Gifts from our Bahamian Friends

First, Ray's gift. He has contracted ciguatera. It is a disease you get from eating bottom feeding fish - the kind that are full of toxins. He is just having his second incidence. Weals on his behind. Honestly, no where else just........Red, tingly, itchy swollen hands. We think he got it from the baracuda we caught. There is no cure or test to prove you have it and it can come and go in your system for up to two years!!!!

Now my gifts, way better!!!!! The West End women made this fabulous shirt for me out of Ambrosia material. I just love the colours and symbols of Ambrosia which is made right here in the Bahamas. These gorgeous placemats will get a lot of use at our table at home. Thank you so much my friends. Ray, not quite as thankful for what he received!!!!!

Great times in our last few days here!!!!

 

One more trip to Island Yogurt. This time we have Tristin and his little brother Shilo. It was so much fun to see what they wanted. Tristin was experienced here but it was Shilo's first visit. So many choices!!!! Great fun!!!

On Saturday my group in the West End decided to come to our place for dinner instead of getting together in the morning. What a fabulous meal they brought!!!!! It was a thank you dinner and I was very appreciative. We had such a good time after dinner sitting and talking about women's issues in the Bahamas. I learnt so much. It was an honour for me to spend this time with these wonderful women. I will miss you all. I leave with such wonderful memories of the times we have spent together.

I have always wanted to go for a tour of the shipyard here and this afternoon we were able to do it!!!! This is the yard where cruise ships come to be refitted and repaired. Above is the dry dock that is 3 football fields long and two wide. This floor sinks down 12 and a half meters and the ship is brought in and sits wedged between these wooden blocks so as not to damage the vessel in any way.

We were treated to lunch at the Treasure Bay Casino for lunch on Sunday. You just can't count on blogger to keep the pics in order!!!!!

Here we are wearing our "gear". Visitor tags, (after we showed our passports and got them checked in the office by security), hard hats and safety glasses.

This is an off shore supply ship. The large circular structure is for landing helicopters. The idea is to get these vessels in and out as quick as possible. For every day this ship is at the shipyard, it is loosing $50 000.

These white structures are for a refitting of a cruise ship. They are assembled here and then slid into place on the ship. It was explained to us like you are building with lego. We loved the tour and were so glad to have this opportunity.

The Red Hat for 2013

Remember last year I sold my red hat at the Toronto airport for $20 well this year I have an even better hat and I am offering it to you, my friends for the starting price of $30. My West End women friends tell me that it is worth $85 so if you are interested in purchasing this hat for yourself or a friend please let me know asap!!!!!! Don't ya just love it????

Thursday and home.....

Thursday morning we had to have the car back at 10 so we ate breakfast and got on the road heading north to the famous Treasure Cay. This is the beach at Treasure Cay. One of the 10 best beaches in the world. I'm sure I have been on 19 of the world's best beaches according to the signs I have read!!!

This is our unit at Regattas. Kitchen at the back. One bedroom off to the back left. Dining Room and start of the living room.

This is the rest of the living room and the porch.

Entrance to second bedroom in the middle.

This is Ray holding our two well used boarding passes and the luggage claim in red. Oh, my, this is too funny!!! No security check of baggage. We don't care what you bring on board or how much of it. No safety rutual. If we go down, we will all be toast so why bother. Hey mon, this is the Bahamas!!!

First we lined up behind one of the big boys.

Ray was all scrunched up behind the pilot. I was all scrunched up behind the co-pilot but there was no co-pilot so I was there to help if needed. I checked all of these dials and they looked fine to me!!! See the gray rectangle? That is where the gps was supposed to be but it was missing!!!!!!!!! He had his gps from his car sitting up there proudly on the dash!!! OMG are we crazy or what!!!!!

So for take off there was a white dotted line down the middle of the runway and we were swinging from side to side. OMG is this the first time this guy has done this? I almost had to genuflect twice!!!
And then it was done....we up in the air!!! Flying!!!! Dipping and bumping up and down!!! Like a midway ride!!!!

Marsh Harbour has lots of marshes but actually the truth is that it has been named after a Marshall.

The shore of Grand Bahama. We are almost home!!!!

Awesome shots of the canal systems.

Coming in for the landing. What the heck made all of those scratches!!!!!???? I have this landing all on sequence if you would like to see it let me know. My favourite part is when the dash board and white are all you can see..............

I patted the good man on the shoulder and thanked him from the bottom of my heart for getting us home safely!!! Thank you Lord!!!

