Nassau Parliament Buildings
09 January 2009 | Back in GTC
Still ble skies!
After three busy days in Nassau it's nice to back onboard Graynorth in a quiet harbour, far from hustle and bustle of busy Nassau.
Upon reflection I realize that much of my disappointment with Nassau has to do with the changes that have occurred in the central city architecture.
The advent of large commercial shopping malls on the outskirts of the city has resulted in the terrible demise of the urban core. What used to be a beautiful vibrant community of small shops and pretty Victorian houses impeccably maintanined has become a boarded-up eyesore, with ugly metal roofing nailed up across the windows, garbage in the entranceways and paint peeling off the walls.
Grafitti and illegal haitian refugees, drugs and guns, and bingo.... a whole new reality start to unfold.
We flew back to GTC and I had the opportunity to sit beside the Minister of Agriculture (and local Abacos MP) who shared many of his hopes and aspirations for the Bahamas. He was on his way home to Marsh Harbour, so we'll get in touch again. Tourism is down 30-40% and when your economy is 80% tourism, it's a BIG problem. Unemployment is rising rapidly as hotels/marinas/restaurants/bars reduce staff. He's hoping to diversify the economy and restart many of the historical agricultural activities that have been abandoned over the years when the easy tourist dollar became available.
Louise is happy to be "home" and celebrated with 5 loads of laundry, and packed the 100kg of food stuffs we brought back from Nassau into her various cupboards/hiding spots which are all over the boat. Literally every nook and cranny has something in it.... it makes finding things interesting as we need to tear apart half the salon to locate the brown rice.
I spent the morning removing our 120V ac icemaker from the boat so as to create more space for our soon to be installed watermaker.
We've never used the icemaker, and don't expect to be tied to a dock plugged into shorepower, so I'll try to barter it away for something we might be able to use.
It's sad to see our son leaving us, but I know he had a great time!
glen