Posted by Briland Modem News Team on March 25, 2001 at 21:32:20:
Check out the Sunday feature in yesterday's edition of the St. Petersburg Times, or stop by their website located online at http://www.sptimes.com/News/032501/Travel/The_other_Bahamas.shtmlfor the great photography included.
Here's the text:
'The Other Bahamas'
If sandy beaches, not betting, and quiet, not nightlife, are your vacation ideals, but you want your hideaway to offer creature comforts as well as beauty, the Out Bahamas are the islands of your dreams.
By JOHN HENDERSON
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001
In a country where cruise ships are almost as numerous as slot machines, the only boats puttering about two dreamy islands in the Bahamas cruise only for lobsters. And bonefish. And conch, to be served as chowder at open-air restaurants overlooking a harbor illuminated by only stars and an 18th century lighthouse.
If you want to visit, leave your driver's license at home. Bring a boat captain's hat and your spirit of adventure.
Harbour Island and Elbow Cay are separated by 80 miles of ocean and are connected by a culture that still uses the water as the islands' settlers did. They are only accessible by boat. They have no airports, no buses, no roads wide enough to accompany anything more than a couple of golf carts, because that is the chief mode of transportation on land.
Harbour Island and Elbow Cay have traded the mind-numbing sound of Nassau's and Freeport's club music and chiming slot machines for the occasional buzz of a motorboat and a Bahamian flag flapping in the breeze.
High-rise hotels give way to some of the loveliest villages in the Caribbean, quaint ocean-view villas and New England-style houses painted every color of the pastel rainbow.
Neither island is big enough to warrant more than a pin prick on any atlas. Harbour Island, 85 miles northeast of Nassau off the northern tip of Eleuthera, is three miles long and a half mile wide. Elbow Cay, 80 miles northwest of Harbour Island, is five miles by a half mile.
You could hit a 3-wood from the Atlantic side and drop into a bay on the other side of either island. But you won't, because there aren't any golf courses, either.
Of course, modernization is starting to sneak ashore. The locals are quietly steamed over a few cars -- gasp! -- seen on the roads.
But don't worry. On Harbour Island and Elbow Cay, the boat will always be king of the road. These are the true Bahamas. And no one grasps that more fiercely than the locals.
"The Bahamas wasn't made on gambling," says Tito Baldwin, the lone divemaster, constable and medic among Elbow Cay's 500 residents.
"The Bahamas was made by culture, its people, its fishing, the beautiful sandy beaches. All of those things combined make the environment around here. That's why everybody who comes here from Nassau feels like they've been released from prison. I can breathe. I can relax."
Harbour Island
Sharon King, manager of the Coral Sands Hotel, sat on the hotel's patio balcony and stared down at the beach, which has an odd pink tone to it. I followed her gaze and counted 10 people, as far as I could see.
"This place is getting so bloody popular," King said.
She has lived on Harbour Island for 34 years, and she continued, with a tone of regret: "It was the best-kept secret for years. No one would tell anyone where they were going. It was their little hideaway."
Apparently, any growth is noticeable on an island not much bigger than your average Far Side cartoon. First settled by dissatisfied British ex-pats and eventually becoming a shipwrecking and shipbuilding center, Harbour Island has slowly developed into a hangout for celebrities, getaway for lovers and second home for millionaires.
After a week on this little paradise, I wondered what took them so long.
Travel guides have called Pink Sand Beach the best beach in the Caribbean. You can spend the afternoon scuba diving among stingrays, then cross the country road and eat smoked dolphin Daesar salad at a great restaurant overlooking one of the best sunsets in the Atlantic.
Reaching Harbour Island is not a straight shot from anywhere. I flew into Nassau and went to the domestic terminal for a 30-minute Bahamasair flight to Eleuthera. From the airport on the north end of that island, I took a taxi to the tiny boat dock where, for $4, a small motorboat transported me across glassy water to Harbour Island's dock, 15 minutes away.
I checked in at Valentine's Yacht Club, a homey diving and boating hotel. It had modest single and double cabins surrounding a sparkling swimming pool. Across the road next to the dock sat locals and tanned sailors drinking beer and rum at Valentine's open-air bar.
I cruised up Bay Street, the two-lane main drag that is lined with huge palm trees on the harbor side of the road and romantic restaurants in 100-year-old buildings on the other.
