Thursday, November 23, 2006

July 6, 2004 - Getting Our Bearings

We’re sitting in Chile’s waiting for our Margueritas and chops before we take the last flight of our trip to Eleuthera.

The first class accommodations thus far were alright, though I miss being able to board first before the hoi polloi boards. Now you’re in “Zone 1” and have to stand in line with the other Zone-ners. First class is definitely a step up (several, in fact) from coach. At least the seats are big enough to accommodate a grown man’s butt! However, the mental image I have of first class, of champagne being poured before it’s even empty isn’t quite the way it is. Budget cuts and 9/11 killed that fun. Oh well …

Leia's point of view is she’d rather not deal with multiple stops. I don’t mind the multiple stops … it breaks up a long, long trip. Leia hates to fly and that was evident back at LAX. She was on edge the entire night waiting for our plane to board. As normal, the inbound plane was late which made our departing flight late to board. We got to the terminal very early due to security requirements and spent an interminable time waiting as it was. That gave Leia a chance to observe the other passengers waiting for the same flight.

At one point, she was suggesting that there was a cadre of Middle Eastern terrorists among the waiting passengers when she noted some brown-skinned man walking around giving nods and winks to others in the gate area. To her, this was confirmation of their looming conspiracy. It didn’t help that some other swarthy looking man left a suspicious looking package next to us and took off. He eventually returned to it, but not before Leia’s nervousness convinced me that such a thing wasn’t kosher and we relocated to an adjoining area to our gate.

Eventually, I just chalked Leia’s nervousness up to an overactive imagination (and the fact that this was a red-eye flight and we both were tired) and just convinced her to push forward. She had no choice but to follow and of course, there were no terrorists.

I took one of Leia’s Ambiens to help me sleep on the plane (I am a notorious light sleeper under the best of conditions and on a plane, I rarely can sleep any more than some short cat naps. Thanks to her meds, for once, I was able to sleep pretty soundly on the plane to Atlanta. In fact, I slept pretty soundly on the leg from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, too.

At the Hollywood, Florida, Airport, we had to look around a bit for the plane to Eleuthera. We noticed the humid heat immediately upon exiting the Delta terminal to go over to where the Continental flights were. Leia seemed particularly uncomfortable with the heat. I tried to acclimatize myself, knowing that The Bahamas were at least that hot and muggy and even though I grew up during hot, humid summers in the Hudson Valley of New York, I was many years older and several pounds heavier than I was back in those days.

Leia shocked me for a moment when after wiping her sweaty brow the first time she announced “I think I change my mind.” Like hell I thought to myself!

The Gulf Stream was small, but comfortable. Even though Leia and I had seat assignments right next to each other, this airline just had everyone sit where they wanted to, so we ended up sitting in different parts of the plane.

I boarded last and got the only remaining empty seat – Seat 1A, right next to the front door and an emergency one to boot. The co-pilot confirmed with me that I was willing to man the emergency seat and proceeded to show me how to lower the staircase in the event of some incident.

The trip to Eleuthera was very smooth and since I didn’t have a window seat, I slept (again!) until the pilot announced we were making our pre-descent into Eleuthera. The plane flew another thirty minutes in a slight descent until the flight crew got clearance to land. The touchdown was as smooth as the rest of the flight and before we knew it, we were at “Eleuthera National Airport,” a tiny little air strip with a single room terminal.

Customs was a breeze - the only question of note was whether or not we were going to be bringing our laptops back with us on our exit - and we were helped out to our car with out luggage. Stanton Cooper, our bungalow’s caretaker, is also the island’s car rental magnate. He left us a Chevy Lumina (circa 1980 something) - red and pretty junked up, it’s electronic controls for the windows askew in their compartments.

The guy who helped us with our luggage brought us to this gem parked across the street from the terminal and with a warning from him to remember to drive on the left, we were off to Palmetto Point. As we drove onto the street, I took note of the warning sticker on the windshield reminding us of the same thing, including an arrow pointing to the left. It turns out it’s very useful to see that if you’re a right side driver.

Getting the hang of driving on the left was surprisingly easy, finding only turns to be a challenge as I had to think through the side I needed to be on when the turn was completed. Leia, my trusty navigator, kept an eye out for the signs that directed us to our destination, but the handwritten signs were very difficult to see from a moving car. A few u-turns were the result of the missed signs, which required Leia to remind me to end up on the left side of the road when I was done!

We drove down Queens Highway at 40-50 MPH, but we had people passing us - mostly locals - but we didn’t care. The road was mostly smooth, though definitely in a state of disrepair in many places.

We drove through some of the small towns of the island - James Cistern, Gregory Town, Governor’s Harbor - all similar in so many ways, mostly consisting of old buildings and construction sites stopped somewhere at the foundation stage. At Governor’s Harbor, the principal town of the island, we stopped to get gas. At almost $4.00 a gallon, it cost us $54.00 to fill up the tank - and we thought gas prices in the U.S. were high! While Leia picked up some Cokes for the road, I only had an urge for a beer so bad, but I decided to wait until we saw what was available at Palmetto Point.

We finally arrived in Palmetto Point and looked around the main area briefly for Tia’s Place, the store Stanton Cooper told us to look for to retrieve the key to the Island Breeze bungalow and to drop off the money order for the rental. We weren’t lucky enough to find the store immediately, so we stopped off at Sands’ store on the Queen’s Highway in the heart of Palmetto Point to get directions. Some guy was kind enough to lead us there as it was “on his way,” but once we arrived, he did stop and got out of his car, presumably to collect a tip for his service. I waved thank you to him from the car and we headed into the little store.

The young black girl behind the counter was very shy - I guess because we were strangers (Americans no less). We exchanged the money order for the key and with verbal directions from the girl, we headed to the bungalow.

Eleuthera Calls

Even now as I embark on this particular blog, I cannot think of Eleuthera without smiling. I'm sure many Americans have their favorite Caribbean island that elicit warm memories, whether it was because of the food or activities or the people they met there. For us, it is all three and so much more.

Leia and I had only taken one real vacation together as a married couple, a Caribbean cruise in 2003. I had never cruised before and I really enjoyed myself (especially the eating - I'm a chow hound, there's no two ways about it). Going to the Bahamas on our own was a little daunting, mainly because we weren't going to be staying at a resort and would pretty much have to fend for ourselves in an environment that was rather economically depressed.

I'm happy to say that the trip completely exceeded my expectations. I hope this blog reflects our feelings about the island and Bahamians in general. This is not only a travelogue, but also a commentary on the politics and society that we found and that from which we were familiar, too.

Comments are always welcome - please feel free!

Michael