Dec. 25/03
Hi everyone
A quick e-mail to let you know we’re here, sitting under the palm trees and thinking of you.
Our flight to Freeport - via Montreal and Fort Lauderdale - was uneventful, the highlight of which was the high security including shoe searches, and my being referred to as "your daughter" and "Miss" by airport staff as I travelled with Lorne, who kept asking me, "He’s kidding, right?"
The evening we arrived, Barb and Ross swooped us up and took us out to a dinner for 13 at a friend’s 8,000 sq. ft. house on the water.
The eccentric owner of the house rescues stray dogs and has a group of 11 inside dogs and outside dogs who never meet. The inside dogs shared our gourmet dinner prepared in potluck format.
There are lots of feral dogs, abandoned by people who leave the country, who live in the bush and bark at night. The human guests at the dinner live part of their time in the Bahamas and the rest of the time in Long Island, N.Y., Connecticut, England and elsewhere, and Barb and Ross from Chelsea, Quebec.
Cars drive on the left like England and it was disconcerting for me hoping that the tourists remember the rules. There’s a huge tax on car purchase and until recently Ross and Barb shared a car with their apartment neighbors.
Yesterday when I said I wanted a shower before dinner, Ross said just to "teabag" myself – that’s what they call a quick dip in the pool.
This morning I was going to ‘teabag’ but Barb suggested instead a swim in the ocean. We went to Silver Beach, 5 minutes away on the Atlantic. I was timid about swimming in the waves but the salt water buoyancy helped and the water was clear and I could see fish on the bottom.
In the afternoon we boarded their boat, the "Lazy Buoy", a 31’ Sea-bee diesel with a 275 hp motor that goes 27 knots. It’s a working boat for fishing and diving.
Ross goes out fishing on it from noon to midnight to catch tuna, dolphin fish (not dolphins) and red snapper. We went out into the Atlantic and back through the canals of Freeport and down the Hotel Beach.
The water was rough and choppy and we were going about 35 mph which seemed very fast to me, hurtling over the waves like turbulence on an airplane. I had my sea legs by the way back. When I told my friend Helen I was going to Freeport, she immediately asked if I was going gambling. I hadn’t even thought of it – we were just going to visit friends with an apartment there – but apparently the new casino is worth a look, and we’re going to go later in the week.
Also on the upcoming agenda, swimming with the dolphins, the national park, botanical gardens, bike rental, the Straw Market, and longer boat excursions once the weather is better.
Love to all
Louise and Lorne
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Hi again dear relatives
Some more quick (i.e. unedited) thoughts you can read or not….
Earlier today, I fell in love with a smooth young guy. I couldn’t keep my hands off him, and he gave me a kiss. (see photo above.) His name is Andros, and Lorne was there to take pictures. Andros is a three-year-old dolphin at the UNEXSO (underwater explorer society) " Swim with Dolphins".
Back in 1986, our hosts, Barb Stollery and her husband Ross were working for their keep, diving in Freeport. They volunteered to swim with the dolphins to sensitize them to humans.
They swam with the dolphins for two months, and then the following year were back to dive with them and practice feeding them fish.
The dolphin experience has since become one of the biggest tourist attractions in Freeport, with boats going back and forth on the 15-minute ride to the dolphin lagoon.
She still feels a bond and insisted I share the experience. The dolphin experience has been open to the public since 1987.
The 12 dolphins take turns doing a variety of programs, and all get together at 4:30 every day to play. They know where they live and sometimes go out at night into the ocean, and always come back.
We were instructed not to touch the dolphins on their face at all; they don’t like it from strangers, and don’t touch or grab their fins. If they want their bellies rubbed, they will roll over and ask.
Don’t slap or punch, just swim and rub. Two people can rub one dolphin.
There is a maximum of six people swimming with two dolphins at a time.
We just got in the 15-foot deep water, and swam around and they joined us when they felt like it, swimming alongside.
They like to free dive, and if you dive down, they do too. After the free swim, the five people in my group lines up the water and we took turns giving the dolphins hand instructions to spin around, jump and do dolphin stuff.
For instance, when I tapped the water, they both came and swam beside me with a hand on each of them. There is even a Canadian connection; they each 400 pounds of fish a day, which is brought in from Canada and kept in a freezer on shore. It was really fun.
Imagine, I was so busy thinking of the dolphins that I even managed to tread water for half an hour. In the evening we went to Pier 1 restaurant on the water at the port, and watched the shark feeding. The sharks come in to shore every night and then head back into the ocean.
They were huge.
More Bahamian ramblings….
Everyone we’ve met in the Bahamas in our friends’ social circle has at least two houses.
Now, thanks to Lorne’s allergies to the two Siamese cats, we have two places too. Because of his sniffing, sneezing and shortness of breath, we have had to move to Mrs. Hamilton’s empty apartment next door – with no cats.
We feed Lorne outside, and at this moment he is sitting on the patio with the beautiful smell of night jasmine.
Tomorrow is yoga again. Thanks to Barb, I’ve been going with her every second day to the 1 1/2 hour classes in a yoga studio which is part of Martha Cartright’s beautiful house overlooking the waterway.
From the studio, we overlook the backyard laden with lush trees of yellow grapefruits. From California originally, Martha met a Bahamian on the plane, married and moved here decades ago. She couldn’t get a work permit as an elementary school teacher so she began the yoga. She smiles all the time.
December 27, 2003
Last night we had fresh caught salmon dinner with Chris and Colin, a boatbuilder whose family moved here from England when he was a child. His wife Chris is Australian and came as an au pair and never left.
