Day One – Thursday, March 24, 2011
Flying in to Grand Bahama Island
The timing of the propellers and the video camera made an interesting effect! Looked like the propellers were moving really slow and made of rubber!
Taino Beach Resort
The resort is beautiful and definitely designed to enjoy the outdoor spaces. The dining hall was an open pavilion where buffet style meals were served. The pool area had a slide with a little grotto bar underneath that we’ll have to explore later!
Our Room
Small, but comfortable with a jacuzzi tub right behind the headboard of the bed! Clothing storage was under the bed, but we did have our own little kitchenette.
Exploring the grounds
These little lizards were all over the place and were the ambassadors for the resort. Beautiful flowering shrubs everywhere made the outdoor spaces inviting.
Day Two – Friday, March 25, 2011
Of course we weren’t content to stay on the resort and had to go do a bit of exploring further up the beach. We always seem to get off the beaten path somehow 🙂 A little ways up the beach, we found a run-down, abandoned resort. The pillars leading down to the beach from the resort must have made for many beautiful wedding pictures.
We came back to the resort and decided to have lunch in the grotto under the water slide!
Started with a bucket of Pirate Punch, THEN lunch, then another bucket, THEN went grocery shopping!
We took the shuttle bus into town that took us to the grocery store where we got some necessary supplies. There was also a liquor store next door and of course, we thought we needed more rum!
Day Three – Saturday, March 26, 2011
Port Lucaya Marina
We took a ferry boat from the resort over to Port Lucaya – a small shopping and dining district just down the coast from our resort. We had dinner here and stayed to watch some local entertainment.
Day Four – Sunday, March 27, 2011
Hanging out at Taino Beach
A day to simply hang out and enjoy the beach and surf. The weather here has been beautiful and consistently in the high 70s – low 80s.
Evening entertainment – bonfire, dancing, and fire dancing.
Day Five – Monday, March 28, 2011
Up and ready for another full day! Looking a little rough in the morning, we enjoyed the beach for awhile before going on a tour of the corral reefs on a glass-bottom boat.
Glass-bottom boat tour
A quick photo-op stop at an infamous pirate ship on the way out to the reefs. The damage to the corral reef was sad. Years later, the damage from Hurricane Frances still had not healed. Silt covering the corral causes it to die off and the fish and other aquatic life that are dependent on it suffer. There have been steps taken to help heal this national treasure, but it’s a long process.
Port Lucaya
We stopped in at Port Lucaya after the reef tour and enjoyed some drinks out of a fresh coconut.
Day Six – Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Exploring the island with our new friend Josephine. She had rented a car for a couple days and asked if we wanted to join her in exploring the island. They drive on the left side of the street in the Bahamas, so thankfully the traffic was light, but you had to really think when going around round-abouts!
The Garden of the Groves
This nature garden had lots of examples of the native plant life that is abundant on the islands.
Caves and Mangrove forest
Further up the road, we stopped by to explore a series of caves with an underground stream that were home to a bat nursery and an ancient burial mound. Continuing down the path, led to a swampy mangrove forest area.
Gold Rock Beach
The path through the mangrove forest opened up onto a beautiful secluded beach! The water was shallow and warm and so clear and blue! I told Betsy that if I ever suddenly disappeared off the face of the planet, to come look for me here.
Sights along the drive. So many businesses are just ran out of homes or are houses converted to businesses. Conch harvesting is huge here and disposal of conch shells are a real problem. Betsy and I joked that we could invent a smartphone built into the shell – the iConch and make a living on the Bahama beaches 🙂
We decided to stop for a late lunch at a restaurant shown at the end of the road. When we got to this restaurant we weren’t sure we were in the right place. We looked around and started to walk down the street. A guy from the house across the street came out and said “Hey Mon. Want me to cook you some food?” He walked over to the restaurant and sat us and took our order. It had a beautiful view of the beach and beach volleyball. The food was delicious!
Quick stop in Port Lucaya. Josephine was embarrassed by crude display of one of the statues and tried to cover it up while her and Betsy posed for a picture. 🙂
Day Seven – Wednesday, March 30, 2011
International Market
We went looking for some local memorabilia at the International Market – an outdoor mall. Unfortunately, many of the stores were closed down due to hurricane damage from previous years.
Snorkling
The coral here was much healthier than we saw the other day. Unfortunately, we didn’t have waterproof cameras. The water was shallow at times and we found ourselves “sucking in our guts” when the waves would go low over some of the reefs! Josephine wasn’t into snorkeling, so she hung out at the beach and relaxed with a book.
More Exploring
Driving around the rest of the small island, we saw a couple churches, one of the conch dumps, and a group of students heading off to school. We stopped by a small bakery and enjoyed some fresh banana bread.
Sunset Cruise
The water was a bit choppy, so we mostly stayed in the bay. Lots of rum punch and dancing and nobody went overboard, so a successful evening!
Day Eight – Thursday, March 31, 2011
Breakfast
The most delicious bread that we had picked up on our travels the day before at West End Bakery It had yummy coconut and papaya topping. We ate the last two slices before heading home.
Exploring Taino Beach
One last excursion down the beach. While Moo enjoyed relaxing on the beach, we went for another hike. Unfortunately, we had packed the sunscreen already and the sun was hot. Betsy got creative and used some palm fronds to prevent her shoulders from burning!
Back to reality
Betsy cried all the way to the airport. They were so laid back there the cab driver let me take my drink in the cab to the airport. I was so sad. I kept saying, “I don’t want to go back yet.”
Miami Airport
We had a couple hours layover, so we walked around the airport, looking at all the interesting artwork from fish. Wait, was that just the last call for our flight? Crap, we just missed our plane!
Luckily, the airline took pity on us and were already rebooking a ton of people from redirected flights because of a storm in Orlando. We had to get a hotel for the night and catch a flight the next morning.