On nearly every other corner stood a church painted in a bright pastel: yellow, orange, aqua, red. These were not churches, they were gumdrops.
On one side street, I spotted Eddie Minnis, a locally renowned painter, working on a neighborhood scene. As a golf cart and bicycle passed him, I asked if the island ever gets overrun with tourists.
"The way the hotels are located," he said, "you could have 1,000 tourists on this island and you wouldn't know it."
The hotels range from simple guest houses to the Pink Sands Resort, Coral Sands' neighbor, with rooms running up to $700 a night. But no hotels obstruct views; they are spread out enough to ensure privacy for everyone who comes here.
Reportedly, Harrison Ford visits occasionally and Susan Sarandon had a birthday party at the Pink Sands.
People come to these out-islands for a variety of reasons. The reefs are in excellent shape for scuba diving. Bonefishing is among the best in the world.
But mostly visitors come for the beach. It stretches the entire three miles of the island's eastern side. Its soft white sand is sprinkled with pink particles washed ashore from the ocean's vermilion coral.
If you are looking for nightlife, stay in Nassau. After a late dinner of fresh grouper ($6 at Angela's Starfish, the best neighborhood restaurant), I walked 15 minutes to Gusty's, which has a sandy floor and a patio overlooking the Atlantic. Gusty, a clean-cut man in his 30s, stood behind the bar making Goombay Smashes, a potent Bahamian rum drink.
"I don't think you'll find another place like this anywhere in the world," he said. "It's so laid-back. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody knows where everything is. Everything is so good. It's the next best thing to paradise."
Elbow Cay
I sat on the verandah surrounding my rented villa, enjoying a three-sided view of Hope Town Harbour. Below me was a quiet dock big enough for just a few dinghies. Over my shoulder were hundreds of bougainvillea, which punctuates this island. I could hear the hum of a distant boat motor.
Here, if you're not on the water, you're in it or next to it. And it is soooo quiet. Unlike Harbour Island, which you need a boat to reach, on Elbow Cay you also need a boat to get anywhere on the island: Hope Town Harbour separates Hope Town, a wonderfully picturesque village, from a hodgepodge of villas and private homes on the west side. A narrow inlet opens up to the Abaco Sea and to beaches on the southern end.
If you have never skippered a boat, you might have to learn how. The typical rental here is a 20-foot-long boat with a three-horsepower engine mounted in the stern.
I had had no boat experience, but my rental became part of my life here: If I wanted to find a beach, I got in the boat. If I wanted to go into town, I got in the boat. If I wanted to buy groceries, I got in the boat.
"We use it for visiting; we use it for pleasure," said Suzanne Bethel, chief counsel for Hope Town District. "On the weekend, if you wish to go fishing, snorkeling, take your family, you take your boat. You don't drive your family to a park by using a truck."
This is the Bahamas the Bahamians read about as children. On Elbow Cay, little has changed since their grandparents were kids except some creeping Americanization from the growing number of second-home owners.
Elbow Cay is in the Abaco Islands, a 130-mile chain on the northern end of the Bahamas. They were settled by loyalists to the British Crown in the late 18th century after the American Revolution. Many descendants never left. Elbow Cay is populated by blonds with blue eyes and last names such as Albury and Malone.
They arrived by boat and that's how you do it today. A half-hour flight from Nassau drops you into Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' capital. A $12 cab ride takes you to a dock where a 20-minute ferry ride for $20 (during business hours) will drop you right at your hotel's or villa's dock.
While the beaches on Elbow Cay are as nice if not as long as Pink Sands Beach, the highlight is a stroll through Hope Town. Narrow paths -- the main ones are appropriately named Up Along and Down Along -- meander through gardens filled with red and yellow and orange blooms. You pass pastel houses named "Butterfly House," "Spinneydune," "Clearview."
Everywhere you walk is a clear view of the 89-foot-tall, red-and-white-striped lighthouse, built in 1864 and still working.
Oldtimers sit below the dockside administration building with its small signs over single doors reading "Post Office," "Commissioner's Office" and "Police."
"We have two speeds here -- slow and dead stop," said Tito Baldwin, the divemaster/constable. "If you're going any faster than that you've come to the wrong neighborhood."
