We were able to sit in the bow of the ship eating lunch while The Enchantment of the Seas docked at Nassau. It was awesome to watch. There’s a dock that can take about four cruise ships. To give you a general idea, a cruise ship that is full has about 2,500-3,000 passengers. The port area of Nassau really isn’t that large, so you can do the math in terms of the activity around the port.
We decided that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to go snorkeling. It was great. We sailed out on a catamaran out to a reef and played with the fishies for about an hour — seeing the most amazing variety of tropical fish and coral reef with brain coral, delicately-colored blue, or zebra fish (among MANY others) and enjoying the tropical sea. We sailed back drinking rum punch, though and I limited ourselves to a cup each even though considerably more was being urged on us. Oh we were being sooo smart, weren’t we?
Yeah, right.
I was 15 the last time I’d been in the Caribbean, and had been with my parents who are pretty experienced travelers. So, while I knew that people who make their living from tourists can be pretty aggressive salesmen, I’d forgotten how much so!
After we got off the catamaran, we wandered briefly around an open air market. I wanted to buy a sarong, and did, from a woman who gave me $5 off because I was such a sexy lady <snerk>. Yes, I probably could have bargained her down, but considered the price I paid plenty fair for a sarong.
Then this woman wandering around the market came right up to and put a necklace around my neck and said, “Now you a Bahama Mama, honey.” then turned to , putting another necklace around his neck, pronouncing him a Bahama Papa. She asked for a donation “for the children” for the necklaces. Yeah, we’re suckers. We gave her a ten spot.
Did that put us on our guard enough?
Hell no!
I got a lot of offers to get my hair braided. Now, I’ve always rather wanted to try some of the more elaborate cornrow styles and figured this was a good chance to do so. So I asked how much it would cost, and the woman charged $7.00 a braid. I don’t even go to the beauty salon to get my hair colored, so I don’t know how much this type of thing is worth in real life, mind you, nor did I realize how MANY braids my hip-length and very thick hair would take. I was figuring she’d do maybe ten or twelve cornrows, not a series of microbraids in the back and cornrows in the front.
I have nearly fifty braids in my hair. Yes, I have a hairstyle that I paid over $300 for. I could have argued, but I didn’t. Why? I haven’t the faintest idea what the going rate really is, and I didn’t want to cheat her out of pique. However, it took her about two hours to do it, and I’m not really sure that most hairdressers charge $150/hr to work in an open-air market.
That said, she did a great job on the hairstyle. It looks good and is damned convenient for a cruise, especially the wind. In fact, if I find out this is really cheaper to get done in Stateside hair salons, I’ll probably get it done like this again for cruises and/or beach trips.
I had tilapo for dinner on a bed of Japanese ratatouille (meaning they put ginger in it. Yes, it was delicious).
After dinner we went to a show with movie themed music and dancing. The concept was goofy but damn the performers were outstanding. The female singers especially had some pipes, let me tell you what!