Bahamas highlights
New Providence Island
With its hotel glitter and restaurant sophistication, its daytime traffic jams and night-time naughtiness, Nassau (population 205,000) is certainly not typical of the Bahamas. But it's definitely a magnet for tourists. Bay Street is the commercial centre of the city, but the traditional tourist hub is the Straw Market at Market Plaza. The amiable sales ladies here have been creating straw items since childhood.
The picture-postcard Public Buildings dating from 1812 and a bleached marble statue of a young, seated Queen Victoria recall the British colonial era.
The town's oldest and most interesting building is the Public Library of 1797, between Shirley Street and the Court House. The seashell collection in the entry has some rarities, but the really interesting things are upstairs: fine old prints, maps and portraits, a carved stone Arawak ceremonial stool and other artefacts.
A white statue of a dashing Columbus commands steep steps up to pink Government House (closed to the public), residence of governors and governor-generals for nearly two centuries.
Christ Church Cathedral (Anglican) in George Street, a pleasantly airy building with a dark timbered roof, was constructed in 1841, while the three-storey Deanery in Cumberland Street dates from about 1710 and may be the oldest residence in the Bahamas.
Slaves hacked the Queen's Staircase in Elizabeth Avenue from the black rock cliff as a passageway for troops garrisoned above at Fort Fincastle. At the top, you'll reach Nassau's water tower which offers a stunning panorama of New Providence and the harbour.
West of Nassau there's no missing the grey stone ramparts of Fort Charlotte, named after the consort of George III. Tourists are escorted into the dungeon which houses a mock-up of a torture chamber complete with stretching rack, though it never held prisoners. Beneath Fort Charlotte, the Nassau Botanical Gardens display a variety of carefully kept tropical flowers and plants. In the same area, the flowers take back seat to the remarkable attraction of marching flamingoes at Ardastra Gardens. Elsewhere around this mini-zoo, look for peacocks, a croc and an iguana.
At Coral World marine observatory, you'll see a sample of the incredible underwater life of the Bahamas. It's said to be the biggest man-made coral reef in the world.
Further west is the Cable Beach resort area, where excitement and amusements abound.
One of the best beaches is past Northwest Point at Old Fort Bay. This gentle arc of soft sand is backed by dense foliage in which stand the remains of an old fort.
Small, isolated and charmingly unspoiled, Adelaide Village on Southwest Bay dates back to 1832 when it was settled by slaves freed from ships stopped by the Royal Navy. A prominent sign announces the next "Be Healed Revival Meeting".
Back in Nassau look for Blackbeard's Tower, said to be a lookout built by the 17th-century pirate chief, strategically perched on a hillock overlooking the eastern approach to Nassau harbour. The tower is along a short path off Eastern Road, meandering back to town past scores of lovely homes. From this end of town, a toll bridge crosses over to Paradise Island, and beneath the bridge is some of the best fun Nassau has to offer: Potters Cay, where all day long little fishing boats tie up with conch, turtle, grouper and snapper, which are soon snapped up by householders and restaurateurs.
Grand Bahama Island
The commercial and resort centre of Freeport/Lucaya is even less typical of the Bahamas than Nassau. Despite English place names and tours by red London double-decker bus, basic Bahamian local colour is in short supply here. The atmosphere is more palpably American than anywhere else in the Commonwealth-not unexpectedly, since it was a Virginia financier, Wallace Groves, who conceived the "Freeport miracle" and set it in motion in 1955. (Under the Hawksbill Creek agreement of that year, a deep-water harbour was decided upon along with the tax and duty-free port. Tourism began to boom when the first casino opened in 1964.) Most of the island's 40,000 residents live in this city-or at the West End settlement 40 km (25 miles) away. Landscaped highways, clearly signposted and even at times divided, connect modern hotels with marinas, golf courses, and shopping and gambling complexes.
The International Bazaar, an unusual mixture of architecture and offerings from various parts of the world, is Freeport's major sightseeing attraction, and worth wandering through even if you're not planning on buying from any of the scores of shops. Built in 1967, it was the work of a Hollywood set designer. The restored 18th-century Bahamian mansion next door houses a perfume factory, where essences from the world over are blended and bottled. Close by is the huge El Casino, with its strange Moorish facade, near the island's main straw market, where ladies with broad smiles are used to posing for photographs. Major hotels and golf courses are also in the area. The atmosphere is more authentically Bahamian at the native fruit and vegetable market, an all-weather cluster of family stalls in Churchill Square, and at the occasional fairs, parades and "jumpin'" religious events.