Restaurant prices on Elbow Cay reminded me of those on another island: Manhattan. Elbow Cay has seven restaurants and five are expensive. Expect to pay $18-$35 for an entree and up to $14 for a salad.
The good news is the food is worth it. Local delicacies include stuffed crawfish sprinkled with Parmesan, conch chowder, turtle steak with white wine sauce, grouper served every way and a johnnycake, a round, pancakelike bread served warm with butter.
In 15 days, I never had a bad meal. Rum drinks, including the deadly four-rum Jackhammer at Captain Jack's, are reasonably priced.
So are hotels. Besides a variety of villas complete with swimming pools and kitchens, Elbow Cay features the Harbour Lodge, bordering the beach and harbor in Hope Town, and Abaco Inn, on a beautiful but rough stretch of beach on White Sound.
Tourism won't get much bigger. There isn't the labor force to support it. Nor is anyone in any hurry to grow. Bethel, Hope Town's head honcho, is working with police to enforce a local ordinance and keep the growing number of cars outside the village limits.
"If we're going to be the same as Florida," Bethel said, "why bother to come?"
* * *
John Henderson is a writer who lives in Denver.
If you go
GETTING THERE: US Airways, American and Continental have direct flights to Marsh Harbour, the Abacos' capital, from Orlando. American, Continental, Delta, Air Jamaica and Bahamasair also fly to Nassau, and from there, Bahamasair has daily flights into Marsh Harbour.
From Marsh Harbour to Hope Town, take a cab (about $12) to the ferry dock and then take the Albury Ferry for a 20-minute ride. The cost is $8 before 5:30 p.m. After 5:30, the ferry must be chartered for $60; after 7 p.m. the price jumps to $80, which can be split among up to six passengers. Reservations are needed only if chartering. (242) 365-6010.
For Harbour Island, Bahamasair flies daily from Nassau to the North Eleuthera Airport and twice a week from Miami. US Airways flies daily from Miami, and Gulfstream International flies twice daily from Miami. A short cab ride will take you to the ferry dock for a quick boat trip to Harbour Island's dock. For an extra dollar, the captain will drop you at your hotel.
STAYING THERE: On Elbow Cay, Harbour Lodge (toll-free 1-800-316-7844) is the lone true hotel in Hope Town; doubles range from $120 to $160 a night, and weekly rates start at $770. The Abaco Inn, (toll-free 1-800-468-8799, or (242) 366-0133; Web site: http://abacoinn.com), about two miles south of Hope Town, is on a scenic stretch of coast and has doubles from $140 to $215 and singles from $125 to $215. Sea Spray Resort, (242) 366-0065), near Abaco Inn on White Sound, has weekly rentals from $950 to $1,750.
Hope Town Hideaways, (242) 366-0224) rents 50 homes of all varieties all over the island. Costs range from $700 a week for a one-bedroom to $11,100 a week for a four-bedroom, three-bath with marina and swimming pool, for up to eight people. Malone Estates (242) 366-0100) has 24 units ranging from $700 a week to $1,000.
On Harbour Island, Pink Sands Resort (toll-free at 1-800-688-7678) is the cream of the crop. Rooms range from $625 per night for a one-bedroom to $2,000 a night for an ocean view with a Jacuzzi. The prices include breakfast and dinner.
One step down but next door is Coral Sands Hotel (toll-free 1-800-468-2799, or (242) 333-2350), where $210 will get you a one-bedroom with a garden view; a three-bedroom, three-bath that sleeps up to eight goes for $870.
All the above include 20 percent tax.
GETTING AROUND: Motorboats come with the price of the villas on Elbow Cay. Golf carts can be rented from Hope Town Cart Rentals (242-366-0064) or Island Cart Rentals (242-366-0448) for $40 a day or $240 a week. On Harbour Island, carts run $45 a day.
If you want to island-hop, more powerful motorboats can be rented from Rich's Rentals (242) 367-2742) and Sea Horse Boat Rentals (242) 367-2513). An 18-footer with a 70-horsepower engine goes for $130 a day or $490 a week.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Bahamas Tourist Office, 1 Turnberry Place, 19495 Biscayne Blvd., Aventura, FL 33180; call (305) 932-0051 or toll-free 1-800-422-4262.