Day 14 - Eleuthera Island, the Bahamas

Friday, Jan. 18, 2013

Sunrise

Once again, we arrived at Princess Cays on Eleuthera Island, the Bahamas at about 6:30 am.  We were on our deck in time to see a beautiful sunrise, and the ship was ready to tender passengers ashore, shortly after 7:00.  We had a tour booked for today, where we drove north for about 30 miles, to view the sights.

Our tour guide for today was Jordanae, and the bus driver was Uncle Mike, who's real name is David.  Jordanae was great.  She was very knowledgeable, and spoke loudly, clearly, and had a good sense of humour, teaching us words in the native language, making jokes about things like "What happens on the bus, stays on the bus.", and "What happens on Eleuthera, didn't happen here!"

Looking across the bay

Rock Harbour Primary School

We made quite a few stops.  Places such as the beach lookout where we were able to look across the bay and the clear waters of the Caribbean, a couple small towns (it seems that all the settlements are small), and the highlight of the trip, a primary school.  At the school, we were able to go into one of the classrooms.  It was a grade 4 and 5 classroom, and the children were on the stage, ready to recite some poetry and sing a song.  Then they came into the crowd from our bus and shook our hands and made us feel very welcome.

Grade 4 and 5 Classes Performing

It was great.  Dawn and I spoke with a number of the children, and to the two teachers there.  The grade 4 teacher didn't look old enough, but when I told her we were retired teachers, she said she was looking forward to retirement, too.  She had been teaching for 39 years, and is eligible to retire in June this year.  I don't know if she will, but she is eligible.

A Couple of the Students

Making Conch Salad

After that, we made a couple more stops, one just a few meters from the school, at the Ocean Hole, said to be a bottomless hole of water, and at a souvenir store - a pretty small store, with not a lot of things to look at.  Our final stop was at a restaurant where they served us lunch, which consisted of typical Caribbean food.  We had Conch fritters, chicken, macaroni and cheese, and Pineapple upside down cake (actually a muffin).  After lunch, some of the locals performed a bit of a Junkaroo, which is a celebration of dancing and music of the island.

Sampling Conch Salad

Junkaroo

Then it was back on the bus, and back toward the Princess Cays and our ship.  A couple more stops for photos at a once thriving golf course, but now derelict, and to see the house of the mother of one of the heros of the island, Chris Brown, a silver medalist in the 1980 Summer Olympics.

When we got back to the Cays, it was 2:30, and time to jump on the tender and return to the ship.  We did that, and were soon in our cabin.  Dawn and Karen were going to go and play Bingo at 4:30 ($2000 prize), so we had to get our bags packed and ready for the crew to take downstairs.

This was a big job, because we had purchased a lot of souvenirs, and had to fit everything in.  We also had to separate our clothes for tomorrow and for the rest of our time in Florida, from everything else, so that we didn't have to take everything into the hotel each night.  It was a lot of work, but by the time Dawn left for Bingo, we had pretty much got things organized.

While she was gone, I filled in the Customs Declaration form.  I also filled in the disembarkation tags and put them on our bags so that the crew knew where everything was supposed to go tomorrow morning.

We went up for supper (our last supper) at about 5:30.  As I indicated yesterday, it is amazing how much more restrained we are at choosing our food now, than we were 14 days ago.  However, tonight was turkey dinner, and it was very good, so I did eat more than I should have.  I think others did, too.

After that, it was back to our room to write some notes of appreciation for good sevice, this blog entry, pack the last few things, and then get ready for bed.  We are both pretty tired as we didn't sleep overly well last night.  We have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, as we have to be out of our cabin by 8:00 am, and we also have to gather for our tour in Fort Lauderdale by 8:00.  So, we will have to ensure that the alarm goes off, and we det ourselves ready and out.

Tomorrow, we tour some of the inland waterways, and then get dropped off at the airport where we have a car waiting to be rented.  Then we will stay at the same hotel we started from at the beginning of the night.  So, until tomorrow, ...

Broken Down House