And The Adventure Begins With a Breath Taking View From a Plane Window

Ever since childhood I dreamed a dream of white sandy beaches, waters as clear as glass, and of palm trees with real coconuts. I imagined myself on my own deserted paradise, with nothing but me, a hammock, a cool drink, and tons of sunshine.

It took me close to 20 years to finally reach such a destination, and finally...finally I found my paradise, and my paradise? Well let's just say it was all delivered on Grand Bahama Island.

I booked our flight in June of 2008, and up until the day of our flight I worried so many worries. Mostly though I am sure the worries I dealt with were that of anyone who would be taking their very first trip.

My first concern was; was I expecting too much? Would the sand really be as white as websites and brochures offered? Would waters truly be crystal clear? Would I really be surrounded by palm trees? Or would everything be just as it is here in New York. Dark murky waters, sand- but more of a yellowish tint? Palm trees, only planted and not naturally grown?

I worried...would I really find paradise on Grand Bahama Island?

The flight was around 6 hours long, of course we traveled economy, and had a change in the Carolina's. The flight though offered a glimpse of the Bahamas as we grew closer. I could tell we were nearly there when the dark waters we had seen down below for so long, turned into a near glowing turquoise rainbow, with beautiful hues of green, blue, aquamarine, and every other hue of blue one could imagine. I knew just from the view down below, that paradise was soon to be discovered.

All of my worries were set aside, the moment I looked out that window.

Palm Trees with Coconuts!!!!

The moment we stepped off the plane I felt as if we were in a whole new world. Freeport Airport was small, and there were no terminals, we simply stepped off of the plane and into the airports parking lot! This is something that I only thought was done in scenes in Hollywood movies!
After stepping off the plane the heat hit me. It was not a drenching blow of heat, it was a dry clean scent, like nothing I had ever smelled before come from air.
I took my first look at Grand Bahama Island, and I wanted to take in every last scent, and sight. Immediately in the distance I noticed not just a few palm trees, but thousands of them. A tropical jungle if you will.
I knew I was not just on Grand Bahama Island, I was some place special, some place I never ever in my life thought I would be. I felt like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz- only I didn't want to go home.
I was in paradise...now all I needed was to find the water and see for myself if it was crystal clear.
From the small airport we took our cab to Viva Wyndham, an all inclusive resort on the island.
The cab ride itself was an adventure. It took 20 minutes to get to our destination. Our cabbie driver pulled up at the airport in a large taxi van. The van had no seat belts and in New York no way would it ever pass inspection. As uncomfortable as the ride was, it was part of the adventure. Like I said. You are not in Kansas anymore. In Grand Bahama Island many of the roads are covered in bumps, holes, and sand. The ride was indeed bumpy, but the scenery around us impeccable.
On the way we did happen to see a few homes that were in total disarray. They had been destroyed by a hurricane a few years back, and some were still in repair. Others that looked vacant actually had people living in them. Nonetheless, everything was as I had imagined. Beautiful. Palm trees as far as I could see, and phone lines were actually made of large palm trees. No large glorified cylinder shaped poles with lamps like you would find in New York. On Grand Bahama Island everything is simple, making it all the more natural, and all the more beautiful.
Before pulling up to our hotel, I managed to count 3 enormous crabs crossing the street. An image forever marked in my memory, never to be forgotten.

My, What a View!!!

Once the taxi dropped us off at our hotel, I wondered if it would be a dark dank little box of a hotel.

My worries though all slipped away the moment we pulled up. We had an employee grab our bags and take them into the main lobby where we checked in.

I could not see water yet, but I could feel it, and I honestly could not wait to be checked in, and given our water view room.

Once we were given our room, I was a little hesitant, because I still did not see water. The nice man who carried our luggage went over to the large balcony sliding doors, and pulled away the curtains to reveal our dream like water view.

There before me, no less than 50 feet away stood a gigantic beach! White powdery sand? Check! Turquoise blue waters? Check! Palm trees? Check, check, check!!!

Our view was spectacular, and even though we were jet lag, we hit the beach up immediately, with our underwater camera in hand, and our scuba gear; we were ready to see what Grand Bahama had to offer; under water!

