sand and the swings were totally submerged. Even though it's one of the most famous beaches on the island, we had it completely to ourselves! They don't technically have topless beaches there, but they were for me and I was in heaven :) We got all settled in and explored for a bit, waiting for the tide to go out just a tad.
We spent half of the day there before finding a little restaurant on the beach for lunch and ice cream.
Then, we went back to Emerald Bay for the afternoon. That evening, I got a sore throat and my sinuses were really clogged, so Brian got us takeout and snacks and we had dinner watching Netflix.
Saturday, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so we ventured to Little Exuma and spent the day on Tropic of Cancer beach. We decided pretty much right away, that this was our favorite beach, maybe ever. It was everything you would want a beach in the Bahamas to be. The water was much more calm there...the most vivid blue, clear, warm, and just perfect in every way. The clouds that particular day were so cool and the sky almost looked purple compared to the water. The beach is stretched out for miles with tons of spots to explore. Again, with the exception of a couple about a mile away, we had the entire beach to ourselves all. day. long. At the end of the day, a boat full of drunks pulled up and managed to get themselves stuck in the sand and flood their motor. We pushed them out and then the police came and towed them back to the marina.
We spent the entire day there before grabbing food (jerk chicken and rice) down the road at Santanna's. While enjoying our meal, we noticed a particularly dark cloud passing by, but didn't get rained on. When we went back to the beach afterwords, all of the sand had little dots from the raindrops and we'd realized that we had picked the perfect time to go eat. The weather the entire time we were there was absolute perfection - 80 degrees. It would rain at night but was clear pretty much all day every day.
We were hoping to enjoy the sunset, but the sand flies started to show up at about 4:00 and chased us out.
After breakfast on Sunday, we decided to check out a little local secret spot where you can swim with turtles. We hung out for a while and saw a turtle, but once people started showing up, we headed out.
Having enjoyed Tropic of Cancer beach so much on Saturday, we decided to go back for the day. We even spotted a shark right in the shallows! It was maybe 4 or 5' long and in ankle deep water, but it was over on a spot with a little bit more seaweed and kelp, so it was looking for food. Where we mostly swam and spent our day was crystal clear, so there weren't really any fish or anything in that part.
Once the sand flies came out, we made our way back to Georgetown and found another little potting shed in the marina. Brian got fried Conch and I had jerk pork with steamed carrots and rice. Most of the places that we'd eaten on the island charged about $30 per person but this little gem was only $14 for both of us! I was so happy...I can't even tell you.
Monday was our last day with our flight back to Nassau leaving at 7 pm so we could enjoy a full day, you guessed it, on the beach. We found our way BACK to Tropic of Cancer and found a little cove protected (for the most part) from the 20 mile an hour wind.
Off in the nearby bushes, we spotted a few structures that we just had to explore. Of course, one was a dilapidated old house that I would have moved into right then and there if I could have. The other was a garage with a Jeep inside.
We had a late lunch and Radler (if you follow along on this blog at all you all know that I LOVE me a Radler...I got hooked on the Grapefruit version in Slovenia and have to order it at any bar that serves it. Unfortunately, the place that made this Passion Fruit version got destroyed in Dorian and no longer exists, so I got one of the last bottles in existence) at Santanna's (local lore is that the cast and crew of Pirates of the Caribbean ate there for dinner after filming a scene nearby) before returning our rental car, collecting out $250 deposit in Bahamian dollars :|, and making our way to the little airport, which didn't have any currency exchange, but I guess that just means that I'll have to go back soon ;)
We flew back to Nassau, spent the night, and then flew back into Phoenix the next day. Once again, our flights got moved around a bit leaving us with an 8-minute layover in Atlanta, but we arrived a little bit early and made our connection and all was well.
Apparently, this is usually a pretty busy time in the Exumas, but for some reason it was dead...which I loved. Everywhere we went, we were pretty much the only ones and we loved every minute - once we got our rental car, that is ;) While researching which islands we wanted to visit, I'd read that the Exumas are way more laid back and quiet and undeveloped that other islands, which was exactly what we were going for. There weren't really a lot of bars or anything...the most action we caught was at the Conch shack where all of the locals went after work for Sky Juice. The people there are unbelievably friendly and hospitable and the island was sooo beautiful. I imagine that it'll be much more popular in the coming years and become more commercialized and touristy, so if you get the chance to go, do it...it was heaven.