This was the day we’d been anticipating — our shark diving experience day! However, we woke up to a really gloomy skies. Our pick up wasn’t until noon, so we slept in a little bit, hoping for the best. We had a nice breakfast and did some reading and relaxing here on property, but we kept thinking this is not the kind of day to be out on a boat. The skies were black and the thunder was rumbling. The water outside our condo was choppy and splashing up onto the rocky shore. I tried calling the dive shop, but no one picked up. Eventually — just a few minutes before we needed to head out the door to wait for the shuttle bus, we got the call that the dive had been canceled. Luckily we were rebooked for Monday (they don’t do shark dives on Sunday) so we were really only worried because we’ve learned that we should not be diving within 24 hours of our flight — something to do with decompression sickness.
We took the reservation for Monday with hopes that we could do it and then immediately started researching on the Padi and Naui websites for protocols regarding flying after diving. We figured out that we are going to be flying about 22 to 23 hours after our last dive and Padi recommends 18. I think most instructors say 24 because it’s easy to remember! So……we’re gonna go ahead with that plan. Which means, we were left with what to do for the rest of the day today.
It was about 11:30am at this point and we knew we couldn’t just sit around — and it did appear as if the weather was going to actually improve later in the afternoon. So, we decided to go downtown. Because we didn’t have a rental car, we were excited to try taking the local buses we’ve been noticing for the past couple of days. The number 10 and the number 12 seem to run along the main road that travels along the northern edge of the island back-and-forth to downtown Nassau. We decided we needed some local currency or at least some small bills to be able to pay. I had read that you’re supposed to pay with the exact change and the bus is typically about $1.50 per person, so we walked a short distance and found a local pharmacy where we could buy a few things and break the larger bill that I had.
While we were at it, we were going to ask the lady which buses make it all the way to downtown. I should say this, though, before we reach the pharmacy there was a number 10 bus just sitting at the bus stop. I thought he was waiting for us, but as we approached, it seemed like he was just taking a break. They seem to be privately owned city buses, and each owner/driver can kind of do with it what they want. They can write messages on the bus, they can play their favorite music (sometimes quite loud), and perhaps they just get to keep the fairs for themselves. Maybe that’s the way the system works. I knocked on the door and as he opened it, the entire inside of the bus smelled like marijuana and the driver and his girlfriend appeared to be enjoying a lunch together up to the front seat — just eating something out of a Styrofoam container. I asked them if the number 10 would go all the way to downtown to the straw market and he seemed to suggest that the answer was no. So I asked if the number 12 would go all the way downtown, but they also seemed to suggest the number 12 would not work. The girlfriend suggested the number two, which was strange because I had not seen a number two anywhere!
Back at the pharmacy, I asked what buses would take me all the way downtown and she told me the 10 or the 12! So I’m not sure if that driver was just playing a funny game or if they didn’t understand. Anyway, after we left the pharmacy, we noticed that there were there was a mom and daughter across the street on the right side of the road (technically the left side of the road) waiting for a bus, so we asked them in English “are you waiting for a bus?” and they said yes. So we decided to wait with them. We quickly realized that they were speaking German and as we entered the bus together, I sat behind the mother and daughter.
The bus ride was hilarious. He was playing the loudest reggae music with sometimes pretty offensive lyrics. Even more absurdly, it was the same bus driver that we had asked questions of earlier!! About halfway down the road I started to worry because I noticed that as everybody got on the bus, nobody paid their fare. At this point nobody had gotten, off so I asked the Germans (in German of course), when does someone pay? I found out that in fact it’s true that after you’ve called for the bus to stop, as you depart you reach forward and hand the driver your fare. For future reference, I did see him make change for a couple people, but most of the time people paid him with exact amounts or were expecting no change. We decided to just stay on the bus until we got to the cruise ship area, figuring that’s where all the touristy places would be and that’s when our German mother and daughter got off the bus as well! I thanked them for their help and they wished us good luck and we parted ways.
As we hoped, we were right at the foot of the straw market in the shadow of the looming cruise ships. It’s actually a beautiful port and the water that surrounds it is full of people getting on excursions — whether they’d be speed boats or fishing trips or snorkel trips. And of course the sun was shining now and the water was aqua blue and enticing. We went up into the straw market and it was very, very tight with lots of things that were handcrafted and lots that looked like they were straight from Temu. At every little booth an owner was talking to you and trying to get you to buy something, which wasn’t exactly very comfortable for us.
We also went into a nearby souvenir shop and ended up buying two for $20 baseball hat and visor before stumbling out onto what seemed to be the main street. And lo and behold there was a little jewelry shop called Little Switzerland, which happens to be a store Tara had researched. Because of her familiarity with it, we decided to pop in and sure enough we found some beautiful rings that we thought would be a nice way to commemorate our 30th anniversary. Of course we had to figure out which ring and which finger and all of that, so we decided to take a break before we made any decisions to buy and went across the street to have a beer and some french fries at Shenanigans (an Irish bar) perched on the second floor overlooking the street with all of the cruise ship passengers walking back-and-forth.
We did a quick little search and survey of other jewelry stores but actually couldn’t find anything near as nice or priced as well as what we had already had our eyes set on, so we went back. Tabatha, our wonderful sales person, was happy to see us come back and Tara ended up with a beautiful seven stone ring. We took the bus home, which was right outside the jewelry shop. There was a place where all the buses queue up before they head back the other direction, so we found ourselves on the number 10 and watched as every seat slowly filled up. It was nice to be sitting in the air-conditioning and we didn’t mind. We made our way all the way back home and decided it was time for dinner, but we weren’t exactly sure what we were hungry for.
We were hemming and hawing between some nicer restaurants, the Wendy’s for a nice easy hamburger and frosty, or the Marco’s pizza, which is a bit of a chain that I’ve seen in America, but seems to be very popular here. We ended up going to Marco’s Pizza thinking that we would get a large pizza with enough for some leftovers for the next couple of days, we also ran across the street to Wendy’s afterwards for a frosty. Funny story though, as we were sitting there enjoying our Marco’s pizza in their dining room, the German mother and daughter passed by us and waved to us through the glass. We ended up walking the mile or so back to the condo, watching a couple of old episodes of The Middle, and talking on the phone with the kids for a little bit.
Even though we didn’t get the shark dive, it looks like our regular dives scheduled for Sunday we’re set to go and they’ll pick up for that was at 7:30 in the morning so with our dive bags already packed and ready to go we decided we needed to get to bed early so that we could wake up refreshed and ready to go for our morning dive trip.