Nassau, Bahamas - Day 2

I first saw this sign over 10 years ago when I went to the Bahamas for the first time....You see, my Semester at Sea ship left from the Bahamas. My parents went down in advance of me to see me off (and then to have a vacation by themselves). They got to tour my ship and said that it looked big -- until the cruise ships came into port the next morning. It was almost surreal to think about that day and what I felt the first time I went to the port in Nassau; especially since my second visit was on one of those giant cruise ships!

I was really only there for one day back in 1999 and just ran around with my folks, so I didn't see a ton. This time was different (especially the fact that I wasn't sharing a room (and bed - a long story and memory I'd hoped to block out...) with my parents! The one thing I almost always did on Semester at Sea was to take the "City Orientation" tour - it almost always proved helpful at finding your way around later in the week, and I learned a lot of interesting tid-bits about where we were. Jon and I did a similar tour of Nassau.

Off to see the city!

Government building

Janice sews Hannah's name into the straw purse we got for her.

Traffic control

Our tour of the city was by van, so there were a number of residential areas and interesting buildings that we drove by, but didn't get to stop and see. One of the things that was impressed upon me was the stark difference in the income levels of people living on the island. You'll see a beautiful condo one minute, and a run-down building the next. I also learned that the flag is black, turquoise and yellow because it represents the things you see in the Bahamas - the sunshine, the water, and the people, since 85% of the residents are black. Fort Charlotte was one of the places we went on our tour. Interestingly, a number of forts were built to defend the islands from attack but were never used. They ended up using most of them for prisons at one time or another. Although the sky looks very ominous in one of the pictures, it didn't rain on us at all - we had a beautiful day.

Fort Fincastle was our next stop....

The next stop was right near Fort Fincastle - the Queen Victoria Steps. The steps were built by slaves and originally were an escape from the fort down to the beach. It took 16 years to complete the steps. Fortunately, we only walked down them and not back up!

Our last stop on the tour was to Paradise Island and the famous Atlantis Resort. The resort has its own private beaches (and you have to show a card to access them!), as well as a giant saltwater aquarium where they let people snorkel. Inside the aquarium they have manta rays (I'd never seen one before - they are huge), as well as sunken objects to make seeing the fish more interesting. Of course, Jon always loves an aquarium and fish, so he was enthralled.