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Kids love the friendly Bahamas
WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2006
Kids love the friendly Bahamas
Adventures in Nassau for 10 year olds
by Annie Anderson
Hi. My name is Annie and I'm ten. I've been lucky to spend some time in The Bahamas with my family, and I've seen and done all kinds of amazing things. Tell your parents to read this so they'll know how much fun they'll have when they take you on all these adventures in Nassau.
You can do reef snorkelling here and it is really neat. You can see beautiful fish, starfish and even manta rays. If you take a walk along West Bay Street, which is where all the Cable Beach hotels are, you'll come to Goodman's Bay. It's a public beach and park and it's a great place to meet Bahamian people. They like to spend the day there with their kids and dogs, and enjoy a picnic or cook-out lunch.
Getting on the bus
You can get around Nassau and Paradise Island by riding one of the jitneys, which is what they call the buses here. You can also rent scooters on West Bay Street or downtown on Woodes Rogers Walk (my mom says don't forget to wear a helmet) and then you can visit two great places right next to each other.
Ardastra Zoo has more than 300 mammals, birds and reptiles, and the flamingos do a special marching show three times a day. I got to be their drill sergeant the day I was there, but the flamingos also walk around everywhere so there's lots of chances to take pictures. They also have parrots, peacocks and other animals you can feed and take pictures of them.
After that, you can go up to Fort Charlotte where they have stuff to see about soldiers from long ago. There are lots of cannons and guns and uniforms and other things so if you've got brothers they might like that. There are also some nice souvenir sellers there. One man gave me a free ankle bracelet when I bought a towel.
Finding souvenirs
You can get all kinds of souvenirs at the straw market downtown, and girls like to get their hair braided there too, just like I did at the market on Cable Beach.
A lady named Jackie did mine, and it didn't hurt a bit, and I got to pick out the colour of the beads and the pattern I wanted. There are tons more cool things to do in Nassau, like take a tour in a horse-drawn carriage, called a surrey. I went around with George and Ginger and learned about all the people who used to live and work in the old buildings. Just so you'll know, George was the driver and Ginger was the horse, but you can also ask for Elvis or any of the other nice drivers.
Seeing churches and stuff
I really liked the eight-sided building that's the library, which used to be a jail. There are lots of old churches in Nassau too. You can walk in to see stained glass windows, and some of the churches like the Presbyterian Kirk have plaques inside so you can read about the early people. Another thing I liked to do downtown was go to the Pirate Museum and the National Art Gallery.
At the Pirate Museum they dress up in costumes and say "Aarrgh!" I love pirate-talk. The things to see inside are so real they kind of give you the shivers. They've got a whole ship you can walk through and all kinds of famous pirates, including two women pirates.
Then if you walk up the hill from there you'll get to the National Art Gallery. It's in a bright yellow building called Villa Doyle that used to be a home back in history. Inside they've got lots of Bahamian paintings and sculptures.
Finding Paradise
If you go back downtown and walk down Bay Street, you'll come to the bridge to Paradise Island. That's where Atlantis is. It's a huge resort with an amazing aquarium that has manta rays and giant grouper fish, not to mention more sharks than you'd ever see in one place. The sharks even swim all around the water slides that are built into a kind of temple, but in separate tanks, of course.
Atlantis was the name of a mythical city that disappeared under the sea, but when you go to The Bahamas' Atlantis, you really believe you're there. They have a place called The Dig to tell the story of how they discovered it, and they make it seem really real.
There's also a Discovery Kids Adventure programme you can go to, or swim in the lagoon or the ocean with tons of water toys, or go to Marina Village with lots of stores but, most importantly, an ice cream store! My new favourite is caramel cone - in a dish with whipped cream and sprinkles.
And guess what? I fed real wild sharks out in the Exumas. That's some of the islands that make up The Bahamas. Bahamians call all of the islands except New Providence the Family Islands. I went there with Island World Adventures, and I don't think I'll ever be on a faster boat.
Anyway, the people from Island World Adventures took us to Saddleback Cay (say "key") where we went on a nature walk and saw a lot of baby conchs. Also, there were so many hermit crabs all over the place. They don't bite you or anything. Neither do the stingrays, which you can feed in the sandy bay, and you can pat them too. They're so soft. You just have to watch out for their tails because that's the stinging part. We went out to a sandbar that was like standing on water in the middle of the ocean! We also snorkelled on an amazing reef, and then went back to Saddleback Cay for a yummy lunch.
Feeding iguanas
Then we went to Leaf Cay to feed the iguanas. You have to use a stick to feed them grapes because otherwise they might bite you by accident. Don't wear purple or red toenail polish if you go there. The iguanas might think your toes are grapes and try to eat them.
I also went on another day trip out of Nassau to a place called Rose Island. You go on a big tour boat ride and you can see all of the beautiful homes along the way. On Rose Island they have paddleboats and kayaks and volleyball and snorkelling, and a nature tour to teach you all about bush medicine plants, which Bahamians use when they are sick.
Kissing dolphins
My last day in The Bahamas was another amazing adventure and my favourite of all. I took a boat to Dolphin Encounters on Blue Lagoon Island. You can either swim with the dolphins or stand in their water pens and pat them. I did the swim with three dolphins called Princess, Abaco and Salvador. Princess is the mom, and she's more than 30 years old, which is much older than dolphins get to be in the ocean, but Princess is so well-cared for she's going to live way longer.
Abaco is her daughter, named after an island in The Bahamas, and Salvador is Princess' new son, he's just over a year old. He's named after San Salvador, the island that Christopher Columbus landed on when he discovered America. That was right here in The Bahamas.
The people who work at Dolphin Encounters are really nice and they're so kind to the dolphins. Even scientists come and study how dolphins talk to each other and with people. The Dolphin Encounter trainers have taught the dolphins to use their play behaviour to dance with you and jump way up in the air over your head and push you through the water using their noses, but the totally best part was hugging and kissing them.
Dolphin Encounters takes pictures and videos of you to show your friends back home. I've just loved all my island adventures, and the kids at school get so jealous when I show them pictures. Now they all want to come to The Bahamas, too. And since you are here, you know why.
Editor's note: Annie Anderson is a 10-year-old from Toronto who spent August and December in The Bahamas. She is already planning her next visit.
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