So, when my husband and I got married in 2006, we knew we didn’t have the money for a big extravagant honeymoon, but wanted a honeymoon nonetheless. So we saved up our pennies and bought out tickets to Nassau for a Bahamian vacation. Our hopes was to spend the least amount possible to stay as long as we could.
We booked a hotel room on Orbitz for the first night in Nassau. We wanted to be able to have a place to go and relax after our travel from Colorado. From there we would decide if we would stay or head to a sister island. I think we stayed one day and decided to venture to the outer islands. Nassau is a port to the big cruise lines and the tourist attracting element permeated the island. I remember hearing on a show I had watched that a good mode of cheap transportation was by way of mail boat. If you could find and access the local mail boat, you may be able to hitch a ride at a reduced price. So, we decided to venture to one of the closer sister islands “Eleuthera”. I found a mail boat on the Nassau marina. They were departing around 4PM and would only set us back about $25 American. Walking on to the boat I noticed it was pretty much standing room only. There were many folks on the boat standing and a few church pew like seats. I say a woman standing holding a horse with a halter and a bucket of Kentucky fried Chicken with her other arm. A man in one of the seats hailed me over and said “You come and sit here”. So I did. My husband soon followed and he came and sat with us. He asked us what we were doing on the boat. I said we were trying to get to Eleutehra inexpensively. He said we would get there at two in the morning. There was a express boat we could have taken for an extra $25 each that would get us there in an hour. He then asked us where we were going once we got there. My husband said we would go to a hotel once we found a taxi. He advised there are no taxis or hotels where we were going.
Once we got to our destination, our new friend said he would drive us to where we need to be, we just had to wait for his dump truck to be unloaded from the boat. We found ourselves in the middle of a jungle with the only light being from a large bonfire. All the folks on the boat were met by friends/family with cars awaiting them. The gentleman we met had his dump truck lifted off the boat and told us to jump in the cab. We were then on our way through the jungle. There ware palm trees on both sides of the road with the moon ahead lighting the road in front of us. It was beautiful, but the uncertainty was frightening as well. We got to a beach and our new friend had a boat he offered to us to stay in. He let us sleep in it and handed my husband a stun gun in the event we were bothered. Early that morning at daybreak his son came to greet us on his dirtbike and advised his father would be following to take us to a place were would stay at during our time on the island. He took us to a hotel that was run by a friend of his. We got a room for $40 per night since it was off season (May). Our friend let us borrow snorkeling gear and took us to some spots he thought would be good for us to explore while he was at work.
While snorkeling we found a Conch, multiple starfish, some colorful fish and a school of dolphin fish that came right up to us. Afterwards, while walking along this pristine white glittery beach I saw a shark fin pass in the water. When my husband said “Oh that’s a tiger shark”, I realized just how many different things we were just in the water with.
In our suitcase, I packed a hot plate that I bought at Walmart at home for about $10 and a bunch of ramen. We ate a lot of ramen on the trip, but when the opportunity struck, we did partake in the local cuisine. For example, there were fishermen that would sell their catch on the docks after a day of fishing, that we would purchase. Our host and friend that welcomed us to Eleuthera, shared a local stew called Souse with fish that was very tasty. I also remember having some spiny lobster at one of the local restaurants when we got back to Nassau.
When we returned to Nassau we visited Atlantis on Paradise Island, which featured a casino, restaurants and many sea and land animals.
My biggest takeaway was that I had such an inviting experience, encountering the kindness, generosity and friendship of people I knew nothing about, and it all happened on a serious budget!