East of Freeport's central attractions, the sprawling Lucaya resort area features beachfront and marina hotels, the island's best golf courses and several sightseeing possibilities. A fierce competitor to Freeport's International Bazaar is the huge Port Lucaya complex, combining shops and entertainment.
"Please do not touch the plants-many are poisonous", says the sign at the Garden of the Groves. That's the only jarring note in these thoroughly delightful 4.5 ha (11 acres) of tropical flora, man-made waterfalls and ponds. Lizards dart by as you stroll among the 10,000 plants and trees. The Grand Bahama Museum, within the garden, is worth visiting for its exhibitions on the history of the Lucayan Indians, the Bahamas' earliest settlers, undersea life and costumes from the Junkanoo, a Bahamian festival that has its origins in Africa.
From Bell Channel Bay, wind conditions permitting, what's billed as the world's largest glass-bottom boat takes tourists over coral gardens and along Grand Bahama's deep reef. Sharks, barracudas, stingrays and other intriguing creatures can usually be spotted.
Undersea buffs might enjoy the Museum of Underwater Exploration at the Underwater Explorers Society in the same inlet. Apart from various items brought up by divers, some early underwater gear is on display, including primitive-looking cameras and masks. Around the diving facilities in the area, by the way, you're bound to hear about the million or more dollars worth of Spanish pieces-of-eight found offshore from Lucaya in 1964. The shallow site, long since stripped of its gold, is nicknamed Treasure Reef. The diving school of the Underwater Explorers Society offers a unique amusement called the "Dolphin Experience", in which you can swim and dive with these intelligent, friendly mammals. If your time is not limited, visit the Lucaya National Park, with both natural forest and mangrove swamp.
To the north, on East-Settlers Way, the Rand Memorial Nature Centre offers 90-minute guided walks with a naturalist through a protected Bahamian forest, a chance to photograph flamingoes and other uncommon birds and to spot 21 different kinds of wild orchids.
To the west of Freeport is the settlement of Eight Mile Rock. Mysteriously, a number of old cannonballs have been found in this area in recent times, though not even pirates were supposed to have lived on Grand Bahama until the 1840s.
Signs make good reading along the road, as you pass such places as Sea Grape, Deadman's Reef and Bottle Bay. Near Holmes Rock, Hydro Flora Gardens, a small nursery, offers a tour and lecture on tropical plants grown without soil.
West End, sadly, isn't the roguish place it used to be. Searching the sleepy seaside village, you'll find only the scantiest traces of the bad old days of prohibition when merchants and rum runners made fortunes smuggling liquor into the "dry" United States. A few old-timers recall the bootlegging boom days when a boat owned by Al Capone was loaded with booze here.
In the "gin clear" water just offshore in front of the aged Star Hotel landmark and the so-called Old Factory, you'll see some concrete slabs of Prohibition-era piers and bits of old iron rails used to roll contraband down to waiting boats. In this oldest Grand Bahama settlement there are six churches and a multitude of bars or clubs, mostly small wooden affairs. West End's few inhabitants don't benefit as much as they'd like from the large, self-sustaining tourist hotel complex which dominates the area. From here you can go on deep-sea fishing and scuba-diving excursions.
Tourists won't normally find it convenient to take the bus which goes most days between Freeport and the eastern end of the island. By taxi or rented car, it's a long drive on a road which deteriorates dramatically once past the US Air Force missile tracking installations around High Rock. From the road you'll see impressive radar dishes and antennae, but stern signs prohibit closer inspection. On this trip you parallel the majority of Grand Bahama's advertised 60 miles (100 km) of beaches, most of them long, windswept stretches frequented only by birds and crabs. Tiny Pelican Point is a tidy, friendly roadside settlement where the centre of all things is the Baptist church.
McLean's Town, metropolis of the east end, has a few hundred inhabitants who live in pastel wooden houses. The settlement is unusual in that the majority of the women go out fishing for a living, as do the menfolk. They bring in snapper, grouper, conch, porgy and crawfish. A bit shy at first, villagers are genuinely pleased to welcome strangers. They'll be happy to tell you about the town's biggest event of the year, the Conch Cracking Contest held on Discovery Day, October 12, when great crowds turn up to watch competitors crack, empty and clean up to 25 conches in less than three minutes.
At a fishing camp on nearby Deep Water Cay, you'll hear other sea sagas from the regulars. There's very good bone-fishing in the shallows among the east end mangroves, and collecting seashells (shelling) can be superb along such beaches as Crabbin Bay and John Davis.
