We awoke with the alarm at 7:30 am and got out of bed. This was our last day in the Bahamas, and we had a lot to do. After getting ready, we had our continental breakfast (cinnamon raisin rolls, tea and Blast citrus punch for both of us, plus cereal for Jess and a hardboiled egg for Jer). Then we set out to do a bit of sightseeing and find the post office.
We walked up to Government House, the official representative of the Governor-General of the Bahamas. Unfortunately the house was under renovation so we weren't permitted to wander the grounds, but we did get to see the beautiful view of Nassau and the harbour from the forecourt. Descending the hill, we passed Gregory's Arch. We got a bit turned around on our way to the post office, finding ourselves at the bottom of the Queen's Staircase, leading up to Fort Fincastle and the Water Tower. We then made our way to the post office, bought stamps and dropped our postcards in the US box.
We wended our way back to Bay St. and got a table at Cafe Skans, a diner that's a popular breakfast spot. Jer had chicken souse and Jess had scrambled eggs, both with johnnycake. The food was tasty and reasonably priced, and the waitresses businesslike but attentive.
Our tummies full, we stopped into Colombian Emeralds to ask about Jess's favorite Longines watch. It was $807 with a plain bezel (Flagship), or $3000 with a diamond bezel (La Grande Classique). Jess decided to give it some thought (or so she told the sales lady), and we walked down to Nassau harbour in hopes of finding the Bahamas Undersea Adventures boat and going sea kayaking. It was sunny but quite windy, so we were unsure about whether they'd come. We walked along the pier to kill time, but when the boat hadn't appeared by 11:25 am, Jer went to find a payphone, but was unsuccessful. When the boat hadn't arrived by 11:45 am we set off to the tourist information booth.
On our way, we came across a Bahamas Undersea Adventures booth in Festival Place. The guy there called back to headquarters and verified that it was too choppy to kayak, but told us there was an afternoon snorkel trip still on. Jess wasn't sure she wanted to snorkel in that weather, but she didn't have a better idea and Jer really wanted to go, so she gave in. We headed back to our hotel to change into our swimsuits and get our snorkeling gear, then promptly returned to town.
Since most of the shops would be closing when we got back from snorkeling, we stopped into a few jewelry stores to see if there was anything fabulous. Jess liked a Raymond Weil watch at John Bull (it was on sale for $798) and Diamonds International had many lovely pieces but no real bargains that we could see, so our wallets escaped unscathed.
We headed back to Festival Place and asked if we could rent a wetsuit for Jess, but unfortunately Bahamas Undersea Adventures doesn't have them. So we stopped by a dive shop and got her a rashguard, then popped into Haagen Dazs for some cold, creamy refreshment (a sugar cone of summer berries and cream for Jer, and one of coffee for Jess).
We returned to Festival Place again and met our group. Jess started chatting with a family on their first snorkeling trip; she reassured them that they'd do fine, and that it wasn't as hard as she'd feared. On the trip out to Rainbow Reef, she told them as much as she could remember about the Paradise Island sights from our earlier trips, and they were excited as we pointed out the homes and boats of Mick Jagger, Nicholas Cage and others along the way.
Rainbow Reef was at the edge of the Sea Gardens, where we'd gone in the undersea boat. After getting instructions from the crew, we all got into the water (which, surprisingly, was warmer than it had been two days previously). We saw lots of fish — in addition to tangs, parrotfish, and the blue, black and yellow schooling fishies from before, we saw a needlefish, a big sea crab, and lots of new multicolored tropical fish. We saw many of the same corals we'd seen before, like yellow coral, brain coral and finger coral. Our crew was much more hands-on than Bahama Divers had been: one of the guys free-dived to the sea floor and brought up creatures for us to see (a starfish, a hermit crab and a conch), before carefully returning each. The water was smoother at Rainbow Reef than at Nassau harbour, so Jess was able to stay in the full 45-60 minutes. Jer did too (unsurprisingly), but he really wished he'd been able to borrow a weight belt. The crew served us a meal of fried chicken, corn, peas 'n rice and punch on the boat on our way back to Nassau, and it put KFC to shame!
We came back to our hotel and Jer swam a few laps in the tiny pool while Jess showered, then he took his turn in the shower. Jess wrote in this journal for a while while Jer backed up our cameras' memory cards and read his book. Eventually we headed to the internet cafe across the street to print our boarding passes, before setting off for dinner.
We decided to eat at Portofino in the British Colonial Hilton, since it was our last night in the Bahamas and we still hadn't tried guava duff. The service was good, as the waitstaff were pleasant and attentive. The food varied from passable to sublime. Jer had the prix fixe dinner, which included vegetable soup (it wasn't very good, but Jer was starving for vegetables) and cajun boiled shrimp with sides of sticky rice and steamed vegetables (it was pretty good, but Jer loves shrimp, vegetables and cajun seasonings). Jess had Bahamian lobster bisque (which was pretty good) and Bahamian stone crab claws in butter, herb and wine sauce (these were delicious and a good value, but very slippery and hard to eat; Jer had to help shell them and Jess made a mess). There was a dessert bar but nothing there caught our eye, so we asked if they had guava duff and were told they'd bring some out to us which they did. Wow! It's sponge cake topped with pieces of guava and covered in a sauce that tasted of cream, butter, brandy and sugar (like a spiked custard). If you're ever in Nassau, head to Portofino and ask for the guava duff! (We wished we were hungry enough for seconds.) [Note: Portofino has now been replaced by a restaurant called Aqua; hopefully they still have the guava duff!]
Thus stuffed, we returned to our room. While Jess wrote in this journal, Jer made sure all of our wet things were drying (wringing some out in a towel, while taking a hair dryer to others). We'd decided to pack in the morning, to give our swimwear as much time to dry as possible. Soon, tiredness overtook Jess (who'd been fighting the sniffles for days), so we went to bed.