Tuesday February 3rd, 2015 was spent shoveling out my parking spot, packing my bags for the big trip coming up, having a handful of Amaretto sours with a pasta and sauce dinner, followed up with some delicious Toll House home made peanut butter chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. For some reason I have this as both what I did on Monday and Tuesday of this week, let's just go with it!
Wednesday February 4th was my last day in America, so I spent the night packing!
February 5th was finally here! We woke up at the early hour of 4:45am and drove to O'Hare airport to catch a flight out. Our flight had a layover in Miami and then we finally reached the Bahamas! I read about half the book Four by Veronica Roth on the flight over, a side novel to the Divergent series. All the guy at customs asked me was, "Where you staying today?" I told him and we were in. Was a super awesome, dark skinned, Bahamian guy who was a boss!
When we got outside of the airport, some nice gentlemen came over and took our bags to our bus. This bus reminded me of Australia, just sitting back as we enjoy the ride to our hotel, riding on the left side of the road, getting some local info from the driver, who claimed his name was Mario. Mario drove us over to our resort, The Atlantis, and eventually, after a bit of confusion, took us to our correct hotel.
Once at the resort, we were blown away by the view from our 17th floor room in the Royal Towers. Mom hooked it up with the nice upgrade! Woo Woo!
After checking out our room and visiting what will soon to be our favorite spot on the trip, The Dig, we walked over to a local restaurant, Anthony's, for dinner. While there we indulged in our first Bahamian cuisine, getting some Conch fritters (pronounced Conk by the locals). I also got a tasty burger and a drink called Goombay Smash. I would later find out that goombay is a local soda in the Bahamas. Also learned it is pronounced Ca-rib-bean, not Care-i-bean.
Unfortunately the local liquor store was closed, so after dinner, Beth and I went on a stroll around the resort. We walked around the area, and to my surprise, not many people were out. It was not that late out, but on our walk, we did find and save some snails by moving them off the path. I also kicked a bird when walking in the dark by one of the lighted pools, which you can't swim in after 5pm, so why light it? On our walk we also found a cat, the dolphin cay where we will be enjoying a swim with dolphins tomorrow, & a new cool hotel where it was super windy, The Cove. We also revisited The Dig on our way back to our room, love them fish.
On Friday February 6th, Beth and I awoke and then headed down to the Dolpin Cay for our Ultimate Trainer Experience. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done and was definitley a highlight of the trip! Here are some details about the experience:
After checking in, Beth and I waited in the viewing area and after 30 minutes or so, started to worry maybe they forgot about us. We did get there early, and it turned out it was just going to be Beth, myself and one other person. We met our trainer Jessica and then waited for the other person who had signed up, but they never showed, so this trainer experience was now just a private lesson for Beth and I! How cool! First we learned some facts and things about the dolphins at the park. Beth and I were then provided a locker to put our goods in, as well as a couple of wet suits to wear. We were gifted a snorkel set with goggles and breathing tube, as well as a bottle of water, and eventually a dolphin trainer shirt, all to keep!
Oh, did I mention we were also provided our own personal photographer for this whole experience? His name was Brentwood Thompson and was a super cool cat who has been in a Bahamian film before. We chatted a little bit about cameras during the 6 hour experience.
So I will get some of the questions and facts I learned throughout the whole day out of the way.
- They have 45 dolphins at the Atlantis Dolphin Cay, soon to 46 as one is pregnant.
- Echo was the alpha male dolphin, he gets all the ladies.
- Dolphins don't sleep, they simply rest half of their brain at any point during the day
- They don't sleep because they need to think to breathe, therefore be awake.
- Dolphins only live 18-25 years in the wild, but 50-60 years in captivity.
- All dolphin noises are made with their blowhole.
- Dolphins only have one set of teeth, no baby teeth.
The first thing we did was meet a dolphin named Sands which we thought was named "Sans" because of the Bahamian accents all of the trainers had. We were able to hold him and take a picture, rub his belly, give him a kiss, and even high five this dolphin bro. I was also able to feed him some dead fish, which I made him work for at one point. The trainers then tried to have him splash me, but he got Beth instead! Ha! Sands was pretty young, only 3 years old. Dolphins to my surprise were not slimy at all, they felt like a smooth piece of rubber, pretty cool.
