Fresh Inkling: Travel

Note: This blog post is the last of four about a visit to Grand Bahamas Island in January 2016.

I wanted to get out of bed for the last sunrise of our stay on the island. I let Corey sleep since his leg and back had been bothering him, especially when walking on the sand. We hadn’t really had much time to walk the beach our resort was on, something I really enjoyed doing every day, sometimes twice a day, the last time I visited.

I walked east, since I knew the beach was longer that way, and found myself collecting shells even though I already packed my bags for our flight later in the day. Some shells were just too pretty to pass up. There were plenty of people out walking the beach, but most didn’t make it too far past the resort. I went all the way to the end, a couple of miles I would guess. I was able to capture some beautiful shots of the vivid sunlight meeting the waves and a sailboat passing through at just the right moment. It was serene.

The sunrise on the day we left was absolutely worth the early-morning wake-up.

Of course, the calm was washed away when I realized how long I had been out walking and how long it would likely take me to get back to the resort, putting me (actually us) way behind schedule. Corey was barely awake when I got back, so I didn’t feel too bad about my lengthy solo adventure.

We still had the car for a few hours, so we made the most of our time and drove to Garden of the Groves. It was probably the best $16 we had spent on the trip. I’d recommend everyone to make this top, even if for an hour or two. Those who like to stop and take lots of pictures should plan for more like two or three hours… We had two hours and took a few hundred photos. The place is like a rain forest tucked away on a run-down island. It was a breath of fresh air, a well-maintained tropical paradise. They had waterfalls, flowers, lizards, birds and so much to see and take in.

Garden of the Groves

Such a wide variety of flowers at Garden of the Groves.

Garden of the Groves

Wildlife at Garden of the Groves

I had been to the island before, although a lot had changed in the four years I’d been away. Maybe the newbie traveler in me had rose-colored glasses on the duration of that inaugural trip, or maybe the condition of the island has just gone downhill quite a bit in that time. It wasn’t quite how I remembered it, although it was still pretty magical.

I thoroughly enjoyed beach combing and having plenty to take pictures of. The forest and wooded areas on the island must have been damaged in a storm because they were pretty sparse. The snorkeling wasn’t as entertaining as I remembered it, having less to look at closer to the resort. Most of the homes were run down and needing work, some even needing doors and windows. It just seemed like very few of the citizens of the island took pride in their property or their possessions. We thought for sure we’d want to relocate to the tropical paradise, but five days was enough to open our eyes to how good we really have it back home.

The view from our room on a bright day at the resort.

Note: This blog post is third of four about a visit to Grand Bahamas Island in January 2016.

We tried our hand at snorkeling just to see if we would like it. We had some mixed reviews. We brought our own snorkel equipment so we didn’t need to rent any or worry about cleanliness. The downside was that Corey’s flipper wouldn’t stay latched on his foot. It was much more difficult that I remembered it being. We spent a lot of time fixing our equipment and not much time getting anywhere. I’m glad we decided to try it out at the resort instead of heading to another beach. After about two hours we were spent. We managed to find one rock with lots of fishies around it. We attempted to swim out to the coral reef 100 yards or so offshore, but it was high tide, so that distance wasn’t very easy to reach. The wind roughed up the water further from the beach, too.

Plenty to see snorkeling at the resort.

After lunch we drove west, stopping at the Lucaya Marketplace first. It was a mad house. All of the vendors seemed to be selling practically the same exact items and they were adamant about getting you to stop in their little shop. We stopped in one and they wouldn’t stop talking, trying to pressure us into buying something. I know we’re two really nice people who hardly ever say “no,” but somehow we managed to walk out of there empty-handed. We skirted the rest of the shops and walked toward the main drag to get an idea of what else there was. They had some American shops (Harley Davidson) and some higher-end shops selling fancy jewelry and clothing. Nothing was tripping our fancy. I really wanted some sort of jewelry, but struck out. We took some pictures and got on the road again.

