Bahamas!

Well it's barely been 24 hours, but they've been some very busy hours. On Wednesday morning, woke up at 4am to catch the connecting flight to Atlanta, then the final leg down to Nassau. Let's just say that by 4pm that yesterday I was feeling exhausted...

Pretty much right after getting to the hotel, my parents and I took one of the buses down to the Port area to see the ship (from afar), the Straw Market (wall to wall vendors selling Bahamian crafts and typical souvenir junk), the Queen's Staircase, and the infamous Senor Frog's. On the bus, the three of us were surprisingly the only three tourists aboard. The people who live here are very friendly- whenever somebody got on the bus, they'd announce "good afternoon!" to the other riders, who responded in kind. Imagine that on a city bus or the metro in the US- can you? Not a chance, not even in friendly ol' Virginny.

I quickly realized the reason we were the only clueless tourists on the bus was that almost all of the others were filing back onto their massive cruise ships at the docks. The downtown area is bizarrely empty after the ships load up. The Queen's Staircase, one of the most famous landmarks, was literally deserted when we made our way to it. The top of the Staircase was just as empty, apart from a group of bored-looking local kids and a pack of feral dogs (though they looked friendly enough to me!). It was scorchingly hot out, so maybe fewer locals were out-and-about than usual, but there's no question that the population of this place rollercoasters up and down as cruiseships come and go during the day.

Today has consisted of waking up early again (thankfully not 4am early), getting breakfast then taking a shuttle down to one of the local snorkel/scuba companies. My un-certified status and my lame sinuses prevented scuba from being an option, but I feel like snorkeling at the Bahamas is just as good. Tons of coral formations, tropical reefs and fish, sharks (!) as well as a sunken plane and ship. Because of how warm and crystal-clear the water is, many movies have filmed their underwater scenes here, from James Bond to Jaws (the third sequel, at least...). One of the workers said that their dock area was the town from Flipper, and surprised me further by saying that Elijah Wood was in that movie. Going back to the "sharks" part: the snorkelers were able to get in the water and, holding onto a rope, watch sharks and other giant fish swarming a feeding area near a shipwreck about 30 feet below. We were told to keep out arms and legs from moving too much, lest we attract the attention of the friendly fellows swimming beneath us. After everyone climbed back on, the crew used some fish as bait, which instantly lured the sharks and fish up to the surface. The captain then speared one of the fish, whose blood triggered a feeding frenzy. One girl, who had a waterproof digital camera, had the guy shoot video holding it under the surface right next to the bait. Talk about some AWESOME footage! They were Grey Reef Sharks ("only" 8-10 feet long, with babies closer to 4 or 5), which are certainly nothing like Great Whites but their agility as they swerved and lounged at that poor wounded fish was still pretty remarkable. Next on the checklist? Shark cage- but that'll have to wait for another time

Since snorkeling, I've just been relaxing at the hotel, and finishing up some last minute required reading (literally every student around is reading the same book, too... pretty amusing). Tonight all the parents that made the trip down get to go on the ship to tour and have some food, while me and likely a ton of other SASers trek down to Senor Frog's. Thanks to the closeness of "C" to the beginning of the alphabet, my boarding time is 8:20AM, which means waking up at about 6:30 (These early mornings just won't leave me alone!) so I'll have to be efficient at Frog's later, since rolling back to the hotel at 5am would be a poor choice indeed

Til next time, when I'll be aboard my Summer home