After hanging with Sands for a bit, we headed over to the deep water to do a dolphin foot push. We held a boogy board and one of the dolphins came behind us, one at a time of course, and pushed our foot with their nose as we glazed across the water.
Beth and I were also about to do a dorsal fin grab. After slapping the water, 2 dolphins came up behind us and we reached back and gave their fins a grab, holding on. The first time I went, a third dolphin appeared below me to my surprise. It was then clear, I literally just rode a dolphin. Apparently it was a trainers mistake, so I was able to do the dorsal fin grab a second time, but only two dolphins came this time.
After riding on the dolphins, Beth and I headed over to a different pool to snorkel with some dolphins. We actually were never told what we were doing, and had never actually snorkeled, so it was kind of awkward, especially when Beth started drowning, again... lol jokes Beth. But really, we were not sure what to do, but we were given these cool little underwater scooter propeller things that made us swim about. I watched some dolphin stuff under water and Beth was able to hear some dolphin noises while she clung onto the wall.
After the strange snorkeling experience, we walked behind the stage areas and learned a little bit more about dolphins, seeing more of the behind the scenes activities. We then met some parrot type of birds, Dilly and Cocoa. They attempted to perform tricks for us, but didn't do too great at it. Finally Cocoa said "Big Bird" and did some upside down bat-man style trick. The trainers were pretty pumped about it, so it must have been good!
After our little bird experience, where Beth got scratched up by cranky Cocoa, we changed out of our wet suits and headed to lunch at the Mosaic. Jessica our trainer, Brentwood our photographer, Ryan our soon to be second trainer, and two other girls, Shaq & Monique, who worked at the Dolphin Cay, joined us for lunch. The lunch was a buffet, so I thoroughly enjoyed some delicious steak, mahi mahi, chicken, jerk pork, and goombay juice. Love me some goombay juice.
Lunch was a really cool cultural experience because we were able to chat with everyone and they were all around our age. Ryan was the oldest, maybe 30? Brentwood was 25 just like me, and then the other three girls were all 21 and younger I believe, so it was really unique to just see what they were in to and how life was for them. We talked about music, like Kanye West, Brentwood likes old Kanye like me and thinks new Kanye sucks. We also talked about drinking (legal age there is 18), the governments, how they are not allowed to gamble and how their taxes are ridiculous just like ours in America. We talked about so much and it was very genuine getting to know these new friends!
After lunch, we departed ways with Jessica and now went to another side of the park for more of a marine life experience, with trainer Ryan. We took a golf cart ride around to an underground area on the other side of the resort. There, we were able to see and handle baby green sea turtles, called green because their insides are green, not their outsides, southern sting rays, nurse sharks, and sea stars. Called sea stars, not star fish, because they are not a fish!
We then got to cannibalism part of the day where Squid had to cut up Squids to feed to the sting rays and Sardines to feed to the sharks. It was a fun part of the experience cutting up the food and putting it in buckets to feed to the animals. Starting to feel more like a trainer. Once we had all of the food prepared, we headed out with a cart to feed the sharks over by the Predator Lagoon. Once we stepped outside, Ryan said that people were going to ask us questions, and not him. Sure enough, the first person we passed walked right past Ryan and asked me where the nearest restroom was. To my luck we had just walked by one, so I directed him in the correct direction. Ryan laughed and said I told you! How funny. As we grabbed the bucket and walked over toward the ledge where we would be feeding the sharks, people began to gather around and say, They are going to feed the sharks in excited voices! Feeling more and more like a trainer! Beth and I began to throw in the sardines to the sharks and birds began to dart down from all directions, trying to grab the dead fish before the sharks could, sneaky little devils. After a bit, a lady next to me asked how many times a day we feed the sharks, I looked over at Ryan and he gave me the number 2 in fingers and mouthed twice! I turned to the woman and said, we feed the sharks twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Ryan cracked up, and I felt proud. Officially a trainer now! Once we were all out, we started to walk back, a man asked me how to get to the other side of the park, I just told him he had to go back from where he came from and re trace his steps... haha.
