The Abacos

Abaco is very different from all the other islands we visited. It is progressive and already has taken advantage of many eco-tourism opportunities. It is a collection of many small islands or cays and each is unique and provides different opportunities for amusement and entertainment. We did get to island hop a little one day thanks to my gracious host and his awesome boat. This is definitely what it's all about here. We hung out mostly in Marsh Harbour while in the Abacos but during our hopping we visited Hope Town on Elbow Cay where we also toured to the top of the lighthouse. Here you also find the first and only roastery in the Bahamas at the Hope Town Coffee House. The owner, Andrew, is more than happy to show you the coffee bean roasting process. We hopped over to Lubber's Quarters for a bite at Cracker P's. The name has an interesting origin that I learned about in the historical museum in Hope Town. The lovely day continued as we hopped over to Man-O-War Cay to shop at Norman Albury Sail Makers Shop. Too cool off on the way back home we stopped to take a dip near Matt Lowes Cay. I can just summarize to say that the islands are beautiful; and they also provide innumerable restaurant/bars to grab a Sands beer in; great shops that are a part of the islands history as well and a never-ending adventure.

We must return to take in the experience that is the pig roast on a Sunday at Nippers on Great Guana Cay. I hear this is something not to be missed!

Let the fun continue, VTT BQ

Bahamian Breakfast

I did get to try the Bahamian Breakfast while in Abaco. What is this you ask? Well, let me tell you! What I tried was boil' fish and stew' fish. Boil' fish is like a soup. It has onions and potatoes with nice pieces of fish in a clear broth with a lime-and-goat-pepper base. Stew' fish is a variation of traditional French roux made with flour, water and browning sauce and seasoned with pepper and fresh thyme. The sauce is brown in color and thicker than the boil' fish. Both were yummy!

So, I had this breakfast at Abaco Beach Resort and Boat Harbour on Sunday, where a bone-fish tournament was being held. Jackie had an actual vocational training team exchange experience. Well, we all may have in a sense- with a stretch of your imagination. Tournament sponsor, Teas Em, was having a photo shoot with some of their models and two photographers. It was interesting to see very scantily clad females at breakfast.... and we had to cross their path in order to leave so Jackie took the opportunity to discuss equipment with the photographer..... and well the guys were just "observing" the vocational exchange.

Always, the VTT BQ

Best Beach

Hello from St. Thomas dear readers! Over the past 26 days we have gone to many places and seen many sites. There have been many lovely beaches to visit so we have come up with our two favorites to talk about.
On Middle Caicos, at the recommendation of our buddy Val, we visited Mudjin Harbour. This is  privately owned beach front property that the owners have created a nice pathway to and allow the general public to enjoy. It is a gorgeous beach with beautiful water and really cool cave on the beach. To reach one cave you walk down the sandy path right onto the beach and it resembles a bandshell. One path will lead you to the other cave... the path disappears down into stairs that take you on a short spelunking trek into a cave ending at another set of stairs still inside the cave that lead to the beach. This lovely beach is our runner up for best beach.

The vote for best beach goes to Eleuthera's Lighthouse Beach. This area in the south end of the island south of Bannerman Town is in danger of being horribly developed. This is such a great natural resource that people in Eleuthera are trying to purchase the property and make available for public passive recreational enjoyment. It is quite a journey down a not-so-good road. Once parked, it is a little climb to the remains of the centuries-old lighthouse. And once you are there on the hill, you look out towards the water after checking out the historic lighthouse..... Wow! It is breath-taking. Gorgeous turquoise as well as other hues of blue water and cliffs are the first things that grab you. It is an easy scramble down a path to enjoy the cliffs and vistas. It's a bit trickier to scramble down to the beach but well worth it. The caves, pink sand beach, water and cliffs all blend so well together to create an orgasmic experience not to be missed. Come on out to enjoy this wondrous locale and support and help protect it for all to enjoy.
PS. Currently there aren't many who visit this beach, so a nice picnic and skinny dip is still possible! ;-)

As always in awe of all I get to experience, VTT BQ

The Conch Trail Continued- the Bahamas Part B

The hunt for the best conch fritter has continued but on a slower pace it seems. We did try Nabu's version of conch fritters at Atlantis and we all agreed that they were the best in the Bahamas but they are not traditional fritters at all. We had fritters upon landing in Harbour Island at Bahamas Bayside Cafe and we judged them (based on now having had the fritters all over the Bahamas and back on US soil) the best of the Bahamas! But Shark Bites in Provo may still have the best traditional fritters overall. We had fritters in Eleuthera, Abaco, Nassau, Harbour Island, etc. and even had to have in the Nassau airport b4 we departed! So, thus endeth the great conch fritter challenge. I say enough fried little dough balls of the footed creature. Grilled conch is really good too though!