This morning we went to the local grocery store to buy supplies to make grapefruit marmalade from fruit from Chris and Colin’s tree. We cut up the gorgeous grapefruit - with green skin and bright red inside - into tiny pieces, and put it to soak in sugar and water for 12 hours.
Then off to another social gathering in the penthouse of a lowrise apartment building on the water. The penthouse is for sale for 1.8 million dollars, and looks like something you’d find on Central Park in New York City.
Once again, guests from all over the world, including Richard, an architect who owns the firm that designed the World Trade Centres, and also has owned a vineyard and is an artist. Bill, the host, also owns a vineyard in France. Needless to say, the wine at these gatherings is very good.
December 28, 2003
Off to the beach for an early morning half hour run in the sand, while Lorne and Barb walk for the same length of time. Then we all sat in the hot tub facing the Atlantic at the Lucaya resort and pretended we were guests.
Back to the apartment for breakfast of home made waffles under the palms, and then to the kitchen to finish preparing the marmalade and start making more French bread. Barb is a Cordon Bleu trained cook and does everything fabulously from scratch.
Supper at Banana Bay restaurant on the beach for cracked conch, pigeon peas and spicy rice. We have now eaten cracked conch at least four times and still interested. Turquoise water. Next night the same, at Club Caribe on the water, followed by late night Lord of the Rings movie. The crowd laughed at various dramatic intervals.
December 29, 2003
All of the Bahamas are flat, an old barrier reef with hundreds of different kinds of coral. We drove to Lucayan National Park and walked the trails to the freshwater caves and mangrove swamp. Ben’s Cave was named after Barb and Ross’s friend who explored it in the 1960s. Ross gave us a detailed tour. That night we checked out the Royal Oasis Casino, each with $20 for the 25 cent slot machines. The casino was bright and busy. I made $72, the others lost their $20.
Happy New Year everyone. We will be jivin’ on the main drag at the Junakanoo parade.
Love
Louise & Lorne
Happy New Year
Some more trip notes, because I know once I get back, the palm trees laden with coconuts will be a distant memory...
December 31st
Two hour yoga session in the morning, with all participants asked to make their yoga resolutions for the year.
Afternoon at Garden of the Groves, named after benefactor Wallace Groves. Not quite the flowering season, but the banana trees were interesting, and the noisy parrots, one of which said ‘hello’ back.
For New Year’s Eve we decided not to pay $195 per person at The Ferry House restaurant and went instead to Papa John’s where we ate pizza at a table in the parking lot with the locals.
Then we went to a free outdoor party with live music and a sea of lights in Count Basey Square. Back to the apartment second floor balcony to watch the midnight fireworks coming from the harbour.
I put on my wetsuit for a midnight swim in the unheated pool. No one else in the building uses the pool in the ‘winter’ months and it was the only time I swam in the pool this visit. The ocean is warmer, but there aren’t many people in there either.
New Year’s Day Barb made a brunch for about 25 people, everything from scratch including French bread, crab cakes, waffles, quiche and rum cake, to mention just a few of the dishes.
Main topics of discussion were free diving, spear fishing, their dogs – one of which is featured in the 2004 Jack Russell calendar – and recipes. When you’re shopping for a dinner party, you have to take two recipes to the store, because some of the ingredients will always be out of stock.
For instance this week, nobody has any milk to sell because the shipment was late.
Evening – Junkanoo parade, a longstanding tradition dating from slavery, with large colorful paper costumes on children and adults, whistles and drums in an endless procession. Booths selling crack conch, chowder, corn fritters, ribs and other local favorites.
This morning Lorne and I are kayaking through the mangroves. (signed him up before he knew about it, so he couldn’t say no.) The pick-up van will be here any minute. ‘bye for now
Love
Louise & Lorne (who has no input on these e-mails because he’s still exiled next door because of the cats.)
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Chad, our kayak in the mangroves tour leader, told us at the introduction that he'd be asking periodically: "Is everything cool with you, Mon?"
We'd answer back, "Yah, Mon."
He'd keep checking throughout the day to make sure we weren't lost or in trouble. We weren’t; just frequently stuck in the tree roots as we attempted to navigate the twists and turns.
Chad had studied finance and accounting in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and then worked in that field, but he said he wasn’t really happy.
He pointed to his sandals to show what he really wanted. "The ocean is my love," he says.
So now he's teaching about his beloved country, and by furthering ecotourism, helping the economy grow.
He was full of facts...310,000 Bahamian people over 29 inhabited islands, of 700 altogether. The word Bahamas means ‘the shallows’. And Caribbean means canibals!
There were 5,000 people in Freeport in the 1950s before Wallace Groves invested in logging. There are now 56,000.
January 3/04
On our second last day in the Bahamas we finally drove through the West End and saw the little settlements of modest houses, the odd laundromat or bar, and dozens and dozens of churches.
And at the tip of the island, the end of our drive was Old Banana Bay, a lushly landscaped new development where $3 million yachts sit in their ‘dockominiums’.
We were actually able to talk our way into the gated community and have lunch overlooking the water. Neighbors of Ross and Barb were refused admission recently because they apparently didn’t look upscale enough.
On the way back we stopped at Paradise Cove for another beach walk.
The day we left, we spent the morning once again at the uncrowded beach, ate crabcakes and chicken, coconut rice and fruit on the apartment patio, then headed to the airport where new year crowds and security delayed us at each departure.
It was so hard (mentally as well as physically) to leave this warm and relaxing country.
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