How to transform your Bahamas vacation into a learning experience
WHAT-TO-DO - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - JAN 2004 EDITION
The immortal Don Quixote says "'Tis good to live and learn," and if you believe that, Nassau and Paradise Island are good places to live and learn a little bit about a lot of things: how to play baccarat, for example, and how to tell a Bahama woodstar from a Cuban grassquit.
Transform your Bahamian vacation into a learning experience. You can learn to play tennis, golf, gamble, snorkel, dive, identify tropical fish, sail a catamaran, windsurf, paddle a kayak, ride a horse, appreciate Bahamian art, make a yellow bird cocktail and recognize a great deal on a fancy watch when you see one.
You won't have difficulty with the last item, incidentally. You'll quickly learn that luxury watches and jewellery are big bargains in The Bahamas.
Bahamian retailers buy directly from manufacturers in Switzerland and elsewhere, so there are no middlemen. Timepieces also come into The Bahamas duty free, with only a small markup for stamp tax (which is included in the price).
In the US, retailers order through distributors, pay duty, and charge sales taxes, adding to the cost.
"Also, we have a different pricing structure than the US, which enables us to sell watches for up to 35 per cent less," says Wayne Chee-A-Tow, chief executive officer of Hillside Investments Co Ltd, a company that runs several upscale stores in Nassau and Paradise Island. Check out watches, jewellery and other duty-free items at stores listed in the Shopping section beginning on pg 71.
As for that yellow bird, any of Nassau's friendly bartenders will show you how to make their version of the famous cocktail. Here's one made by Lucy, mixologist extraordinaire at East Villa restaurant on East Bay St. Shake with ice and pour into a cold cocktail glass:
1 1/2 oz Bacardi light rum
1/2 oz banana liqueur
1/2 oz Galliano
1/2 oz sour mix
2 oz pineapple juice
2 oz orange juice.
The point is, if you tire of soaking up rays on the beach or swimming in the azure sea, there's an endless number of fun things you can learn to do, or find out about, in this sunny and historic archipelago.
Four or 84
That's true whether you're four or 84. If you are 12 or younger, ask your parents to sign you up for a day at the Discovery Channel Camp at Atlantis on Paradise Island or at the Kids Klub at the Wyndham Nassau Resort on Cable Beach. Both camps help children explore nature, meet animals and learn about things Bahamian.
While the children are so engaged, parents can slip away to learn all about blackjack and roulette. There are two large and glitzy casinos - one at Atlantis on Paradise Island and the other is the Wyndham Nassau Resort's Crystal Palace - and friendly staff at both will be happy to teach you how to play the games, including big six wheel, Caribbean poker and especially craps, the high roller's favourite game.
"Six to 10 people show up most days" for instruction at the daily 3pm course at Atlantis, says casino staffer Kendal Munro. "Most of the questions concern craps," says Munro, "because there are so many different bets." At the Crystal Palace Casino, gambling class begins at 11am, and again, craps is the game on which most customers want instruction.
Pirates & Lucayans
For history buffs, there are many ways to dig into The Bahamas' colourful past. The further back you go, the more interesting things get.
For 70 years and more, before and after the year 1700, for example, Nassau was infested with pirates, including the infamous Blackbeard, Henry Morgan and the bloodthirsty Anne Bonny. They chose a short life but a merry one, plundering ships until they were either hanged or run off by Woodes Rogers, the first Royal Governor, who arrived here in 1718. Don't miss the superbly designed walk-through museum attached to Pirates of Nassau, at the corner of King and George Sts.
For a well-researched and entertaining account of Nassau Harbour, contact Sea Island Adventures for their Historical Bahamas Cruise, 325-3910.
You can get an excellent overview of an even earlier time when the gentle, doomed Lucayans lived peacefully in these islands. These are the natives who welcomed Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1492, having beaten him to the discovery by about 5,000 years. The great navigator wrote in his journal that the Lucayans were tall, good looking, neither black nor white and that they "go quite naked, as their mother bore them."
The Bahamas Historical Society's museum at the corner of Shirley and Elizabeth Sts, documents these early chapters of the Bahamian story. Among other things, you'll learn that the Lucayans were related to the Arawaks, the same natives found today in Guyana and Venezuela. It's believed they travelled here in hollowed log canoes, probably to escape the cannibalistic Caribs.
Little is known for sure about the Lucayans because they were quickly exterminated after the Spanish conquistadores arrived, leaving only traces. Their language, however, yielded several words that survive in English: "cay," "guava," "canoe," "hurricane," "hammock" and "iguana," as well as the word and use of "tobacco."
There are many other museums and art galleries listed in the See & do section beginning on pg 113. Recommended for its superb collection of Bahamian art is the new National Art Gallery of The Bahamas at Villa Doyle, on the corner of West and West Hill Sts.