We drove through Freeport, which was a challenge mainly because of the poor driving habits of the locals. They knew where they were going and just went there, nevermind stop signs and traffic signals. Driving on the wrong side of the road was challenge enough in roundabouts, but add the locals cutting corners and cutting in… it was insane.

Scenes from the west side of Grand Bahama Island.

After driving clear to the far west side of the island, Corey and I decided to never recommend traveling to that part. We had people asking us for a ride, walking in the middle of the road and watching our every move. We were maybe the only tourists (Corey told me I shouldn’t say “white people” but that’s how it really was, we were the only white people) driving at the time… so we stood out. That side of the island also featured many, many, many more stray dogs. They seemed to be everywhere. Most of the businesses and some of the homes had bars on their windows, too. It really wasn’t a pleasant place to be. It got a little nicer closer to the end of the island, but not by much.
We pulled off the road at the shore near the far west end and got out to walk around before driving back through the chaos. We took some pictures and it took us a few minutes to realize that the rocky shore wasn’t really made of rocks. It was a dumping ground for old conch shells. They were everywhere, some covered in plant life, some still pink and shiny. Corey found a smaller one that looked nice and would travel better than the one he found the previous day at Pelican Point. I already had a conch from my previous visit to the island. As we drove back toward Freeport, we noticed more piles of conch shells, something we were oblivious to before that stop.

We ended the night with a struggle to find the Pier One restaurant. It was in the harbor, but without the Internet, we had to rely on some pretty crappy directions to get us there. We arrived just after sunset and it was absolutely beautiful. Huge ships went by frequently. We had a nice supper and were able to see the 7 p.m. shark feeding. The lighting wasn’t great for photos and the sharks were moving pretty quickly. They threw the fish parts over the balcony to the sharks swimming below. It was neat to see so many sharks in one spot out in the wild doing laps. The food and drinks were absolutely amazing. We highly recommend Mango Crab and Bahama Mamma rolls and the Shark Snap! drink.

Note: This blog post is the second of four about a visit to Grand Bahamas Island in January 2016.

We decided to rent a car to explore the island so we were a little more in control of our time and money (and sanity?). It was a beat-up Volkswagen Jetta, although we didn’t really expect much else as almost all of the vehicles on the island are in rough shape. The few exceptions belong to the wealthy property owners who likely have a little better sense about how to maintain a vehicle.

We headed east toward Lucayan National Park. We decided we would drive clear to the end of the road, as far as we could drive on the island. We ended up at a ferry landing at the end of a very rough gravel road. Since we had been in the car more than two hours, we got out and stretched our legs (and watching the fishies in the water) before the many photo stops on the way back to the resort.

We stopped in McCleans Town briefly to photograph the boat landing, snail hotels and chitons.

A collection from the sea.

Then we stopped at Pelican Point for a much lengthier stay. Within the first few minutes at the beach, literally the first few steps on the sand, I screamed like a little girl because I was so excited to find my very own sand dollar. It was on my list of highly unlikely things I’d like to see/have from this trip. People claimed they were found all of the time, but I’d never seen one other than in the store. I added it to my shell bag and we combed the beach, dipping our toes in the water a bit, too. It was a beautiful beach and we had it mostly to ourselves since we were so far from any of the resorts.

We left the highway in High Point to see the fake lighthouse that was built more as a decoration than a functional tool. We didn’t stay long at that attraction as the structure was in serious need of some TLC. I was more enthralled with the caves under the rocky shore. I could hear the water splashing underfoot. I bet it was a pretty sight from offshore.

We made it to Lucayan National Park around 2:30 p.m. and spent a solid three hours exploring. We actually spent a lot of our time in the caves. Corey loved feeding the fish. I remembered that there were fish to feed in the park, so I brought a loaf of bread from the cafeteria. He was thoroughly entertained. The water in the caves was so blue from the ocean and it was a little cloudy where the freshwater met the saltwater.