*Our view, day and night photos- above.

Don't Forget To Feed The Fish!!!

I don't think there has been a day that has gone by where Grand Bahama Island has not been on my mind. Coming home was nice, but honestly I don't think I will ever look at the waters here where I live, quite the way I did in the Bahamas.

Here there are no magical worlds of colorful reefs underwater, nor are their fish swimming at your sides.

One of the first things we did when we arrived was feed the fish some bread that we took from the resort. I had no idea that we would have such a large school of fish in just seconds. It was surreal, amazing, and unforgettable.

Paradise Cove Tours

Ahhh... sweet sweet serenity.

Before arriving to the island, we pretty much had a mapped out itinerary to follow. We were going to go on a snorkeling tour through blue holes. Blue holes are large craters in the sea, which is the home to so many different tropical fish, and I knew this would be something not to miss. Unfortunately the tour was no longer operating Blue Holes, which was sad.

Instead of sitting around though, we figured we'd simply do another tour for the day we were going to do Blue Holes.

We were given a book of activities to do on the island from the customer service desk at our resort.

In it we found Paradise Cove Tours, which was an all day tour to Paradise Cove, which is located on the west end of the island.

For only $35, the tour included, lunch, free transportation, and of course snorkeling in what is called Deadman's Reef; which we were told was the islands best spot for snorkeling.

The tour was not quite as planned though, because the tour bus refused to come pick us up at our resort seeing that we were the only couple doing the tour. They said we were too far away, and that there were not enough people from our resort who booked the tour.

We had to take a $20 cab ride to the casino at Westin where the tour bus picked us up.

A good 20 minute drive or so, and we were finally at Paradise cove.

You walk up a narrow little walkway to a beach hut, where food is served. Here you can rent snorkel gear, lounge chairs, towels, and umbrellas for a very small price.

We rented a lawn chair. An employee at the beach shack set it up for us, and we were ready to go.

Paradise Cove is pristine and beautiful, with white sand beaches, crystal clear water, and a reef far out in the distance.

It took some time to swim out to the good snorkeling spots which are located very close to the small mountains of rock that rise up out of the water.Many say that only good swimmers should tour Paradise Cove, but at the beach hut you can rent out flotation belts in order to make the swim easier on you. If you take your time though, and just take in what you are seeing down below in the crytsal clear sea, you won't have an issue with becoming fatigue. I found that just drifting worked best.

The water is not scary deep, but it gets very deep when you are near the reefs.

Some areas in the water are so deep that it may even scare you, but if you relax, and just enjoy what you are seeing, you will adore the large craters and dips in the sea floor.

Far out you will be looking around 100 feet down, and it does not even seem that you are that deep until you look over at your partner and see just how far their body is from the surface. It's all pretty surreal.

The corals all seemed relatively dead at Paradise Cove, but the fish are there in an abundance, and sting rays seem to enjoy this area. One ray was around 10 feet long, and was literately 3 feet from shore. So be very, very careful when getting into the water- although they do not attack, their barbs are deadly, and odds are if you step on one, it will not hesitate to lash out on you. Try and scout it out before just flopping in!The thing I really loved about Paradise Cove is that while swimming out to the reef you will come across a huge landscape of green seaweed. In this seaweed you will notice large clumps... upon close inspection you will notice that these large hunks of seaweed are actually living sand dollars. They come to the weeds to collect them to their bodies for camouflage. If you don't look closely you could miss one amazing sea creature.

Now the coolest part is that the green sea bed ends onto a huge landscape of white sand. This sand is not barren though. Here you will find the shells of the former guests of sand dollars. I was able to find sand dollars here in bucket fulls... however they have been sitting down there for so long, that when you try to pick them up, they turn to dust.

I was able to find about 5 or 6 really good sized sand dollars that stood together. Some the size of my palm.I liked to call this area at Paradise Cove, Sand dollar Graveyard.

The waters here at Paradise Cove are pretty much filled with the same types of fish we saw at the resort, with the occasional sting ray, and a few odd balls that we didn't see in the waters at Fortuna Beach. We were looking primarily for sea turtles, but unfortunately it wasn't the right season.

