Travel Diaries: Nassau, Bahamas (Island of Dreams)

Now that I've been back in Vancouver for a couple of weeks, the magic of the Bahamas is slowly fading as I return to my usual work and social routines. However, the memories of those beautiful places that I visited can always be revisited with a few clicks through my favourite photos of the trip.

In this particular collection of snapshots, our ship had docked at Nassau, a little island town in the Bahamas, at 8:00 am on the second day of the cruise. I remember glancing happily out of our cabin's porthole window at the beautiful tropical paradise that awaited us. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was excited to see what adventures we would experience.

After having our usual buffet breakfast, we left the ship and joined the group going to the Atlantis Paradise Resort for the AquaAdventure or for the Dolphin Cove. The AquaAdventure, which cost a hefty $165 per person, consisted of an enormous water resort full of pools, scary water slides, waterfalls, and a 40-minute-long "lazy river" ride interspersed with rapids and tidal waves. Our friends would participate in the Dolphin Adventure in which they would get to meet dolphins and see the world's largest aquarium.

Our friendly shuttle bus driver gave us a wonderful and humorous overview of his nation's history and the going-ons of Nassau.

Some sights we spotted on the way to the water resort. We were incredibly fascinated by all of the sharks, stingrays, and giant fish we saw swimming in the pools around the resort-- no one wanted to fall into those! 

Me enjoying the view from atop the "Power Tower": this tower contained two rides named "The Abyss" and "The Surge." I was unfortunately tricked into taking the first without prior knowledge of how darn scary it would be! The entire ride was pretty much a free-fall ending up in a dark pool at the bottom. To add to the fun, I also lost my sunglasses...

As mentioned previously in this post, we were able to enjoy a very long lazy river ride in a two-person inner tube on which we bobbed along until we were hit by various rapids, tidal waves, and other fun obstacles.

After getting our fill of the water rides, we made our way to the white sand beach about five minutes away from the water resort. We bought two coconut drinks, a pina colada and a "Bahama Mamma," that were both generously endowed with rum. I remember being absolutely amazed by how blue the water was and by how the white sand was more flaky than grainy (as they are in Vancouver).



While we enjoyed our beach time immensely, a long sun-bathing session was not to be as we were suddenly hit by a heavy tropical rainstorm. After taking shelter under a concession stand's roof, we eventually made our way back to the cruise ship dock. Before returning on board, we had a delicious lunch at Via Caffe consisting of the most incredible fettuccine alfredo that I've ever had. It was sprinkled liberally with conch (the shellfish most enjoyed by the local population) and a spicy sauce that was unlike any Italian pasta sauce I'd had before.

From my one day in Nassau, I would highly recommend visiting that beautiful island and perhaps exploring more of the shops around the local vicinity (something we didn't have the time or energy for). I would visit it again in heartbeat! Until then, I'm glad that I have these photos to remember it by.