Real Life in Bahamas Blog

02.15.08 / Fri Chad Hepburn is one of the best tour guides I've ever encountered...really!  He took the Real Life crew on a jeep excursion around Grand Bahama Island paying visits to Lucayan National Park, the mangroves (which is a swamp-like area but with clear water and fish that love to swarm if you toss bread bits into the water)...to get through the mangroves Chad had to paddle across part of the water to the opposing dock and then had a "ferry" of sorts hooked up so that you can literally pull yourself and the ferry across the water by rope.  We then proceeded to walk on a long boardwalk right over the water and then came to the most gorgeous beach any of us had ever seen, Gold Rock Beach.  We lunched and then were able to enjoy the beach and water for a bit...Sharon and Tanya found a starfish which was moving around.  Someone mentioned that when you pick up a starfish, the water kind of "gushes" out of it so we tried, just to see what would happen, but I think he was quite scared because he seemed to just freeze. We then put him back on into the water where, we hope, he found his way home.  Funny thing though, seeing our camera man Geoff in beach attire while still taping footage of the starfish and landscape. We made one stop near the beach and saw these absolutely striking sculptures fashioned out of the mangled trees that were hit during Hurricanes Jeanne and Francis.  Antonio Roberts was the artist who designed and constructed these sculptures, as a memorial to the devastation that occurred.   Well, the word's out, get your praise on!  Or so the gospel choir sang as we drove to St. John's Jubilee Cathedral on Sunday morning.  I think just about every radio station carried some rousing praise and worship that morning and it was great...wonderful way to get excited about being in the house of God!  Churches in the Bahamas are interesting in that the pastor, or rather the bishop and his wife are the faces of the church in many ways.  For instance, at St. John's Jubilee Cathedral, a large portrait was hanging in the foyer and the caption read Bishop Godfrey Williams and his Lady Iris.  Lady Iris also was seated in a special place of honour in the auditorium, stage-left as she listened to her husband's rousing and inspirational sermon.  The excitement and positive energy that you could feel immediately was overwhelming...we wanted to stay all day but had to keep moving to go and see St. Stephen's Anglican Church.  This church is still in its original building that was erected in the early 1900s right on the ocean.  Absolutely stunning scenery and their own church graveyard leads right down to the water.  I realize saying a graveyard setting is stunning is a bit odd, but this one was!  While we were there, the congregation was singing "There's Power In the Blood" and we all joined in which was a lot of fun.   The trip to the Bahamas was, in a word, sensational.  It really was - everything that we were fortunate enough to see left a mark and we made so many wonderful memories, made some incredible new friends and hopefully you've enjoyed watching our visit to Grand Bahama Island.  Now, if any of you out there are thinking how nice it would be to go there, beginning Feb 18 Real Life will be airing a daily clue that might just help you win a trip for 2 to stay at the all-inclusive Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach Resort and perhaps even visit some of the exciting and very interesting places  that Real Life had the chance to profile.  Check out the Real Life contest section for more details.

02.14.08 / Thur Who doesn't love starting the day out by flying on the trapeze?  Billy Havik talks Sharon through her first experience on the trapeze, the jumps, the flips...well, not so much Sharon as other more experienced trapeze artists...Billy and Angel Havik participate in various shows that take place at the Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach Resort and at the end of the month they will be putting on a huge pirate production with high-flying trapeze artists, costumes and much more. You can check out their website at www.havikcircus.com So then we moseyed on down to the beach where Chef Clayton of the Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach Resort was preparing conch salad.  I know, I'd never really even thought about the meat in the conch shell, I just always appreciated the conch shells for "hearing the ocean".  But yes, indeed, Bahamian culture is full of conch meat recipes, most notably the delicious conch fritter which is breaded and deep-fried and served with delicious sauces with just a hint of spice.  Conch salad incorporates much of the same ingredients as a regular salad, only difference is, well, the conch meat! OK, so we prepared some salad on the beach but, since it's Valentine's Day, we wanted to be a bit more, well, focused on things of a romantic nature and for that we headed to Port Lucaya which is a hot tourist destination on Grand Bahama Island.  Oh wow, we walked out into the back of the hotel and saw the gazebo where a desination wedding was just about ready to begin.  And then looking directly back from the hotel is the ocean and a nice rocky plateau area where the tables were set up for the reception...well, I'll admit it, I might have wistfully sighed once or twice.  It was such an incredible setting!  Words can't say enough, so hopefully you were able to watch today's episode and catch how gorgeous it was.  Oh, but something you didn't see on the show is that while guests were still arriving, the Bahamian Prime Minister walked by with his entourage!  At first we were quite impressed at how important the newlyweds must be, but the Prime Minister walked by and went to another part of the property for a meeting.  So there you have it! Then on to Count Basie Square where Rupert Solomon and Friends favoured us with some fantastic Caribbean-themed music along with old favourites that our whole group had to chime in and sing along.  The most incredible thing was the Junkanoo procession that came through the square later that night.  For those who don't know, Junkanoo is a Bahamian festival that usually takes place Christmas and New Year's but they usually put on a mini-Junkanoo procession for the tourists every Saturday night in the Square.  Bongos, trumpets, tubas and even cow bells are used to keep rhythm and get some all-around great music playing.  I know, you're thinking a cowbell?  But these are specially made cowbells that are streamlined to get a fuller, more controlled sound...and fun too!

02.13.08 / Wed Everything about Grand Bahama Island is beautiful...I can't say it enough...the people, the landscape, beaches, ocean, architecture (lots of colonial-style influence evidenced in various businesses and buildings around the island).  We arrived in Freeport a bit behind schedule as we missed our connecting flight in Miami by...say it with me now...6 minutes!  Actually, we got to see a bit of Miami while we waited for the later flight but we all were really ready to get to the resort by that evening.   The Viva Wyndham Fortuna Beach Resort is located just off of Doubloon Drive in Freeport (in a salute to the amount of pirate history around the islands) and it is a beautiful property.  The beach is gorgeous, the snack bar has hot food and cold drinks at the ready, the pool is massive with plenty of deck chairs to laze around in (not that that would have happened, but that first night it felt great to sit down for a few minutes!), and the sidewalks are lined with gorgeous hibiscus plants that really make the place look fantastic.   Our adventures in the Bahamas began fishing in Deep Water Cay which is a small area located at the far side of Grand Bahama.  Tanya was incredibly excited to go fishing and wasn't disappointed by the vast amounts of fish that she was able to see in the boat.  Lemon shark, barracudas (which one of our fishing guides later caught), montereys and hundreds of bone fish were among the fish swimming near our boats and it was incredible to see these fish so close!   Next we explored the small community of Sweeting's Cay which has two vehicles in the whole village...the preferred mode of transportation is golf carts!  I thought that was great...much less pollution?   So, has anyone ever wanted to get up close and personal with a dolphin?  Well, we were very fortunate to have the chance to meet Suma and Taino, 2 of the dolphins at UNEXSO the Underwater Explorers Society just outside of Freeport.  They both put on a great show with the instruction of their trainer, Pedro who later chatted with Sharon about the programs available at UNEXSO.   And last but not least for the day, we chatted with Ambrose Morris who works with Tourism Bahamas about the city of Freeport.  This guy hasn't been asked a question about the Bahamas that he can't answer...there's nothing he doesn't know about the Islands.