The Bahamas – Hard to Believe We’re Here

Arriving at Eleuthera International Airport was just about how one might imagine it would be. Prior to landing your eyes are treated with beautiful blues and whites. The plane wings its way over the aqua colored water, clouds drift by below like popcorn. The islands appear below adding whites, greens and browns to the mosaic. The plane touches down, hits the breaks, spins around and motors back to the terminal. We spot the people waiting on the porch, the young men dressed in orange blazers and the various workers scurrying about. We deplane and the heat and humidity hits you like a hot wet towel. You realize at that point that you are finally in the Bahamas.

Everyone lines up at the door to the terminal, I use the word terminal loosely because the building actually a small three room rancher house, modified to act like an international entry point. We hand our documentation to a lady who stamps it and makes sure it is complete. Then we walk around the corner and they open the door outside where everyone scrambles to the luggage cart grabbing their baggage or having one of the local boys pick and carry their gear.
Linda got a young man to help her and she took our bags out away from the frenzy. I was in the middle trying to save my fly rod from getting crushed. One of the people grabbed the rod case and pulled it from under the pile. In doing so that ripped the case cap off and my best rod came flying out on to the ground. I was right there to scoop it up before it got damaged. I was very lucky!

Once that chaos was over, you followed everyone back inside and past a big black fellow who looked at you and said,”Do you have anything to declare? Welcome to da Bahamas mon”, in very cool Bahamas dialect.

Spanish Wells is a small town on the island of St. George's Cay (about half a mile wide by two miles long) located approximately one mile off the northern tip of Eleuthera island. The scope of Spanish Wells is extended, however, by a bridge that links it to neighboring Russell Island, which is just over three miles long and has become an integral part of the community.

It has a population of approximately 1,600 residents. It is so small that many residents get around the island using golf carts instead of full-sized cars. Lobster fishing is said to be their main industry.