This is from Leigh Miller, photographer’s blog in 2006 (http://www.leighmillerphotography.com/blog/2006/04/19/a-few-pics/).

Sadly the links to the photos are not working and she takes beautiful photos.  But posting it anyway as it is a good ‘external’ eyes view of Eleuthera where I lived AND her husband (clearly a man of fine taste and discernment) bought one of my paintings as her on honeymoon present!

April 19: from our Bahamas honeymoon. What a trip it turned out to be. It was fun, but I learned a lot!!! So here you go -

1.) They don’t show it in all the travel brochures, but it can rain, I mean pour, for 5 days straight in the Bahamas.
2.) If you are flying Bahamas Air, make sure you have “time to spare,” apparently everyone knew that but us
3.) Bugs may eat you alive despite the amount of Mosquito Quietus you slather on your body.
4.) You really can live off peanut butter sandwiches and cheese and crackers if you have to.
5.) Eventhough you look for the cabbie without a beer at the airport, he may still stop and get one on the way to your destination!

Feel free to contact me if you are considering a trip and want more info, I have lots more to share.

We spent the first 4 days or so in Freeport hanging out with Kelly and Jon and shooting their wedding. After that the real adventure began. We were supposed to take a flight to Governor’s Harbour, but our flight was delayed by 4 hours or more (but they only tell you this in 45 minute increments, I guess so you will continue to be hopeful that in the next 45 minutes you will have access to a working bathroom, but I’m not really sure why) so we ended up in Rock Sound looking forward to a hour and 1/2 or so cab ride to our rental house. Thats where we met Buffalo, our cab driver. A really nice man and he looked the most promising because he was about the only cabbie without a drink in his hand at the airport, but alas he did stop for a beer on the way to our house

By the time we got to our house it was so dark we couldn’t see a thing and were locked out. Everything looked a bit more promising in the morning but within a few hours a major storm blew in and decided to hang around for the next 5 days. But we still had a great time!!! And we would go back again in a heartbeat. We were miles away from almost everyone (except the 4 adults and five kids who were renting the other house on the property!) had really crappy food (but good booze!) no TV (but a bunch of old VHS movies to choose from) but it was our honeymoon so who cares!!! It was awesome.

The round house we rented for the week. It was pretty rustic but we still loved it. I found it about a year ago on www.vrbo.com, a great resource for vacation rentals.

One day we took a day trip up to Harbour Island and on the way we crossed the Glass Window bridge, where the land narrows to little more than the width of a one lane road. On the one side is the Atlantic. Above you can see the storm clouds and waves crashing.

One the other side is the Caribbean, calm and clear. It really is surreal.

The painting my sweet husband bought me while we were in Harbour Island. I think I’m going to put it in my new studio. Its called It’s Getting Wet and the artist is Rosalyn Palmer.

All over Eleuthera and Harbour Island there were chickens and roosters running around. This little family was right outside the art gallery. I kind of felt bad cause a few kids were kind of terrorizing them.

But when we came out of the art gallery I felt worse. At first I thought “oh good someone put them behind the fence away from the bad kids” but then I looked harder and saw there were fenced in with a bunch of cats. Now the kids weren’t looking so bad after all !

The first painting I ever did! I still have this one........

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Two choruses, at 6am and 6pm, punctuated my meandering days in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, Bahamas.

I resented the 6am one at first, pulling a pillow over my head to shut out the crowing competition from the dozens of cockerels who strut along the dusty streets.  In true island style, I mellowed quickly, choosing to hear the noise as a herald for another beautiful day.  I also loved the way their noise was joined by soft singing of Vodun spirit songs from one or other of the Haitian itinerant workers.  They wait patiently each morning by the harbour wall for a lift to whatever toil they have secured for that day.

The 6pm sound of rhythmic chopping was always welcome.  The fishermen, Dennis and Arron and their crews, had landed their catch for the day and were busy wielding their sharp machetes to cut and fillet Grouper, Snapper, Hogfish, Shark or Tuna for the locals and the smattering of brave tourists.

I had long ago made friends with them when I had told them, “Don’t be chargin’ me dem tourist prices an’ tinkin’ me a bank!”.  My custom was now greeted with smiles and laughter and an exchange of crumpled Bahamian dollars when the t-shirt and shorts brigade of passing boat owners had moved away.  Then it would be back home ready for an ice cool Kalik beer, sipped whilst waiting for the green flash of the evening sun sinking into the evening sea on an island called ‘Freedom’

Governor's Harbour Eleuthera

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Landing the Catch

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Bunches of finger bananas on the trees

Eleuthera memories. Sunday August 22 2004.

Arriving in the Bahamas in 2001 after 21 years in London I could never understand it when family islanders referred to Nassau as ‘the big smoke’. Now I do. The city and all its stresses seems a lifetime away already. The most challenging thing I’ve had lately is keeping up with recipes for all the various fruits and saladings we grow. That, and making pints of jam and chutney with no scales to weigh anything and very few jam jars (luckily we found several on the beach. I hope that the boiling water got the salt and sand out, otherwise there will be an extra crunch to the mango chutney).

This farm really is a Garden of Eden. Along the with the rows of arugula, spinach, mixed salad leaves and watercress which Ian has planted for us and which is so plentiful we end up giving bags of it away we have so much more (one of my regular recipients just gave me (more) mangoes and a bag of key limes in return so the Key Lime Pie (non dairy version as I’ve given up dairy) is cooking as I type. We have fantastic fresh herbs, particularly basil, mint, rosemary and coriander. There are beds of garlic chives (like large spring onions), allspice bushes and hundreds of Noni trees (I’m drinking the juice daily, it is totally disgusting but it has had a noticeable improvement on my energy levels). (more…)

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