We then walked over to a secret spot which would take us 4 days to find again, and walked into a pool of sting rays to feed them the squids we had prepared. When feeding sting rays, it is important you shuffle your feet on the ground, being careful not to step on them. You then put some squid in your hand, reach down, open your hand the sting ray slides across your hand and sucks up the squids. The sting rays were so happy to be fed, and even sucked on your toes a little bit, tickling your feet. One was trying to go through my legs and eventually got stuck, so I had to open my legs to let him through. Sting rays were slimy little guys, but very friendly, quite an enjoyable feeding experience.
After feeding the sting rays, we were on to our final experience, snorkeling with sharks, sting rays, and other fish. We jumped in a little pool just across the way, and were able to snorkel with all of the fish for the final part of our Trainer Experience. I thought this part was also super cool, just swimming above sharks, fish, giant sting rays, even though it was in an aquarium, it was still awesome. We were able to wave to people watching from the windows below as well. I tried to dive down to catch the fish, but was unable to because the wet suit has a little flotation to it.
Right as it was time to go, we decided to make it a little more exciting. When we were getting out of the water, Beth slipped on some coral reef and ended up cutting her knee pretty deep. It bled and bled, and we chalked it up to her being attacked by sharks! Great story! Ryan took us back and our Ultimate Trainer Experience was over. What a day!
To keep the rest of the day short, we ended up going to explore the Marina Village for dinner, and hit up Johnny Rockets. I was still pretty full from my buffet lunch, so just got some cheese fries. Mom, dad, Beth, & I then walked around the resort some more at night, again not too many people out. We found a dark underground tunnel that was pretty spooky, as well as saw the ocean and some huge waves since it was pretty windy out. We got back to our room, had a few rum and cokes that the parents picked up earlier, and called it a night. Oh, I also ended up cutting my foot on some coral when getting out as well, but didn't notice until late that night. It bothered me for some of the trip, but not enough to note after this.
I started Saturday February 7th, 2015 with a little walk around the resort by myself. I took a good amount of photos. When I got back we headed down to the water park. I rode body slides alone, and tube slides with Beth. While the fam was soaking up what sun there was, I walked over to the beach where I found some big waves. The sand is so soft between my toes. When I get back to where my parents and Beth are, we headed back to the hotel room.
We picked up some chicken and vegetable pizza from the Marina Pizzeria for lunch which was delicious. Then Beth, Dad, and I walked around some while Mom went up to rest. On our walk we found the Predator Lagoon, as well as the N'Sync tunnel where they sang some song. The ceiling to the predator lagoon was pretty dope. We found the awesome rope bridge at last as well.
Beth and Dad headed back to the hotel and I decided to head out to the beach for what ended up being a couple of hours to watch the sunset. I was able to see a couple of hermit crabs chilling on the rocks when I was out, and gathered some sea shells as well. It was an amazing sunset, best of the trip. When I was heading back to the hotel in the dark, I noticed some flashes of light where someone was taking pictures by the water. A man was taking some shots of a girls in the water and they finished up right as I was passing by. I saw the poor cold girl wrapped up in a little cover up and pretty much nothing else except some small bottoms! Guy said they got some great shots, props to her for toughing it out!
When I arrived back, the family was worried I had been abducted, but I hadn't, so I threw on some nice clothes and we headed to Virgil's BBQ for dinner. We got family style pulled pork and pork spare ribs served with a side of mashed potatoes for dinner. I also had a Sand's Beer on tap while there. So far the best meal of the trip! When we got back to our room we had a few drinks while listening to the live music from the events going on outside on the ground level. Beth and I then headed to the casino. After walking around looking at all the machines and games for awhile, we finally started to play some slots. I was up $5 on the Mayan Temple game and cashed out. Only to then play that money on a game later and lose it. Beth was up $12 on the Wheel of Fortune game, but also lost it all. We ended up with a 34 cent voucher to end the night. A standard night in the casino for me. Although I did learn you can put your vouchers into other machines, which was pretty nifty.