The caves at Lucayan National Park

Across the road, we made it as far as the bridge over Gold Rock Creek before Corey was entertained feeding the fishies. This time we were joined by some birds that wanted in on the action. They were practically eating out of our hands.

The beach wasn’t quite how I remembered it. The uprooted trees that were a focal point of many of my photos last time were gone, either removed by the park service or washed away by a storm. The beach was still amazing. It was extremely wide as we were there near low tide. The ripples of sand were mesmerizing. We waded as deep in the water as we dared; it was a little chilly yet and we weren’t so sure what would be lurking just out of sight. We walked in waist-deep water along the shore, taking pictures of the waves and the shoreline. Eventually we came across a sting ray in the shallow water. It saw us and moseyed into the deeper parts, which sent us into shallower water. I saw a starfish on the ocean floor and it was absolutely beautiful. I left it where it was but took many photographs of it. Somehow we saw the second sting ray, one that was the exact color of the sand, before we stepped on it. That was enough for us. We walked out of the water for the rest of the way. We didn’t need any injuries so far from the city and without any local experts nearby. We were literally alone on the beach with miles of sand and water all to ourselves.

Gold Rock Beach at Lucayan National Park

I spotted a dead (or possibly only dying) starfish washed up in the sand ripples closer to the tree line. It was definitely not in the same condition as the one I spotted in the ocean, so it came home with me. At sunset, we had the most beautiful view. A pelican even joined us just offshore. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to.

Sadly, we had to rush back to make our dinner reservations at 7 p.m. at the resort. I wasn’t a fan of needing reservations for a restaurant while on vacation. That’s not how we operate. The food wasn’t even that great; we ended up hitting up the cafeteria after the restaurant for food that was a little more filling.

A collection of scenes from the east side of the island.

Note: This blog post is one of four about a visit to Grand Bahamas Island in January 2016.

Travel can be hard work—the long lines, constantly ignoring other people being rude, sitting in extremely uncomfortable positions for long periods of time and hurrying up just to wait—but most of the time your efforts are worth it when you reach your destination.

The photo bomber.

When we stepped off the airplane, our first steps in the Bahamas, the warmth put a smile on both of our faces. It was time to strip off the sweatshirts and warm up or winter skin. While others booked it into the terminal to work on getting out of the airport, we took our time, took some selfies and waited for the lines to die down.

Then the adventure started. As we exited the airport, we asked for a taxi and we were presented with J and his dilapidated version of a taxi. I knew not to expect the finest vehicle, but was hoping at least the door handles worked without some sort of magic trick. Alas, we had to wait to be let into the vehicle as well as to be let out of the vehicle. Ok, tolerable. But the driving antics of this “professional” left much to be desired. He was all over the road, even with oncoming traffic in the very near distance. There were several times that Corey looked at me with the “this guy is going to kill us” look, maybe even followed by a slightly different “what did you get me into?” look. The best I could do was plaster a smile on my face, ignore the terrible driving habits and try to think happy thoughts about the beautiful beach I couldn’t wait to explore at our resort. Later I found out that Corey had a better view of our driver and his broken steering wheel. I guess the thing moved in all sorts of directions—in and out, up and down, not just left and right.

The stormy shore

The sun was out briefly as we meandered our way from the airport to the hotel, a 20-minute ride. We unloaded at the hotel around 1 p.m. and had two hours until we could officially check into our room. We left our bags at the front desk and headed for the bar. We grabbed our mojitos and walked toward the beach, getting the lay of the resort. The wind was absolutely terrible, blowing sand in our eyes and ears (what a feeling!). We weren’t exactly dressed for the beach, having flown out of Madison at 5:30 a.m. in below-freezing temps with some snow flurries.

We were able to do a little shell collecting in the afternoon, after getting into our room, and were chased back to the resort by a storm cloud. The rest of the evening was rain showers or downpours off and on. The next day featured more of the same. We were able to roam the beach just in front of the resort before another storm rolled in. It was worth it; we found a great shell collection.

The hotel