Nassau, Bahamas

We spent Thursday in Nassau. It was a fun day, but by far our least favorite of our ports. The best way I can describe it is that looks shiny and pretty on the outside, but if you look just a little bit deeper, it is dirty, and run down. Oh, sure, it is home to some fantastic hotels, such as the Atlantis, but just blocks away from that on the other side of the bridge the neighborhoods look like a ghetto. Seriously, it was that bad.

Now, I'm not saying that it was terrible, but it was not the tropical paradise we were expecting. It was WAY more touristy than we thought it would be and the competition for the tourists dollars was over the top.

For instance, after a little bit of early morning shopping, we'd made our way over to Cabbage Beach, a public beach very near Atlantis's private beach. There were lots of locals on the beach offering to help set your chairs up, sell you trinkets, t-shirts, etc., set you up for a ride on a jet ski...you name it. There were also several tents set up with guys selling drinks. Well...one guy had helped a couple get their chairs set up, and was going to get them an umbrella or something. While he was gone, a different guy came and offered to get the lady a cocktail, which she accepted. Guy number one comes back and is talking to the couple when guy number two comes back with the drink. Guy number one flips his lid, starts cussing at guy number two, the lady feels terrible, doesn't want the drink, or to be in the middle of a beach turf war, and nearly breaks into tears. It was pretty bad. The two guys move away from the couple but continue their VERY heated conversation.

Their argument continues on and off for the rest of the time we were there (about an hour) and was still going when we left. At one point guy number two had a sizable knife in his hand. Needless to say, that was a bit unsettling.

Paradise Island had it's pretty spots, but it wasn't much of a paradise after all.





Sunday, July 10th, the Bahamas celebrate 38 years of Independence. There were lots of buildings in Nassau that were decorated.





This is Cabbage Beach- it was a beautiful spot indeed.





Looking from our ship as we left, we spotted this Hilton. If we did ever come back, this would be on the top of our list of places to stay while in Nassau. It had a beautiful private beach, and perfect location.





A gorgeous lighthouse (posted for my friend Jim, who loves lighthouses)





Oh well, I suppose you have to have some strange things like what happened on Cabbage Beach happen every once in a while to make you appreciate the really great, peaceful, perfect places we do visit.

Adios Nassau. Been there, done that, no need to go back, but thanks for the excitement.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad as we are flying from Charleston to Atlanta.