We spent Sunday February 8th at the beach. I noticed a particular amount of trash over by the rocks I was exploring, so made it my job to pick a bunch of it up. Lazy tourists littering everywhere. I decided not to lotion up at first, which resulted in a nice base burn. I enjoyed some swimming in the Atlantic Ocean which was pretty warm in my opinion. After the beach, Beth and I hit up a bunch of the water slides and rides at the water park again, this time I was equipped with my gopro and got some solid footage, especially of Beth getting launched out of one of the tubes on the last ride we rode. After searching some hot tubes for some time, we finally found some, but were unimpressed since it wasn't that hot and kids were in it illegally! I enjoyed some left over food from Virgil's once we made it back to the hotel. Afterwards I headed out again to catch another sunset alone. After the sunset I returned, laid around the hotel, finished the book Four, and caught an early nights rest.
Monday February 9th was a day of culture experience, as we headed to downtown Nassau by Taxi. The city of Nassau is actually located on New Providence island. We hit up the straw market to get all the deals by bargaining with local men and women selling their goods in rows and rows of the market. After picking up many souvenirs at the market, we walked a mile and a half to the fish fry. On our way to the fish fry a random guy came up to us and told us to visit Seafood Haven and tell them that Mr Happy sent ya! The fish fry is a strip of little restaraunts right along the waterfront where all of the locals go to eat. The first place we stopped was Candies after a great salesman walked up to us and told us all the great shows Candies has been on. We ate conch salad and shrimp at Candies once we had free conch fritters and a free tasting of a drink (great salesman indeed). Conch salad is the locals favorite and was a delicious dish of fresh conch sliced up with a mixture of onions, peppers, & veggies. I had a sex on the beach drink which was tasty. We then stopped by Seafood Haven after Mr Happy suggested we go there and the server literally walked us over. We got to see a live conch knocked out of the shell and then sliced up. Pretty crazy. I had a kalik beer and a rum & punch to go with the conch fritters, fried conch, lobster, & shrimp. On our walk back from the Fish Fry, I was able to continue my world McDonald's experience by picking up a Big Mac from the McDonald's, sad to see no dollar menu here. Once back , we took the water taxi back to Paradise Island and enjoyed a tour by the first mate, Scratchy.
Beth and I parted ways with the parents at this time. We stopped at the Daiquiri shack and got a rum runner. We then found Seagrapes, the place where we fed the sting rays at last, after four days of searching. Beth and I headed down to the beach after and I got a Bahama Mama fresh out of a coconut, only because I was promised a free refill which I got of pina colada. The guy kept calling me buddy, which was funny because I wasn't his buddy, pal. The drinks were very strong, and then some guy came up to us and asked us if we wanted to ride his jet ski, and I quote, "You can drink and drive, or smoke and fly... I'm your guy" We politely declined. After enjoying my big mac with my alcoholic drinks, I went to go watch the sunset by myself for a third straight night, although this one was a weak showing since it went behind the clouds early on.
For dinner that night, we all headed to Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I got a mango and more smoothie. We walked around the dig one final time, not only underneath it, but above as well. We saw some cannibalistic lobsters tear each other apart which was actually terrifying, but then I drank myself to sleep that night so it was okay.
The time for Paradise to end was here, Tuesday February 10th was our last day. We all hopped in a bus at 11:30am to make it to the airport. I got a Wendy's grilled chicken sandwich there, officially giving me 3 out of 4 places Scratchy said not to go eat. There were some crazy passport photo detection machines in the Bahamas airport that we used and then had a pleasant flight to Charlotte NC with a short layover. I started to read the book Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Then we landed back in Chicago. The family was nice enough to drive me back to my place and I ended the night with some Papa John's pizza with Rachel.
What a trip. Thank you mom for winning the trip and thank you to both mother and father for treating us to such a nice vacation. Now enjoy some pics, haven't had time to go through all 1700, but this will do for now.
Josh