THE COVID test for my Bahamas travel was a bummer.
But because I’m still testing negative, I guess that I’m just happy to know that I am very fit to travel.
And will likely finish my trans-America journey from Maryland to California, with amazing stops in between.
***
Finally, I made it to the Grand Bahama Island, the third largest island of the Bahamas.
It’s not Nassau, but it’s the real laidback life of the Bahamas.
I decided this wasn’t going to be a fancy vacation.
I wanted to go local.
***
What is in Grand Bahama that’s not in Nassau?
The answer was crazy: swimming with the pigs.
Did I want to do that?
It’s in the opposite direction of the Port Lucaya Marketplace, the shopping center that you most probably would see as a must-go in the brochures.
***
Taxi driver Patrico says Taino Beach and Port Lucaya is $100.
Port Lucaya and Crystal Beach (for the swimming with pigs) is $180.
(Think about the distance and the price of gasoline!)
I wanted to go to Xanadu Beach… for the name.
Remember the Olivia Newton-John song? Haha.
***
Patrico said, Xanadu is now an ugly beach.
Taino is the prettier beach. (True, TripAdvisor rated it No.1.)
But I’m thinking, I got beautiful beaches in Miami.
And, of course, in Boracay.
***
In the end, I decided on the pigs for experience.
And bragging rights. Haha.
Only two islands in the Bahamas do the swimming with pigs!
The other is in Exuma Cay.
The pig swimming adventure is $45 per person.
***
I convinced a couple to go, and share the ride, with me.
Since they were a couple, I agreed to split the transport fares 50-50; but I get to ride in the front seat.
The couple can hold hands in the back seats. Haha!
So, Patrico’s taxi was $90 for me. Plus $10 tip.
***
Patrico has been taking tourists around for over ten years now.
So, I asked the best local food I should enjoy.
He said, barbecue.
I frowned.
He said, conch salad.
And if I were not restaurant-fancy, I should really try Daddy Brown’s.
Daddy Brown stakes a claim as the best conch stand of the Bahamas.
The fact that government regulation doesn’t take it down, maybe it is truly the best in the Bahamas! Haha.
***
Patrico warned me that it could be a $16-$18 meal.
I decided to stay away from the fritters, and just ordered the conch salad ceviche style.
For a while, I was flirting with the idea of fried conch.
But Daddy Brown suggested that I might regret it.
Or I might as well eat calamari. Haha.
***
So, to better savor the conch, without the oils and all, I ordered the salad minus the fritters, $10. Plus $2 tip.
It tasted what a conch salad should be.
Nothing to shout about on top of the roofs.
I ate it as the local delicacy, as a specialty that it was.
***
For drinks, I ordered a coconut daiquiri, $12. Plus $1 tip only because I thought that Dakota ripped me off.
But he was also nice and funny that I still gave him $1.
The advertised price is $7. But that was for the non-alcoholic daiquiri, he said.
***
Non-alcoholic daiquiri? Hello?
But it was so hot a day that I didn’t want to argue. Or lecture on alcoholic beverages.
If I’m paying $13 for a daiquiri in Lucaya, I will go full treatment.
So, I drank the water of the young coconut.
And he made me a pineapple daiquiri from real pineapple, with a garnish of the real fruit, too!
***
It turned out, I was the winner in food and beverages division.
The couple I went with had some burgers and Coke. Haha.
***
On the whole, it was a great cultural experience.
It’s living the Bahamas life.
Not the fancy hotels that the locals do not even enjoy.
Think of it as your 40th day in an extended Boracay vacation.
***
Factoring in my return Uber at $36, plus $5 tip, my total cost for a day in the Grand Bahama was $547.
But my experience, priceless!
***
And I can dare those showoff Filipino vacationers in the Bahamas: swim with pigs, eat conch ceviche, drink double-shot rum pineapple-coconut daiquiri, and get yourself a pair of sexy beach volley brothers!/PN
