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Published: October 17th 2011
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Wheels for the week
Feel very at home, it's a Suzuki same as we have at home Another early morning so we could get all packed up and out of the apartment by the check out time of 10am.
With all the bits that we have bought in Miami, we have had to use the suitcase we bought in addition to the ones we brought with us. We had planned to replace one of them with the new case. Managed to get everything packed in well within weight limits.
Stopped off at Denny’s’ for traditional breakfast rather than buying it at the airport.
Got to the airport with plenty of time and proceeded through a very smooth checking. The gate at Miami Airport today is right at the very end of the satellite. This is where American Airlines launch all their small plane Island hoppers. It was such a small plane, they could not get a bridge to it and we had to walk out to it. The plane had about 60 people on board and was a traditional prop.
The flight from Miami to Freeport, Bahamas took only 33 minutes. The shortest flight we have been on. We estimate the distance travelled was around 190 miles.
The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of
the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 keys, and 2,387 islets (rocks). It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with an estimated population of 330,000. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, The Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Everyone on the flight was very sociable. We were able to ask them the best way to get around the Island. The agreement was that with the location of our apartment, we would be better off hiring a car. Problem is that car hire here is very expensive. It is a strange experience driving over here.
They drive on the left as we do in the UK, but most cars are left hand drive as they are imported from USA.
The Bahamas seems to make all of it;s money from tourism and real estate. They do
not manufacture or grow anything on the Islands. They seem to be pretty prosporous from what we can see.
Everyone had warned us that everything was expensive over here. Some things appear that way, but most things are fairly reasonable.
Once we have picked up our bags, we agreed that a car was what we needed and proceeded to hire one for the period of our 7 day stay here. The ladies at the car hire desk were very helpful and drew us directions to the apartment on a map of Freeport.
We managed to follow the directions nearly perfectly. George has really got quite good at map reading since we drove across Spain.
We are staying at ‘Taino Beach Resort’ in the south of Freeport. On arrival we are shown to a really nice apartment. We have a swish Jacuzzi bath in the middle of the room. Very relaxing.
We asked at the reception with regards to a local supermarket and they draw details onto our map. We decided to go straight away before it got too dark. It was about 6pm by the time we left for the supermarket. Once we had done
our shopping we were surprised to find that at about 7.15pm it was already pitch black. The 5 mile drive back to the apartment was an interesting one. It’s dark out here from around 8pm to 8am.
Got our first Bahamas bank notes when we paid for dinner. Bahamian dollars are the same value as US Dollars. However, the Bahamian dollars must be spent before leaving the island. The Bahamian dollars are almost Orange in colour.
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