Bahama Mama
We are spoiling ourselves tomorrow and flying down to the Bahamas for a long weekend. It is our daughter’s 4th birthday on Saturday and after much debate on parties and cake, we somehow convinced ourselves that going away would be less hassle and more cost efficient. No, I don’t know how we came to that conclusion either.
Anyway, Nassau from Miami is a short hop and we can get there from here in half a day. So tomorrow lunchtime I should be sat by a pool with a bowl of conch chowder and a tall glass of Bahama Mama!
We are staying on Paradise Island just down the road from The Atlantis. Our daughter doesn’t even know she is going but the plan is that she will swim with the Atlantis’ famed dolphins on her birthday.
We’ve been to The Atlantis before. In 2008 pre-daughter, which I remember mostly for it being whilst I was there that I accepted the job to come to Bermuda whilst sat in the bar one afternoon. Maybe I should have kept off the Bahama Mama’s as they played havoc with my decision making last time. Only joking of course.
I hope you enjoy Bahamas more than i did.
I was holidaying in Miami with my girlfriend (now wife) for three weeks in 1980. We arrived in Miami a week or two after the riots. Our holiday reps. advised us to ‘stay around the beach (Miami beach) you’ll be fine. Just don’t go downtown’ So we didn’t.
However we wanted to see more than just Miami beach, so we booked a five day (i think) stay in Bahamas.
On arrival, a large black gentleman in a uniform advised us we needed to pay him a ‘tourist tax’ $10 each. We paid, it went straight in his pocket !!!!
We took a taxi to our hotel. The drivers total conversation was ‘where to, shut the window ( i wasn’t used to air-con cars at the time) and ten dollars’ (that may not have been the cost, but you get my drift)
We spent the next five days looking over our shoulders and wishing we were back in Miami. The animosity by the Bahamians to white Brits was palpable. We left the hotel only once to go to a Bahamian fast food outlet, a very uncomfortable experience.
Of course all of this was a long time ago and in the shadow of the race riots in Miami. But it tainted Bahamas to me for ever.
Daggs, I am not surprised. Like in the majority of places race-relations have visibly improved but I think in a lot of Caribbean countries tourists are never encouraged to veer of the beaten path and therefore end up just staying in resorts, some of which are world class but it defeats the object of visiting a country or an island.
Bermuda is the complete opposite of that, yet the Caribbean resorts take nearly all the tourist business from both Europe and North America, which is a real shame because naturally and culturally Bermuda has a better product.
I hope we have a better experience and I’m not surprised that you’ll never go back to the Bahamas.
What about Miami – have you been back there?
Well almost. When my two sons were of an age to appreciate Disney (approx ’96) we went to Florida and did it all. It was the most fantastic experience ever for three kids (one being me) Mrs Daggs spent more time as bag-lady. But then she screams on a merry-go-round and was happy to dodge the rides.
We loved it so much, when my eldest got to sixteen, i said ‘O/K one more family holiday, where to’ He shouted back ‘to Florida’ and so five years later we did it all again. Absolutely wonderful way to end the full family vacation.
I’m quite looking forward to doing it again. If i ever get any grandchildren. The problem is there’s no sign and i’m getting on now (61)
Bahamas one week, Birmingham the next. What a life eh?
Bermuda in between – all the B’s!!