Day 2

We started off bright and early Sunday with a trip to the market to buy groceries for the week. It was great that the hotel provided the transportation. I had read in many different places that the prices are high so when we got there we were not at all surprised. One item of note: $12.75 for a 24 pack of water bottles, we would pay $3.99 for a comparable brand here.

We were back in just enough time to wake my cousins (only four tickets were provided for the bus, but that worked out because they wanted to sleep in anyway) and then head on down to the resort briefing at 10 am. This included a free continental breakfast so we were eager to get over there, having not eaten yet that day. Not sure if the food was good or if we were just really hungry, but anyway.

Each of the hotel services (restaurant, activities, housekeeping, etc.) had a drawing and gave prizes such as a t-shirt or a hat. My cousin won the prize of free snorkel tour at 2:30 pm that day so that’s what we all would be doing later. Great so now we only had four hours to kill. During that time we planned out the week, deciding what we wanted to do and then reality checked it down to what we could actually afford to do. According to our plans it would be an eventful week, but plans do have a way of getting messed up, don’t they? Weather would end up being a huge factor during our entire trip, oh well, what can you do?

Snorkeling was awesome! Just being so close to the fish and in the middle of the ocean, it was just really cool. The boat ride to the reef and back to the dock, plus equipment was included in the $35 price so it was a really good value. I wanted to go again the next day, but no one else wanted to and plus we had lots of other things on the agenda. When we got back it was happy hour at the grotto bar so my cousin and I got a little tipsy. The bartender didn’t ask for ID but asked me if my cousin was in college…. hmmm…. I said yeah anyway. They have good prices for happy hour, $1 shots and 2 for 1 drinks, so it was a good night. A go-to-sleep-early-cuz-it’s-hard-to-keep-eyes-open-after-so-many-alcoholic-drinks night. :)

Day 1

Saturday was travel day, with the changing of planes twice and lengthy layovers, it took us the whole day to get to Grand Bahama Island. It’s a good thing we got through Immigration and Customs fairly quickly, or I might have gone a little insane. Next we hopped in a van that seemed to be waiting just for the six of us (I’m a little delusional at this point) and headed to our hotel, The Ritz at Taino Beach.

On the way we were surprised to see that the island doesn’t look like a brochure. I know, what a shocker! Well I kind of expected this, I mean duh, everything can’t be beautiful, but that didn’t really prepare me for what I was seeing out the window. Sure it was green but mostly just looked like a bunch of small bushes. A lot of areas seriously looked like a giant had come along and took a stroll, literally smashing huge areas and knocking trees into other trees. Realistically, hurricane damage was evident and I assume there just wasn’t the time or money to fix anything besides maybe the buildings. I did see a lot of buildings with damage, some lots that had been reduced to ruins, and some half-built.

There wasn’t much we could do when we got there; it was almost dark by the time we got all our stuff in the room. In search of soda to go with our dinner (chicken alfredo that we cooked in the room with food brought in our suitcases) we found something that we had been expecting; four 12 oz. cans of soda for $6.00 from the hotel gift shop. Wow that was some good Hawaiian Punch!