feeling hot, hot, hot!

the bahamas...

looked a lot like this:

and the water was clear and beautiful like this:

and as we walked along the beach we saw this:

then sitting on a dock we looked down to see this:

um...we looked like this?

okay, maybe more like this:

we spent a heck of a lot of this!

but when it was all over, we were like this:

and now for a more thorough report:

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date: march 15th- 19th, 2007

place: nassau, bahamas

reason: none in particular

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we arrived in nassau around noon on thursday, march 15th and took an extremely overpriced taxi to our hotel. we would soon learn that overpricing wasn't limited to transportation, but was actually a common occurrence among every consumable good from the vending machine to the hotel we were staying in. this was lesson 1 in the bahamas.

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lesson 2 was soon to follow, which was that everything runs on bahamian time; at least 1 hour slower than u.s. time (which i guess is more like 2 hours slower than east coast time). i'm not talking about time zones, but rather the pace at which everything moves. after changing into shorts and t-shirts we wandered over to a little shack of a restaurant on the beach to get some food. the service was not bad, our waitress was friendly, but if during the process of putting in our order, delivering our food, and getting us the check she had moved any slower she might have been going backwards. what should have been a quick, maybe 30 minute meal became an hour and a half ordeal. not once was our water refilled. okay, point taken.

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lesson 3 occurred concurrent with lesson 2 which is that the men in the bahamas are extremely friendly and flirty. when the waitress approached us about the bill she said, "that man over there will take care of you." of course we assumed we would pay the man over there. it wasn't until we stood up and turned around and realized she was talking about the customer that had been sitting at the bar ( the same one who sang along with every single song that played on the radio) as being the man that would "take care" of us. a little embarrassed and confused, but mostly flattered we thanked him as we walked out. in his bahamian accent he said, "you ladies enjoy your vacation." ...!!...

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so lessons aside, we spent all of our time sleeping in, swimming, and basking in the beautiful sunlight and reading all day on the beach (i started and finished the book life of pi in 3 days. bnb 4ever!). we were able to wander into downtown nassau where the streets are lined with all kinds of high end clothing and jewelry stores which somehow thrive despite the fact that black market replica's of almost everything in the stores can be purchased at the straw market at one end of the street. In that area it's nearly impossible to find any decently priced meals-refer to lesson 1-and the streets are packed with tourists from all over the world. it wasn't until sunday as we took a 45 minute jitney (bus) ride to the outskirts of the island to go to church that we saw the real culture of the island. it reminded me of guatemala. at night we watched movies on my laptop and fell asleep to the sweet sounds of underage spring breakers partying at the pool below us. in the morning (okay, early afternoon) we awoke to the sound of a parade going down the street and steel drums playing the tune to "feeling hot, hot, hot!" all in all it was pretty awesome.

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so, my overall impression of the bahamas was this... although it was a good time, it was waaaaaaay to expensive for what it was. granted, we were on the main island (the capital) which is bound to be more dirty, more expensive, and more populated than other islands. if you're going to go, may i recommend a different island than nassau. also, and this will explain why none of my peeps got any gifts, unless you have hundreds of dollars to blow on stuff for friends, don't expect to get anything for anyone. on that same note, if you want to shop because you do have hundreds of dollars to blow on yourself or people, this might be the place for you. but you probably don't, cause if you're reading this it's because i know you (well, maybe) and i don't think i know anyone who has hundreds of dollars to blow, but if you do let me know and i'd be happy to be your tour guide for the bahamas.

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until next trip.