Small Thoughts for Small Minds :: Weasels and lizards in the Bahamas :: December

One of my Swedish colleagues, Hans, and I went to Charleston first thing Monday morning. We made a presentation to the port in the afternoon and had a nice dinner with another person from the port that evening. Then Hans & I found a seedy bar in which to watch Monday Night Football. Of course, I had to explain the game to him. Hans was a real trooper - not only did he put up with the game and my football chatter, he willingly tried all of the "local" beers (from NC, SC, GA) I ordered. He lasted until halftime, and I stayed the course…

Tuesday morning we flew to Freeport, Bahamas.

We stayed at the "Westin Grand Bahama Island Our Lucaya Resort".

This shot was taken from my little boat trip on Thursday (details below). The big building is where I stayed…

This is the view from my balcony.

The lobby and some of the hotel rooms are in this building. Going for that British colonial plantation look, I guess..

This is the view out from the building above.

A gentleman from the port picked us up at the airport and delivered us to the hotel. We arranged to meet later for a beer. Hans and I had a couple hours to kill, so we wandered about the Port Lucaya Marketplace.

Christmas music and even a big tree. Sigh… At least it will all be over in a couple weeks.

The next morning, we had an early start. A big presentation at the port (lots of bigwigs) followed by a tour of the terminal. Here’s a shot of the cranes just to prove that I didn’t spend ALL my time on the beach…

We got back to the hotel around 2 p.m., so we had several hours to kill before meeting a couple of the port personnel for dinner. I went for a swim in the ocean while Hans hung out at the pool.

The local beer in the Bahamas is Kalik. (Emphasis on the second syllable, which is pronounced like "lick".) This is the stronger version at 7% alcohol by volume.

I got bored so I decided to try something I’ve never done before - parasailing. I wish I could’ve taken my camera. It was really cool. Beautiful views…

At dinner, the Australian gentleman from Hong Kong (customer’s corporate headquarters) called me "Dave" the whole evening. Since I’m a weasel, I didn’t correct him. Part of being in sales is the classic, "the customer is always right". Yep, I was his bitch and he can call me what he wants. The other gentleman (also originally from Australia, but living in the Bahamas for four years) tried to correct him once to no avail…

And now, especially for Elayne, the leezards…

Thursday morning, I walked about looking for lizards. There were at least three different kinds of lizards. I wasn’t able to get a picture of the brown anoles, but everyone knows what they look like (commonly, but incorrectly, called "chameleons" in the US).

The one with the Akita-style tail is the coolest…

My flight home on Thursday wasn’t until 4 p.m. I had plenty of time, so I wanted to do something interesting. I found out about the semi-submersible boat with snorkeling and signed up. While the views through the underwater windows were much (much much) better than the glass bottom boats in Acapulco, it still doesn’t compare to SCUBA diving or snorkeling. At least we had a great opportunity to see LOTS of fish while snorkeling.