This morning I woke up and I was amazed to see that this amazing condo in Delporte Point not only had beautiful sunset views from last night, but sunrise views in the morning. That’s the benefit of being on a point! I made coffee and we had our breakfast of oatmeal + yogurt and we sat on the back porch and watched cruise ships coming into Nassau full of passengers, eager to do their water sports or spend time at the Atlantis resort. The morning was scheduled early for us. We were on an all-day trip to the a private island. It started with a pick-up right across the street from our resort — except they weren’t very clear on where we were supposed to meet. The meeting place was described as “the Sandy Port guard gate” and it was also described as “across the street from Delporte,” which is where we’re staying as fate would have it.
We are right across the street from the Sandy Port residential guard gate, but what we didn’t realize was the Sandy Port RESORT guard gate is about a quarter of a mile down the road. When the travel bus did not arrive to pick us up, we called to say I think we have a problem. They eventually did send the bus back to get us after many desperate calls back and forth and a few moments when we thought we were going to miss the trip entirely. Upon check-in at the marina, Annie shared that was the first time they’ve ever sent a tour bus back to pick up guests who we are not in the right location. I guess she felt bad about the miscommunication and maybe wanted to make sure that our anniversary vacation wasn’t ruined. Thankfully, we did get there with plenty of time and in fact, other people were still arriving after us, so it wasn’t a big deal.
We checked in and got on the double-decker catamaran and eventually pulled away from the port of Nassau and headed out to the private Rose Island. It was a nice trip the sun was out. The breeze was great and the waters were calm. In fact the waters were so beautiful — that special turquoise and crystal clear that the Bahamas are known for. When we arrived at the island, we were greeted by Sandy Toes employees as well as two pigs who were already on the dock being fed little treats. It was adorable to see them! We were immediately escorted up a large number of steps that brought us to the top of a rocky cliff where guests who were going straight to the bar or the beach were advised to head back down the other side, and those who were on the snorkel trip were to wait at the top and gather their snorkel gear and get ready.
We thought you could snorkel at will, but in fact, it was a very well-organized guided trip. After our quick safety briefing where we were all given ankle bracelets that were meant to repel sharks, we went back down the cliff stairs, entered the water and began our snorkel trip. There were probably about 30-40 people on the trip, so a fairly large group! There was a leader, and then there were men floating on safety rafts behind us. There was also a boat accompanying us around the point, and then there were also a few scouts up on top of the rocky cliffs lookin down, scouting for other boats or possibly dangerous wildlife. Like I said, it was extremely organized! We didn’t see any dangerous sea creatures, but we did see a turtle and lots of fish. We even held onto a starfish and I saw a live conch on the bottom. I had the GoPro out, so we had fun shooting videos, which was a good test for our big shark dive and scuba diving trip for Saturday and Sunday.
When we returned to shore, we headed straight to the beach, and sure enough our wristbands got us just about anything we wanted on the bar menu. All inclusive was fantastic so we started off with some fruity rum drinks and headed down to the beach just in time to catch the first of quite a few encounters we would have with the local, friendly and well-cared for pigs. They had little feeding stations set up on the beach that they were trained to enjoy, but when the feeding stations were empty, they would take turns running out into the ocean where one of the trainers would have a bucket full of carrots or hotdogs or who-knows-what. The pigs would swim around the trainer, grab something tasty, and head back in to the shore. In fact, sometimes guests were allowed to hold sticks with chunks of apples on the end of the sticks.
Overall, the pig encounter was absolutely spectacular. They were obviously very well cared for and they were allowed to really behave how they wanted to behave. In fact, the large area that was their designated private area had no door, so if the pigs ever wanted to just wander out and enjoy the beach themselves, they were allowed to do that.
The day was a bit overcast, which actually made it nice. I’m sure it would’ve been blazing hot with the sunshine. At one point we did have a passing rain shower come through, but we got to know a few people and enjoyed the bar with new fruity drinks with wonderful names like Voodoo and Goomba Smash. Lunch was served at 1 o’clock and we had beef hotdogs, salad, pasta salad, grilled chicken and soft drinks or we could continue to enjoy the open bar on the beach.
There were shaded areas with hammocks and plenty of folding chairs too. After lunch, we went back down to the beach where we saw peacocks and had more encounters with the pigs. Eventually ,however, it was time to make our way back to the boat. We enjoyed a nice ride back to Nassau and our tour bus brought us right to our resort. Because the sun was still shining, we wanted to take advantage of some good snorkeling opportunities right here at the resort! After a quick stop at the condo, we headed back to the pool and hopped in the bay and did some snorkeling around the point. We were a little concerned about currents and the possibility of an encounter with a jet ski, so we really didn’t spend but about 15 minutes snorkeling. We did enjoy the pool and then headed back to the resort to get ready for dinner.
We had a couple of choices, but we decided on a gluten-free pizza over at the Sandy Point Resort area. Our intention was to go to the Twisted Lime restaurant, but it was odd because there was nobody there and when we mentioned gluten-free, we got the very odd response as if they had never heard the word gluten before — which is always unsettling to someone who requires gluten-free to be indeed gluten-free. The very nice hostess sent us just down the way to a place called Spritz’s Wine Bar, which was very packed loud and well attended. We sat in the dining room and quickly ordered a beer and a couple of pizzas.
It was a kind of place where there were lots of fans and open windows. Boats were passing outside and everybody was enjoying a Friday evening with wine and beer and cocktails. But the best surprise of all was just below the windows of the restaurant, which you could peer out — there were sea turtles that seemed to be congregating around the place and in fact, we also saw a very large barracuda and at one point a nurse shark actually entered into the picture and was swimming alongside four or five sea turtles. It was then that I noticed when I looked down at my feet that the boards we were standing on the floor of the restaurant were in fact just above the surface of the water. We could see the turquoise color of the water below us. It’s pretty cool place! The service was slow, but we expected that based on the reviews we had read, but the pizzas were excellent and the atmosphere was fun. After dinner we walked back to the condo, which was about a quarter mile away and at that point we were exhausted from the day of sun and water.
Tomorrow’s big adventure is the shark dive, but luckily we don’t have to be picked up until about noon so we have plenty of time to get the dive gear ready in the morning so we decided to just go to bed early. It was a wonderful day and I’m very grateful that the weather turned out to be better than originally forecasted. Things are looking up!