Paradise Island, Nassau Bahamas!!!

Got back from Paradise Island yesterday morning. The airport in Nassau sucks royally. They made us wait 2 hours in line to go thru x ray screening. One x-ray machine for everyone flying out of Nassau. Talk about stress of not knowing if you missed your plane.

Nassau is a fun place. I highly recommend it for a nice weekend jaunt. They have all kinds of great specials. If you want to enjoy the compound at Atlantis, you must stay in a hotel near there, that has Atlantis priviledges.. otherwise, you can stay at the Holiday Inn on Paradise Island, where all the food is free, nightly entertainment, but you must pay $30/day to go into Atlantis.

We pretty much spent the entire time in Atlantis. They have this water flume that was exciting. The very first time I went down it, I literally freaked, and screamed bloody murder. I was airborne for a second, and then you go flying down this slide into a warm pool, past sharks. Then entire flume took 5 seconds. Scared the bejesus outta me. But after the first time, it got easier. Everywhere you walked, there were steel drum bands, and lots of reggae music. Pools everywhere, waterfalls, lagoons with sharks, and sea turtles, and sting rays..
a lazy river, many slides, and a beach with waves. It was beautiful, it was fun, it was enjoyable. I recommend it for a long weekend.

We found this one area that I really need to talk about. They call it "the docks." I call it "the shacks." Right at the bottom of Potters Cay bridge are all these little colorful shacks filled with locals selling food. They are the fisherman of Nassau. We walked down, and settled on one man..

We asked him for scorched conch, which is conch ceviche in the U.S. He put a chisel hole in the conch shell, ripped out the conch, and presided to make me the most wonderful, freshest conch ceviche I have ever had. His secret was sour oranges. He diced up the conch, sliced up white onions, cilantro, garlic, lime juice and sour orange juice. Then he drizzled scotch bonnet sauce made from pulverized scotch bonnets, garlic, and lime juice.. It was so fantastic. He also ripped a few other conch's out of their shells, and beat them with a wooden mallet, and then dredged them in flour, salt and pepper, and fried them. Then he squeezed sour orange and lime all over them, and served them with home made tartar sauce.. It was exquisite. I could move down to Nassau and live, as long as I live near "the shacks."

On Saturday, we took a booze and cruise trip out to some lagoon where we all snorkeled, jet skiied, swam, ate, and of course... got merry on Bahama Mama's and Goombay Smash.
It was beautiful, weather was beautiful.. but frankly... I can't remember anything after doing the limbo on the way back. I can't tell you anything about docking.

It was a great trip.. fun as hell. Weather was superb, people were friendly, prices weren't ridiculous, and yes... I'd go back in a heartbeat.