PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Today was my first day in the great Island of the Bahamas. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got off the plane, but I knew that it was going to be slightly different than the United States. I got into the airport, which was quite run down, and very small and found my new buddy Dave, who I am staying with tonight. We got a taxi from the airport to the house we were going. The only problem was that the guy we were staying with was working until around 6pm or so and we had 2 hours to kill. We arranged for him to drive us around the island a bit as he picked his son up from school and finally dropped us off at a bar to be with locals.
I’d like to mention the driving that occurs in the Bahamas that blew me away. They drive on the left side of the road but most of their cars have the steering wheel on the left side. There are some right sided steering wheel cars too that are seen. The biggest thing I noticed is there is basically no organized way to get through traffic. There are very few stop lights and tons of round-abouts. For the most part, it is not a measure of waiting your turn to turn as much as it is do you have the guts to pull out in front of someone and hope they stop. In America, we drive cautiously and think other people are crazy drivers. In Bahamas, everyone is a crazy driver and you are intending for the other person to be cautious because you are not stopping once you commit to something. I imagine these people go through a ton of gas with all the starting and stopping they so constantly do to jockey for position on the roads.
We walk into the bar not really knowing what to expect. Dave has been to 91 countries so he has seen a few things in his day, so for the most part I was just following his lead. We ordered a few cans of pop and sat down to just talk for a while. Immediately, this drunken guy that was originally from Canada, but had been living here for the past 11 years bombarded us. He kept asking us all these questions about what we were doing and why we were there. It was obvious he didn’t really care what we had to say but he kept asking questions only to interject and speak over us. He was getting annoying real quick but then this huge guy named Ivan decided to sit down with us. He was a nice guy with a very thick Bahaman accent. It is very hard to hear what he is saying because he slurs all his words together and speaks very quickly. He reminds me of the football coach on Water Boy that just says stuff and everyone pretends they understand.
When Ivan saw that we were drinking Sprite, he immediately scolded us and bought us both a beer. It was the local Bahamanian Beer called Kalik. We had Kalik Gold (thicker and stronger) and a Kalik Premium (more traditional taste). It was good but nothing out of this world. The best part was the prices. This is supposedly the expensive beer of the country since it is their specialty and it was only $2.00 a bottle. Ivan told everyone that we were from the States and that Dave was from Canada. Most people criticized me for being from America because Canadians do everything better. I didn’t disagree because for the most part I couldn’t understand what they were saying.
We were both extremely hungry and knew we wanted to eat somewhere local. Ivan said his famous line of “take my advice” and said that he would take us to the best food you can get on the entire island. It was called Spaghettio’s, and while it was good, it wasn’t out of this world and I secretly hope that there is better on the island. I had fried conch shell. Ivan drove his truck from place to place and each time we stopped Dave and I switched who sat up front and who rode in the back of the truck. Being in the back of the truck was fun but scary because of how crazy these people drive. Being upfront was fun because Ivan basically gave you a local’s version of a tour of everything you could imagine while continuing to let you know to “take his advice” at every opportunity.
We finally arrived back at Joe’s Bar (we don’t know the name, we just know the guy that owns it is named Joe) where we sit around and talk some more with the locals. It wasn’t what I was expecting because this was more of the older crowd kind of bar but it was still fun to talk to people. Everyone got along great regardless of color or obvious intelligence levels. Some people didn’t look like they had showered in weeks and were having a grand ol’ time! The music being played throughout the bar was played off an old school record player that was only a quarter. There wasn’t much need to pay for anything though because a nice old man just sang as loud as he could for most to hear. We played pool and finally decided to come back to the house that we were staying for the night around 9.
This day had been jammed pack since I got off the airplane but surprisingly, time wasn’t going by that fast. We came back to this place not too far away and found our bags safe and sound where we left them. This guy Jeremy is putting us up in his house for free and its so nice because he is just a chill guy that likes to promote world travel. We sat around and told stories of traveling and let him in on all the details of semester at sea. Jeremy is originally from Pennsylvania but moved here 9 years ago to see what it would be like and fell in love with the country. He has provided us with 2 futons and told us we can stay as long as we’d like but we will both be leaving tomorrow morning. It’s so nice here and so are the people.
If there is one underlying theme in the Bahamas that is said by all the local people it is that they love tourists. However, they don’t care about you as much as they care about you wanting to know more about their culture and how they live. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They never have one bad thing to say about anyone, and for as poor as they are, they never try to exploit us for any money. Ivan has been nothing but a great friend and we look forward to meeting up with him in the next few days because he has driven us around for an entire night and refused to take any money from us. He said that in the Bahamas, people want to do things for others because that way they tell their friends about the island and they come back. Over and over again, Ivan would say that in the Bahamas, you will be treated the way you treat people. If you welcome people with a smile and are truly interested in their life then they will be your best friend with absolute loyalty, but if you treat them with disrespect, this can be a very bad place to be. I have noticed that being such a small island, everyone knows everyone here. Ivan is a local celebrity and he helped us meet so many friends tonight. We are the boat kids as they call us and they made my first experience outside of American soil one that I will never forget! Hard to think that this is only day 1. I still have over 100 to go!