Wednesday in Abaco

On Wednesday morning we rented a car and drove to Sandy Point the furthest south point of Great Abaco. We stopped along the way to see the local wild parrots but they did not want to come out to play and stayed hidden from our view. This is where we stopped for lunch - Pete's Pub. If you are looking for good food, don't bother finding this place. I had cracked conch and it was nothing like Jerrisma's!!!!! Boater hangout.

Leaving Pete's on the oneway sand strip!!!

Our wonderful landlady Janet has a very close friend on Abaco named Daphne and on Wed. afternoon we went with her and her latest employee Angel to Daphne's Neem Farm. They have 110 acres planted with neem trees. According to her and her delighful husband Nick, neem can cure everything from worms to a skin rash. They have a lovely store in Marsh Harbour near the airport where they sell many products. Above is a henna tree. Have you ever wondered where your henna comes from? Oh, come on, you must have wondered once or twice!!!

This is an edible fruit that looks just like penis errectus. I hear it is yummy.

Driving around the farm you suddenly come across a gorgeous bush such as this or a huge rose bush. Simply because it adds colour and looks lovely.

This is the first time I have ever seen a pomegranite tree and with a pomegranite!!!

This is an almond tree.

The neem orchard was hit with Sandy last October and was stripped of all of its leaves but thankfully it is coming back.

I bet you didn't know this was a citronela plant!!! Me either. They use this plant in their bug repellant.

A veggie garden can grow all year long. Nasturciams for a salad plus there was some brocolli picked. There were some onions left but it is time to cultivalte the straw into the soil and plant again. There are two new bee hives on the farm that will add to the pollination of all of the fruit trees.

Abaco Part 2

The lovely beach in Hopetown. Bit of a slide down from the house. A gt-snowracer would take care of that!!! The beaches are gorgeous in the Bahamas. The water is a fabulous colour!!!

As we waited for the ferry to leave, this huge storm started to accumulate. Too bad we had watched that show on the Bermuda Triangle before we left and had discovered that this area of the world had more lightning strikes than any other.................

This whole area is a boater's paradise. Boats everywhere!!!!

As we left Hopetown there were a variety of homes along the shores.

We hadn't been online in 48 hours and I so needed to check emails!!! We went to Mangos just before Happy Hour. Stayed through Happy Hour and ended up having dinner. The food was again, very good. This boat above we had seen in a newspaper for sale. It was first offered at $ 22,000 and had just been reduced to $15 000. Homemade. The owners were sitting up there in the back just waiting for the right buyer!!!! Pretty cheap winter vacation home!!!!

Good night Marsh Harbour.

Abaco Part 1

Sunrise and the cays off of the East End of Grand Bahama.

Oh how I had to talk to myself into getting into this 9 seater plane on Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. We had to get up at 5!!! A couple of people had told me that it was just like riding in a car and I love fast sports type cars so this really worked in my head. We were in the second row behind the pilot. It was exciting and oh so much fun!!!!

As we aproach Marsh Harbour, which is the capital of the Abacos, we begin to see the many cays along its east coast. 

The luggage is stored in the nose of the plane. When I made the reservation, the woman asked me how much I weighed and for one of the first times in my life, this did not seem like the right time to be lying about my weight or Ray's!!!! This time it was really important to tell the truth!!!!

Are you ready for this? The luggage arrives along with the luggage from a much larger plane on this cart and everyone had to go and fish their luggage out of the pile!!!

We had arranged to stay at Regattas in a two bedroom unit. The pool had this fountain flowing all the time so that as you swam, you got rained on. Not impressed said the woman in the sunglasses and sun hat!!!

Monday we napped a couple of times as we had to rise so early. Shopped in the local grocery store and read and played cards. The internet and tv were not working in the room. Couldn't believe that either!!! On Tuesday morning we headed down to one of the many docks to get a ferry to Elbow Cay. We were going to visit Hopetown.

This lighthouse is one of the major tourist attractions in Hopetown. It has about 106 steps up to the top and I hear the view is great. I just bet it is!!! We could of gotten off of the ferry here but carried on to the next stop. We had no idea of where to get out so I just asked some locals if this was "downtown". We got off and started walking and walking and walking and walking........

The downtown core is made up of a lower and upper road. Both of which are only good for bicycles and golf carts. We had a great visit to the museum and a fabulous lunch at Sip Sip. Good food in the Bahamas!!!! Wonders will never cease!!!!