VTT BQ

Fort Charlotte

I have to tell you about one of the best interpreted historical resources I have ever been to- and I've been to a lot mind you. Fort Charlotte in Nassau is fantastic. They have a great self-guided tour brochure that is attractive, informative and easy to follow-with a great map. You can learn a lot on your own from this alone. They also have very knowledgeable tour guides should you so choose this route. There are many attractive, well-built kiosks that provide you all kinds of information and depictions of life in the fort. And, of course, there is a great gift shop on site within the fort as well. So on your next trip to Nassau one must go and visit this great historical resource known as Fort Charlotte. It is a wonderful experience.
as always, your VTT BQ

Discovery

Hello, dear readers. As I said earlier Christopher Columbus discovered the Bahamas in 1492 while looking for the New World.... which he didn't quite discover right then. But dear ol' Chris gave this group of islands its name. He called them bajamar. This means shallow water or sea. Eventually this morphed into the name for the islands we all know and love- The Bahamas or the Islands of the Shallow Sea.

We are off to St. Thomas now for the District Rotary conference. See you all on the flip side.

VTT BQ

Blue holes and National Geographic

Yesterday we saw some blue holes on land with Glenda who is on the board of Friends of the Environment. Today with the fishing guide we saw blue holes in the water in the flats area.  In the Friends of the Environment office we met with the ED Kristen and heard about some of their projects and mission. This is good stuff! We also met Nancy Albury (works for Bahamas National Museum) who researched the Sawmill blue hole of Abaco with Wes Skiles (diver extraordinaire from High Springs who died last fall diving in the ocean for National Geographic ). The August 2010 National Geographic had a great article of their work in it so pick it up and give it the once over. Wes took most if not all the photos of the project. Nancy showed us fossilized animal and human bones-- from land tortoises and land crocodiles now extinct. Lucayan bones were also found-- this  was the original native to the islands. And this was fascinating to see the skulls that are flattened out due to a board being strapped to the forehead, but they are not sure why yet. It could be for aesthetic reasons or for protection, more research will be done to clarify this. She is wanting to continue this work as well as conduct it in Eleuthera and possibly other places. It was a great day to hear about and see all this wonderful stuff.

VTT BQ

Fish Whisperer

Today we went out with Justin Sands, a great bone fish fishing guide. He won the tournament here this past weekend and then showed us how to bone fish. He is the fish whisperer (like the dog whisperer in case you are not picking up on this). He made the fishing seem so easy. He'd look for them, find them, showed us how to fly fish and spinner cast, would have us point towards the fish and cast in front of them ..... then bam we'd have one on the line like magic. It was a great time and we were very happy that we all caught fish. We also saw young green sea turtles, a hawk's bill turtle, a few sharks and some other fish as well. We were in a beautiful area and enjoyed the morning very much. Part of the area of Snake Cay where we were and it's associated creeks have been proposed to be protected as a park that is being supported by the fly-fisherman organization.  Last August the government passed a law that sea turtles were no longer allowed to be killed for food. In this area there is already a good population and the public is becoming more aware of the preservation need.

VTT BQ

PS. the quote of the day was from Ms. Jackie: "look at how fast that star fish is moving!" and my response was "uh, Jackie, the boat is the one moving...."

Trials and Tribulations continued more.....

Well, well, it has been somn else this last week. Jackie was surprised to learn that she is accident prone! I can't keep track of all her scrapes, head bumps, walking into walls with her shoulders, and bruises (to just name a few items over the course of the trip). When we landed in the Abacos she was taken to a Dr. to have her swollen feet and legs looked at. Basically, in a nutshell, she is retaining fluids due to too much rich/fatty foods she's not used to eating, too much sun, and too much salt. So she got a prescription of diuretics and is watching her intake of foods. The swelling has been reduced and is already bouncing back and feeling better. Woohoo!

Blue Holes

The Bahamas are known to have incredible blue holes. National Geographic featured them in 2010, specifically Sawmill Sink Blue Hole that we visited today. It is being explored by divers and they found some incredible fossils, so check it out. We also visited Dan's Cave-an underwater cave and an unnamed cave that contained many bats that is located near the famous Pete's Pub. I saw a 2007 Daytona Beach Bike Week Hashers T-shirt and UF Gators t-shirt at Pete's Pub. Many wildfires have swept through the pine forests that resemble what we call pine flatwoods. Charred forests all over the place. We even encountered a "trained" curly tailed lizard. Well, ok, I dunno if it was trained but it followed us around begging for food. It was cute so I gave it some pieces of bread and it did eat some of it!