The one thing we did see here in an abundance besides live sand dollars, and sand dollar shells were these odd blue fish that seemed to glow. I only wish I knew what they were called, but they had these spectacular blue dots on them that seemed to just light up. Like lightning bugs of the sea.

Out near the rocks, we came across about 4 or 5 Bahamian lobsters hiding in small pockets in the rocks. They have no claws!!!

The absolute best thing though that I spotted here were these gorgeous neon yellow and orange sea slugs. They were so easy to miss... but like I said, if you take your time you will see more than expected.

Not only were there neon yellow sea slugs, but I also came across some blue ones, and grey colored ones. They are so beautiful, and so graceful, just inching along pieces of coral.

Unfortunately my underwater camera had a hard time focusing in on the small sea slugs.

After swimming around for what felt like an eternity, we headed back in shore for some conch chips, and Bahamian lobster.

Unda Da Sea...

We spent hours looking around underwater, and snapping photographs of all sorts of tropical fish. Out in the distance, just about 30 feet off shore we came across a large coral reef. The hotel actually added a large buoy in the water to make it easier for people to find this wonder.

I was in love. If given the opportunity, I'd trade my lungs for a pair of gills. In the reef we saw fish that were 10 times the size of what we were used to seeing in salt water tanks. Puffer fish the size of footballs, zebra fish the size of pancakes, and schools of rainbow colored fish in the thousands would come quickly dashing by our heads.

The best thing about everything was that the fish were barely shy. Some were curious and would come close to get a look at you,

others would hide behind rocks and peek their heads out to take a look at you, others more bashful, but still didn't scurry to hide from us.

The fish were the magical, but the corals in every odd shape, size and color were the magic. The charm, the underwater rainbow of life all dwelling within the coral formations.

In the distance on the very first day, I spotted my first sting ray. This wouldn't be the last of them either. I saw a different type nearly every time in the water.

Take a Closer Look...

Wow, where the water ends, and sky begins is anybodies guess....

Before jumping into the glowing aquamarine colored waters, you have to really sit there for a moment and take it in. In the distance the blue hues seem to blend in with shades of glowing greens and blues. Like a rainbow of colors, and it's like nothing else on earth. I would refer to it often times while there as the ocean of Kryptonite, because truly that is the only thing I could compare this ocean of beauty to. A gem. Rare, special, and exotic.

After taking in the colors, I put on my mask and slowly made my way into the water. It's truly amazing because the water is just as warm as the air...there is no 'getting used to the water' in the Bahama's...the water is possibly warmer than the air, and it feels divine on your skin.

Under my feet I could feel hard lumps that I thought were just rocks. Upon inspection I came to realize that I was standing on a graveyard of broken coral pieces, beautiful seashells, and tons of snail and baby conch shells. I felt bad for a hot minute, till I realized that this shell graveyard was dead.

However just as I was about to scratch this large area of shell and coral scraps off as dead... I realized many of these mini conch shells were moving about. Many of these tropical shells were homes to none other than hermit crabs. Hermit crabs like I had never seen! In NY our hermits are relatively small, and house themselves in black snail shells. Some grow large, but primarily the larger ones are rarer sights.

Here in the tropical waters, hermit crabs looked as tropical as their surroundings. Some were pale white, and looked like they were covered in frost! Others were near fire colored with long slim claws.

I inspected this seashell graveyard for about an hour, and realized that it was not as I first imagined. It was far from dead. With a close eye I was able to see hundreds of different types of crabs scurrying about the shells, tons of hermit crabs in all different types of shells, shapes, and sizes, and when I stood really, really still I was shocked to find that baby tropical fish housed themselves this close to shore. I was no less than a 3 feet out, and all of this was delivered. Truly, and amazing, amazing experience.

The entire time while cruising the shoreline, I was also being followed by odd large angel fish. At first they actually scared me, because as soon as one comes along, you have a whole school of them surrounding you. These fish alone make you feel totally out of your element, and it's spectacular.