Bahamas with a side helping of the Southern Caribbean

New Providence Island, Bahamas

We spent over 5 weeks (mid February to late March) in the Bahamas.  So long in fact that we were starting to feel like residents.  Want to know where to shop, eat, which beaches as currently the best on New Providence Island?  We have some ideas.  The weather was well, pretty close to perfect for our stay, just a couple rainy days, otherwise balmy breezes, sunny and partly cloudy days.  Driving was a bit different, and I actually got comfortable driving on the left. Beautiful beaches and a wonderful house (shout out to Rob and Tenny Jensen, Thank You!)

We enjoyed quiet days alone, evening walks, beach days and then 10 fun days with some of our family. 

And here are two photos of Jenna, about 20 years apart, on Poseidon’s Throne at the Atlantis Hotel:

Thank heaven my sciatica seems under control for now.  However I continue with thrice weekly stretching and core exercises to help keep it that way.  All the walking we do should also help.

The Southern Caribbean and the ABC islands

We flew from Nassau to San Juan, Puerto Rico (by way of Orlando)  and explored the downtown area on a walking tour.  Warmer and more humid, but still great weather.  Then onto a cruise ship to see the “Southern Caribbean” islands of St. Kitts, Bonaire, Aruba and Curacao.  More on Puerto Rico later.

Excellent and plentiful food.  2600 guests and 1001 crew, but the ship didn’t feel crowded.  Great stateroom, friendly staff.  We don’t cruise often, but we’ve done it enough to recognize that Celebrity is a very good cruise line. Sounds like a paid endorsement?  Here were the ports of call in the southern Caribbean:

St Kitts

We took a 5 hour tour of the island with Annie of Annie’s tours.  Nice 14 passenger van, but with only the two of us as clients.  We did a lap around the island, and part of the way out to the peninsula. Reminiscent of Hawaiian island, there is a 3000 ft dormant volcano in the middle, and a coastal road around the edge which passes through all the villages.  

We saw abandoned-now-preserved sugar cane plantations and rum distilleries from the 16^th through 19^th centuries; jagged volcanic rock formations on the coast; Brimstone Fort, a large UNESCO fort built and mostly maintained by the British; the site of the massacre of the indigenous people, beautiful vistas and essentially every town or village on the island.  Annie pointed out every primary school and high school, and everything that was recently built.  She is an institution here, waving to many people on the island.  Don’t get her started on how the cruise lines dropped her from the cruise line excursion menu, and promoted the tourist train instead….

Bonaire

We met our guide at the boat terminal and took a boat out to Klein Bonaire to spend a few hours snorkeling in the marine reserve.  We had great view of fish, sea life, the coral and plants.  Parrot fish, trumpeter fish and lots more who’s names I heard during the briefing and promptly forgot.  It seemed like a very healthy reef.

The “phone-in-a-bag” waterproof system did keep our backup cell phone dry during the snorkeling, but the photos were bad.  I think good underwater photos and videos require dedicated underwater cameras. The only photo that kinda turned out was an accidental selfie. I await offers from National Geographic as an underwater photographer…

Aruba

I visited a local history museum that displayed artifacts from early inhabitants, described the three waves of migrations prior to the European conquests.  True to other Caribbean and Latin American locations we have visited, the colonial period among these islands was not pretty. 

In port, there is a legit submarine ride available that apparently dives to 130 ft.  A touristy thing for sure but pretty unique. We opted to just spend some time walking the town, and walking along Eagle beach, just a 10 minute ride from the port area. 

Eagle Beach was apparently recently voted #2 best beach in the world by TripAdvisor.  That also implies lots of Trip Advisor-oriented tourists visit the beach.  Still it is a beautiful very long beach with fine white sand and some moderate wave action.  So maybe TripAdvisor is right.

Willemstad, Curaçao

We took a free walking tour through the old portion of Willemstad.  The tour was lead by a local guy (a highly recommended way to learn about a city or an island in this case) to see the highlights of the city, learn some history and meet some of the local artists.  There were lots of tourists wandering around, many in larger tour groups.  Still, Willemstad is a picturesque town with old forts guarding the harbor and colorful buildings lining the harbor entrance and interior streets.

Along with Aruba and Bonaire, these islands are sort of independent nations but are part of the Dutch Commonwealth.  The Dutch influence is in the architecture the economy and government.  Residents speak Dutch, English and Papiamentu (a Portuguese-based creole with lots of Dutch, Spanish and some English mixed in)

The Queen Emma pontoon bridge (first built in the late 1800’s) is unique, as it spans the entrance to the harbor area, and swings open from time to time through the day to let boats in and out.  We learned about Lion fish as an invasive species that damages the local ecosystem, and is free game for spear fishermen.  They are claimed to be good eating, but with lots of small bones. Too much food on board ship, so we didn’t get a Lion fish lunch.

And how to pronounce Curaçao?  Here is link to my favorite pronunciation guide.   The actual pronunciation is roughly kyura-SOW

We enjoyed the cruise, even the sea days just hanging out on the balcony to read or watch the storm clouds and ocean go by.

Next up:  8 days in Puerto Rico!