Country 2 - The Exumas, Bahamas

Day 1  - Arriving on Great Exuma

My husband and I have been to the Bahamas before, once to Freeport (Grand Bahama Island) so I could get SCUBA certified, and once to Nassau on a cruise.  But this trip was different.  We decided to come here not only for our 3rd anniversary, but more specifically to "Swim with the Pigs!"  That's right I said it, "Swim with the Pigs."  Several months ago My husband came across an article in a travel magazine about this island in the Bahamas where some locals dropped off pigs.  When these barnyard animals see boats pull in close to the beach they begin to swim to the boats wanting to get fed.  When I saw this I immediately put it on my bucket list, and what better way to spend our anniversary, but to swim with these comical creatures.  So the planning began. . .

The Exumas is a group of about 360 islands in the Bahamas.  There are 2 ways to get there.  There are direct flights from Fort Lauderdale, and Miami, or like me you can fly into Nassau and purchase a ticket on either Sky Bahamas, or Bahamasair for about $ 70.00 each way.  I opted to take Sky Bahamas simply because of their on-time performance (we are on island time by the way) and their schedule just suited me better.  I reached Great Exuma about an hour before my husband arrived (he took the direct flight from Fort Lauderdale.) The islands looked gorgeous coming in, and the people very friendly. So far off to a great start. 

After reading review after review on Tripadvisor we decided to stay at The Exuma Palms Hotel ( www.exumapalms.com ) and we were not disappointed.  The couple who run this hotel are amazing.  He is from Ireland, and she is from Britain. From the minute we arrived, we were met with such a warm reception, it felt like being welcomed into their home instead of checking into a hotel. After introductions we were shown to our room.  The rooms were very nice, but the view, WOW! AMAZING! This hotel is located on beautiful 3 Sisters Beach.  While we were changing and settling in, Chef (The gentleman who runs the hotel and who is also the Chef of the on site restaurant) arranged for our tour for the next morning, and also brought us two Kalik beers wishing us Happy Anniversary! Now that is service!

We changed into our bathing suits and headed to the beach to swim and relax a little.  After decompressing and cooling off it was time to clean up and figure out what we were going to do for dinner.  The hotel is not located in town, and we opted not to rent a car, and being that it was a Monday night the hotel restaurant was not open.  Not to worry we were informed that there was another restaurant down the beach that was open, so off we went.  It was a little further than we thought, but the walk was amazing.  There is just something about the sand in the Bahamas that is unlike anywhere else we've been.  We finally arrived, and ordered two more Kalik beers, the fried chicken dinner, and fried conch dinner. One thing about this place is everything is fried.  As we were sitting outside it started lighting, so we decided to head back to the hotel, and make it an early night since tomorrow was going to be a busy day.  We just made it back right before the skies opened up and the rain and the wind just took over.  There is nothing like watching a storm over the ocean, and this one did not disappoint.

Sky Bahamas Flight

Flying to Great Exuma

Konstantinos Arriving!

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