Night in Freeport, Grand Bahama

My last flight was delayed ½ hour – not bad considering I had 3 flights and that was the only delay. By the time I got to my hotel, I had been travelling for 22 hours. It was 6:50 PM when I got to my room. The ferry to Port Lucaya Marketplace – a touristy area filled with shops, bars, and restaurants – leaves hourly on the hour. I was getting hungry so I wanted to go ASAP. But I felt pretty disgusting, wanted a shower and had to do a checklist of items in my room. I guess this is what you get to do at hotels in the Bahamas – check to make sure you have 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels, 10 coat hangers, a vase, 2 conch shells, etc. Yep – conch shells. Never did find the second one… the last guest must have taken it! Seems like a silly system to me.. if I wanted to steal a corkscrew, couldn’t I just take it and claim it wasn’t there to begin with? Personally I’d rather have the funky bamboo towel rack. But it wasn’t on the checklist. Course it won’t fit in my suitcase either. So I rushed through the checklist and hopped the ferry.

The marketplace is definitely a tourist haven. But there are a number of locals around too. I ate dinner at a Greek place called Zorba’s – decent restaurant at a good price. It was still early, so even though I was exhausted after my all night and day flying extravaganza, I decided it would be pathetic to go to bed. I decided to grab a drink and listen to the live music in Count Basie’s Square. I walked into a place called Rum Runners and before I had even pulled out a stool, I could see a local guy in the bar across the way looking at me. I got up, went to the bar and ordered a drink, then came back and sat down. Now the guy is motioning to me to come over. I hesitated a bit, then figured why not, I had nobody else to talk to. Drinks are all served in plastic cups so you can wander anywhere with them – apparently even into another bar. I went over and introduced myself to Craig and his friend. We chatted for awhile, they tried to get me to eat fish (which I declined), and then Craig took me for a walk and showed me around. It’s very touristy with some big hotels, restaurants, bars, and a casino. I found out that Bahamians are not allowed to gamble. They can go into the casino, but they can’t gamble. Interesting. Although Craig said it was wrong not to stay up until midnight when it would be my birthday, I caught the ferry back at 10 PM for my last night on land for awhile.