VTT BQ

Pop Quiz for April 10th

Ok kiddies I'm back in the saddle again. Question #1 of today's pop quiz is:
What is the Bahamian National Tree?

and Q#2 is: What is the name of the Bahamas original inhabitants?

And Q#3: Christopher Columbus thought he discovered the new world when he found what island of the Bahamas?

Let's see what you guys come up with this time.... VTT BQ

Ride for Hope

To all my bicycle riding friends- I just found out about this great event. Eleuthera has been gearing up for while we've been visiting. The annual Ride for Hope is a 100 mile bike ride to benefit cancer that is being held tomorrow April 9th, 2011. Of course one can ride less than 100 miles; it's up to you. This year it has 400 entrants and is held on just one day. The trail is all paved and well marked with support stations all along the way. There are a lot of volunteers who have worked hard to prep for it and Rotary has been a big part of it. I am putting out the challenge to you all to participate in this great event next year! Check out the attached webiste for more info.

Lovingly,
VTT BQ

The Glass Window

There is an interesting spot a few miles north of Gregory Town on Queen's Highway called the Glass Window. Believe me I have a lot of pix of it now. It is a place where a bridge goes over rocks that separate the rougher, deep azure Atlantic side from the calmer, turquoise Caribbean side, except for in times of storms when the water can over-top to meet. Originally there was a natural stone arch but this was destroyed by storms in the 1940's. subsequent bridges have also been destroyed by hurricanes.

A movie was partially filmed here including scenes of the Glass Window. The producers were so taken by it that they renamed the film to The Glass Window. It will be premiering on Eleuthera April 16th and then on USA Network after or around this Easter. So check your local listings and give it a looksey. I sure will.

Also the Tyler Perry film "Why did I get Married Too?" was filmed on the island and we were shown the house that was used. I found the first film very funny so I definitely will watch this one too.

Another film that I did see was filmed here- "Fool's Gold"- with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. It's cute and funny so why not enjoy the island scenes.

Preacher's Cave- it's a small world after all

Here we sit in the teenie north Eleuthra airport about to head off to Abaco. Glenda took us to Preacher's Cave as our last stop on Eleuthera. It is a really awesome cave that could use some good interpretive kiosks and I could see a re-enactment done here like in St. Augustine. This is the birth place of Eleuthera, founded by Puritans from Britain called the Eleutheran Adventurers.

It is a small world indeed- we walked across the way from the cave to look at the beach and I would never believe it, if it didn't happen; I met a couple from Deland! They live down Hontoon Island way. And he used to double date with Sheriff Ben Johnson, who lives in Glenwood nearish me. What a hoot to hear the story.
 VTT BQ

Atlantis

So we had our down time over part of the weekend at Atlantis. It is a load of fun there for the whole family. The aquariums are way cool and free to see. Many other items to enjoy you would have to pay for such as: the dolphin experience; fish feeding; spa treatments; fitness club; etc.... But yet dear one we Jackie and I partook of the other free amenities. For hours we drifted on the tubes thru the rapids of the water park and zipped down the slides and such it also had to offer, even though Jackie was chicken to do the drops without the tubes [ ;-) lol]. We strolled along the beach, meandered through the Marina Village's shops, and cruised the casino. We also sampled many of their fine dining establishments. Nobu is yummy! And Jackie and I tripped the light fantastic in the club Aura. Honestly, we tried to leave at a decent time but ran into a wonderful Rotarian we had met the day before so had to socialize with him for some time, it's the neighborly thing to do. So come Monday morning off we went by ferry to Harbour Island- a 3 hour cruise.... more later.
VTT BQ

Pop Quiz for Thursday 4/7

Hello, dear readers! Sorry I have been absent but I have not had internet service where I have been staying.
Today's pop quiz:
Eleuthra was founded in 1648 by a British group fleeing religious persecution; the name of the island is taken from the Greek word meaning...?

News clip from the Turks & Caicos Islands

Hello, fine readers! We now provide you with an opportunity to see and hear a little bit of what we've been doing and the gospel we've been preaching on this wonderful trip. The Rotary club meeting we presented at in the Turks & Caicos had some media coverage. Here is the link to the clip that appeared on their local news.   http://www.ptv8tci.com/march-2011/173-march-25-2011.html 
Rich did a great job! and the VTT BQ is also in the clip. Yikes! Enjoy!