Truncatus & avifauna
Everyone has at least thought about birdwatching, or birding as serious participants put it. If you've never actually tried it (and even if you have), The Bahamas, with more than 300 species, is a wonderful place to learn about the avifauna.
There are several good birding locations, including the duck pond on Paradise Island's Lakeview Dr, "Go Slow Bend" on West Bay St for shorebirds and The Retreat, home of the Bahamas National Trust (BNT), on Village Rd. (You can easily locate these places on Bahamas Trailblazer Maps, available free all over town). During the winter there are always winged visitors at The Retreat: American redstarts, black-throated blue warblers, ovenbirds, and
rose-breasted grosbeaks, among many others.
The BNT Ornithology Group meets at 7am on the first Saturday of each month, except during mid-summer. "Locations vary and everyone is welcome," says Carolyn Wardle, coordinator. Cost is $1 per person and there are always a few extra pairs of binoculars available to borrow. Call Wardle at 362-1574.
Even if you're not a birder, you'll learn a little about, and get a big kick out of, a flock of marching pink flamingos, among many other creatures that are on display at the Ardastra Gardens, Zoo & Conservation Centre, on Chippingham Rd, just off West Bay St.
But even the flamingo is an also-ran when it comes to the "most intriguing animal of The Bahamas" contest. That honour goes to Tursiops truncatus, the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.
Bottlenose dolphins attain a length of up to nine ft and weigh up to
500 lbs. Their brains, incidentally, weigh between 1,200 and 2,000g, compared to a paltry 1,000 and 1,800g for humans.
T truncatus is not only brawny and brainy but friendly, as you'll discover at the Dolphin Encounters facility on nearby Blue Lagoon Island. You can learn a lot about dolphins and actually get in the water with them. The whole programme takes only three hours, including a 20-min trip to and from the Ferry Terminal on Paradise Island, but swimming with a dolphin leaves an indelible memory.
Dolphin Encounters has 16 dolphins: four sires (Jake, Fatman, McGyver and Stormy) four dams (Chippy, Dot, Princess and Aunty V) and eight calves, five females and three males.
Nearby is Stingray City, where visitors on excursion to Blue Lagoon Island can swim with and hand feed Southern Atlantic stingrays. You can also take a guided nature walk and learn a little about the history of this beautiful cay. Call Nassau Cruises at 363-3333.
Learning to snorkel
Snorkelling is the best way for the inexperienced to witness the beauty of the underwater world, and it's easy to learn. Basically, you just have to get used to breathing through the tube and learn to relax with your face in the water.
An opportunity to snorkel is an added feature to almost all the half-day and full-day excursions offered in Nassau and Paradise Island and all the gear you'll need is included in the price. Check out the very popular half-day excursions on the sailing catamaran Flying Cloud or on Island Tours' Party Cat, which also includes a full day of snorkelling, beaching and lunch (with free tropical drinks all day long!).
Snorkelling is included in two superb excursions to the beautiful Exuma Cays, about an hour away. Island World Adventures and Powerboat Adventures both offer exciting, high-speed trips to the northern cays, including a gourmet meal and an opportunity to visit, feed and learn about prehistoric-looking iguanas on uninhabited cays.
Paradise Island Charters offers half- and full-day charters that may combine snorkelling, big game fishing, beach fun and/or scuba lessons: the choice is yours. Another company that offers a wide range of instruction and activities, including snorkelling and diving, is Blue Hole Water Sports Supplies & Tours, located at the British Colonial Hilton and Nassau Beach hotels.
Learning to dive
As great as snorkelling is in The Bahamas, scuba-diving is a big step up. And even if you have never dived before, you can learn how and make a real dive in just one day. Thousands do, ranging in age from 10 up.
Dive companies such as Bahama Divers at Nassau Yacht Haven,
Divers Haven at Paradise Island Ferry Terminal, Nassau Scuba Centre at Coral Harbour and Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas on South Ocean Rd (see dive chart pg 141) will transport you to whatever location they may be using that day for the introductory course. Generally, that involves an hour and a half of instruction in a pool - learning to breathe through the regulator, swim with the gear strapped to your body and how to equalize pressure in your ears. You'll also learn basic hand signals to communicate with the dive master underwater. Then it's off to the open sea on a dive boat.
If you'd like to learn about the underwater world, but don't fancy either snorkelling or diving, call up Seaworld Explorer. They'll take you on a half-day excursion to Nassau's Sea Gardens Marine Park aboard a large semi-submarine. On the way, expert guides will help you identify sharks, barracuda and other fish as they silently glide by your window.
Whether you're here for a day or a month, you can learn many new things in the land of perpetual June. By the end of your vacation, you'll probably agree with Don Quixote: "'Tis good to live and learn..." especially when you're in the beautiful Bahamas.
Disclaimer: The information in this article/release was accurate at
press time; however, we suggest you confirm all details and prices
directly with vendors.
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