Bahamas Web album

If you're interested in ways to help preserve coral reefs and ocean ecosystems, you can Donate to the Project AWARE Foundation, the dive industry's leading nonprofit environmental organization that works to conserve underwater environments through education, advocacy and action... and you don't even have to be a diver to contribute or take action! If you're a shark lover like me, you may even be interested in adopting a shark.

Thanks for checking out my Bahamas page! It was a very active trip for us and there's alot to see. We did alot, saw alot, ate alot, and took one heck of alot of pictures. We went to Nassau on Paradise Island and stayed at the beautiful and impossibly fun water-adventure resort 'Atlantis', in the theme of the legendary city under the sea that's never been found. You can check out Atlantis here in more detail. We stayed in the beach towers which had a great view of the Caribbean. We went on three different snorkeling adventures, which was blissful, exciting, and delicious because we got to see lots of the gorgeous, shallow, clear Caribbean. I even saw a tornado in the distance! Our best snorkeling trip was a tour out to the Exuma islands, about an hour from Nassau, Paradise Island where we stayed. We made two stops in the Exumas, first to a small island inhabited by a colony of very quick, beautiful iguanas, then to a larger island where we got to mix with sharks and rays. The iguanas were an interesting mix of blue, brown, and pink with metallic scales. The beach there was so remote and adorable. The water was very clear, warm, and aqua. On the second island we pulled up to, there was this wild pig on the beach... and, of course! Why wouldn't there be? Talk about biodiversity. Here are some good maps of the Caribbean showing the Exuma island chain.

We were told to keep our distance as it's a wild animal, but nobody got hurt. We just fed it alittle. When we walked off the dock to the beach, the sharks and rays already knew we were there, of course. They recognize the boat noises and know they're going to get fed. So, we watched the tour guys feed them and play with them a bit. Then I asked if I could go into the water with them, and they let me (with precautions taken) so I could get pictures of them. What an exotic, pulse-quickening experience! They were so graceful and actually, quite gentle. I resisted the temptation to stroke them behind the ears, though.

Sharks are really amazing and very misunderstood. These were just Caribbean reef sharks that, in spite of their pretty good size in some cases, don't care to eat people... not that any sharks really do. They may bite to see what you are and what you're made of, but as one of the tour guides was quick to explain, we're like chicken and they prefer fish. So, we watched as they tore up a bunch of fish. And besides their beauty and stealth, what struck me was how powerful they were. I was so excited being right there on the shore touching the rays, too, as they swam up to us and brushed their slick wings against our feet. We snorkeled the coral reef and saw lots of cute, colorful fish. The tour guides really bent over backwards to make certain we got our money's worth and they were very professional, too. I think we'll definitely be going back to the Exumas. We took another snorkeling tour to the very beautiful and very blue Stuart Cove. The main fish we saw were the yellowtails in the photo, and the cute and curious sergeant majors (named for their black and yellow stripes). And we swam in swarms of them, hundreds it seemed! We saw plane wreckage at the bottom of the cove, too, which was about 40 feet deep. The water was so blue and clear as you can see. Breathtaking, truly. I think we'll definitely be going back to Stuart Cove during our next trip to the Bahamas.

Click here to see the reef shark feeding at Stuart Cove. From what I've seen, I would say the water of the Caribbean is second only to the unbelievable, turquoise water of French Polynesia and the South Pacific. We also took a snorkel tour to Rose island, about 30 minutes from Nassau. It was lovely, too, and we saw lots of reef fish there. It was kind of a last minute trip, but we sure weren't sorry we did it. Rose island was amazing, too, and we found some bath tub sized tide pools to soak in for a while. Very intriguing! Hey, want to see a sawfish, a manta ray, or a trunkfish? How about a seahorse reconciliation?

We saw stoplight parrotfish, grouper, fairy basslet, bluehead wrasse, long-spined sea urchins, butter hamlet, creole wrasse, foureye butterfish, sergeant majors, yellowtail snapper, and redband parrotfish, and a sting ray or two to name a few. There was much beautiful coral, too. Sea fans are my favorite with their shades of purple and violet. And of course we saw all those and much much more at Atlantis, a marine life lovers paradise. We had fish, sharks, and rays in front us almost constantly as there was a huge aquarium pool right below our hotel room balcony. We would wake up to warm, humid air and seeing big sting rays, hammerhead sharks, and fish in the morning. There was also this really fun shark tunnel underground (under an aquarium) at Atlantis where you could see sharks, sawfish, reef fish, and stingrays swimming all around you and right over you through the sunlight pouring down up above. It was quite an amazing feeling because the white undersides of alot of those creatures were extremely weird looking, particularly the sawfish which look like something from another planet, or at least another (prehistoric) era... Click here to see what it's like in the Atlantis shark tunnel. The resort was so gorgeous at night, too, with all the lights on outside creating this warm, sort of 'haunted paradise' look. What a playground!

Atlantis was a great opportunity to just play and be like kids running around an amusement park. I think Atlantis is the perfect place to stay in the Bahamas for couples looking for a romantic getaway or families looking for a variety of delicious, fun experiences with sea life. Atlantis has dolphin encounters, too.

Plus, it was also the perfect place for us to celebrate our '1 year since we got together' anniversary, which is October 1st, 2005. We had some lovely dining and romantic nighttime walks around Atlantis's beautifully lit paradise. It was so gorgeous and in the upper 80's and 90's with a couple days that had some rain. But it passed through pretty quickly. The trees on Paradise Island are so healthy, perfect, and amazing looking... some of the best I've seen. And the Bahamian people were really fun. One of the restaurants we went to in the hotel had this chocolate fountain! It was fabulous and, come to think of it, probably a great place to meet women with PMS. We saw a restaurant called, I kid you not, "The Poop Deck". Nice, huh? I sure found that appetite-inspiring. I'm not kidding around. Go ahead and laugh. But seriously, just about everything around us the whole trip was appetite inspiring from the canned coconut water I drank to the rich floral color buffet and the coral reefs! The resort was unbelievably huge and, amazingly enough, they're still building onto it. "...and why?", I had to ask. Did they think they left something out? It was so fascinating walking around just exploring as there's so much concept art and aquarium life to see. Atlantis was designed with a kind of Mayan and Egyptian style, and obviously with much imagination and talent brought to bear. Enjoy the pictures!

Photos are below. Just click on any image to make it larger.