One Part Odd, Three Parts Perfect

So here's the official update on my trip. It really was fantastic. And full of surprises! Some of those surprises were, shall we say, annoying. But most were good. We ran into the father of a friend of mine. He keeps his boat at our hotel's marina for several months a year. So it was nice having a father-type person around to point us in the right direction about what to do and not do. Also, he was pretty generous and bought us dinner a couple of times and arranged a trip for us to a hard-to-get-to beach using his preferred taxi driver. And then, he surprised us by paying for the trip! Here's a list of observations and experiences. (BTW, lists are something I default to when I am overwhelmed by all the things I want to say. Just a little insight into my twisted little psyche).

Observations:

• Abaco is the largest island in a chain of islands on the outer north-east edge of the Bahamas. It is the sailing capital of the Bahamas because the islands (mostly called Cays) are small and close by. If you go east from the outer-most Abaco Cays, you would hit Africa.
• Because it is a sailing capital, there are marinas everywhere and most restaurants are on the water and have slips where boaters can drive up to and park at for their meal.
• It is such a remote island that there really is not a lot of tourist-y things, like shops. There are a few but they are small and have odd assortments of tacky t-shirts related to drinking too much rum and faded, dated postcards.
• Because the islands are pretty removed and probably rely mostly on other larger islands for their food and produce, there isn't as much fresh fruit and produce as one would expect in a tropical island place. We didn't see any pineapple or mango, for example. And items in grocery stores are expensive.
• Bahamian food, at least in these islands, consist pretty much of fish related things and there are also a lot French fries (fish and chips--related to their British history). A popular breakfast dish, for example, is Tuna and Grits. I didn't order that.
• Conch fish is served everywhere. I was scared to try it though, because a conch is basically a big snail?!? But, I do like the big conch (snail) shells and managed to collect several.
• Conch is pronounced Conk. Some spoiled, rich Fort Lauderdale boys who liked to call me "LA" taught me that lesson by laughing at me when I asked if they were eating Conch.
• Bahamian people are VERY nice and VERY laid back. We actually found that it was sometimes difficult to communicate with them. Not because of a language barrier, but more because it was like they just sometimes didn't understand what we were asking. An example: My question--"Can we get to Green Turtle Cay by taking a ferry from Elbow Cay?" Their answer--"You have to take a ferry. But you can't go to Green Turtle Cay." See? Just a little off...
• The Bahamas are a British commonwealth country so their currency has pictures of the Queen on it. And they drive on the left. But they sometimes use left driven cars. Sometimes though, right driven cars. This makes for an odd experience.
• Despite the Bahamas being tropical, there are not that many bugs. This is because there is not all that much fresh water. And for that matter, not a whole lot of land. For most places we were at you could easily walk between both sides of the island within 20 minutes. Our hotel, for example, was on the east-facing side of Abaco but we ate dinner and walked to the little town which was mainly on the west side of the island daily.
• Bahamians EXCEL at bread products. Their pancakes and bread were perfection. And I had the best apple pie of my life there. Several times, in fact.
• They don't have nearly enough ice cream or frozen treats down there. There's a market for it though...
• Bahamian beer, Kalik, is good stuff. It's a cross between Corona and a European Heifeweizen (sp?). So it's light but wheaty. Good stuff.
• Bahamian sand is the most perfect sand I've ever been in. It's white and soft and powdery. Some of it is pinkish because of the coral reefs all around. And it doesn't ever burn your feet no matter how hot it is. I'm not sure why...
• The water was clear and beautiful. It could have been a few degrees warmer, but it wasn't cold enough to stop us from going in it.
• The islands are surrounded by very shallow water, but not far off from the coast the water drops off quickly. When we went fishing we were in 7000+ deep water only a few miles out. This means, there ARE sharks.
• The Bahamas are a part of the Bermuda Triangle.
• Bahamians don't consider their islands part of the Caribbean. That is because it is entirely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and does not touch the Caribbean Sea. This doesn't appear to be considered fact though, at least, to the rest of the world (and travel guide books!).
• The airport at Marsh Harbor is SMALL, outdoors, unorganized. Sometimes your luggage gets there, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the staff is helpful and sometimes they are not. But there IS a band greeting you when you step off the plane. When we landed they were playing a song about someone who was "drunk again...every weekend."
• Cuba has it's mojitos, Puerto Rico has the Pina Colada, we're still not sure what the Bahamas has. But it's got a lot of Rum. That is what we know.

Some of the activities we did:

• We rented bikes, but there really weren't that many places to go. It's VERY small.
• We went to Treasure Cay, which National Geographic has listed as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was probably the most striking beach I've been on. It is 3 miles long and formed in a half moon. The sand is perfectly white, the water is shallow for a few miles out so it's turquoise color almost glows at certain points of the day, and for some reason the beach is EMPTY. Seriously, there were maybe 25 people scattered across all three miles of it in total. There were about 10 near us off and on.
• Treasure Cay has many perfect little sand dollars. I took some.
• We went to Elbow Cay. Hope Town, it's only town, is the most darling little seaside place I've ever seen. It is tiny, colorful, picturesque and it's bay is guarded by a red and white stripped light house--it was like something Disney would create, if they were trying to create a perfect seaside town.
• Hope Town is one of the places groups of loyalists fled to after the British lost the Revolutionary War. There are still many loyalist descendants living there. We met one, in fact.
• My favorite beach in the world, hands down, is on Elbow Cay by the Harbor View Hotel. The perfect white-pink sand, the water, the emptiness, the palm trees leaning out over the beach from bluffs scattered with long wild grass, butterflies everywhere. I am not sure why NO ONE was there.
• We had dinner at the Jib Room, which is famous for it's Wednesday night cook outs. You have to call in and reserve your seat from your boat radio thing. Fortunately, my friend's Dad did that for us. It was good and fun. After dinner they had a live steel drum band and a limbo contest.
• You already know about the deep sea fishing adventures. See Marlin Darlin' for details.
• We walked A LOT, everywhere. Many times, on sand. My calve muscles got a great workout!
• I managed to get a good even brown tan. Without much effort and without any burns. Of course, now I've aged myself some but I adored every minute of the time I spent in that sunshine.
• I took about 400 pictures. Don't worry...I expect only about 150 will be worth sharing.
• I collected many perfect, white seashells, read a great book lounging under grass-hut umbrellas perched haphazardly across white sand empty beaches, and napped afternoons away between palm trees on a hammock.

Trip to the Abaco Island Chain, The Bahamas: A lot of money
A week of perfect relaxation in one of the most beautiful places on earth: Priceless