Nirvana in the Bahamas

When we headed out by jitney away from Nassau to find Nirvana at Love Beach, we simply wanted an uncrowded beach where we might wade out to snorkel around seeking colorful fish.

Julie and I always worry that perhaps we won't be welcomed by locals on public transportation that they depend on for commuting to jobs, but after breaking a five dollar bill by purchasing a $1.40 Diet Coke manufactured in the Bahamas at a convenience store, we had no problem getting seats.

The jitneys are small buses that line up across from Nassau's downtown Burger King and don't leave until they're 100% full, including seats that fold down in the aisles, so the commuters were apparently happy to have us join them so that they could be on their way sooner rather than waiting for a few stragglers.

You don't pay your $1.25 per person as you board.  The driver simply waived us past saying we could pay when we exited, like everyone else.  As far as I could tell, we were the only tourists on the bus, though one passenger who boarded downline did have a suitcase. The airport was a stop along the way.  That outbound traveler also seemed to be a Bahamian.

The drive took us past beaches, large hotels and neighborhoods ranging from working-class to elite homes.  We inadvertently eavesdropped on conversations among friends who ran into each other, so it was pretty much a standard bus ride until we got near Love Beach.

We had told our driver where we were going, which was an access point through Nirvana Beach Bar.

Some locals overheard, and when the driver drove beyond the access point, they spoke up to remind him that was the Nirvana at Love Beach.  He said he was just going to turn around.  I think perhaps the traffic had been too busy to turn across.

These jitneys are privately owned, and as such they aren't running on a specific schedule of stops.  They pull over when passengers tell them to do so or if they see someone flagging them down, even if there isn't an official bus stop there.  Perhaps he didn't think it safe to park on the wrong side of the road where there was no shoulder to exit or crosswalk, but in any case he swung back around and dropped us right at the sign for Nirvana Beach.

From there, we walked down through Nirvana Beach Bar and out to the beach that fronted gorgeous turquoise water.  We found a nice spot under a shady tree and began to settle in.  We figured we had locked in the perfect spot on a somewhat deserted beach, as planned.

Humorously, a multi-generational family of more than a dozen people who seemed to be vacationing from Latin America arrived within five minutes, followed by a Nirvana Beach Bar employee toting lounge chairs which he plopped down not ten feet from us.

Yes, this was the ideal spot, and he damn sure wasn't going to risk his tip by not providing it to his clients just because we had somehow selected the spot on our own moments earlier.  Good initiative on his part, but bad for us.

We moved over to the edge of the shade, which in a way was better because it allowed us to go back and forth between sun and shade very easily.

Soon, Julie headed out into the water with mask and snorkel to explore around the reefs.  While flippers are great for swimming, they're also heavy and bulky, so we don't generally bring them along.

As had been the case at CocoCay, the low tide made finding fish more of a challenge close to shore, and just as Julie was about to return frustrated to have only seen a few random fish, she spied a squid, which put a smile on her face as she came out of the water.

Rather than retracing her course, I decided to walk far enough down the beach to hopefully find a different eco-system.  The beach further over was actually a more ideal stretch of sunny beach, without the dead pine needles under the shade of trees, but these days, we like to have some respite from full sun at least available, whether natural shade from trees or an umbrella.

I went all the way to a white mansion perched on the oceanfront with the plan to swim back and find pockets of fish.  It worked.  The best spot was a living coral reef probably a hundred feet from the retaining walls built for that house.  I spent a considerable time there before swimming back.

I hoped to find more fish hotspots along the way, and there was one smaller living reef a little closer to where our towels marked our spot, but really that swim back was just exercise for the most part, an alternative to walking along the beautiful, warm water.

A unique feature we hadn't expected was that our ideal spot was directly beneath the flight path for planes arriving to Nassau Airport.  I enjoyed watching the planes come down.

When we go to a far-away beach, we never push our luck, heading back to the ship with plenty of time to spare just in case we have trouble catching local transportation.  We went up to the turn-out by the Nirvana Beach sign, hoping to waive down a jitney, assuming that perhaps the first one wouldn't stop and we would need to walk to an actual bus stop.

After a few minutes, the friendly entrepreneur in the first jitney to arrive did indeed see us and pulled across the road to pick us up.

Taking a cheerful jitney in Nassau proved to be an unexpected pleasure of sorts.

Back at the downtown Burger King stop, we walked past lots of delicious smells wafting from restaurants to have a very late lunch back on the ship.

Looking out at port cities like Nassau from poolside lounge chairs or an outdoor dining table on the ship's fantail is another pleasurable experience of cruising.

Of course, this being the Bahamas, James Bond adventures came to mind, but we didn't seek out any of his haunts, as some fans do.

I later learned from a video by one of those Bond fans that in "Thunderball," Love Beach actually was the set for a rather memorable scene.

Just because I didn't know I had been at a Bond beach scene by day doesn't mean that I could resist having a Martini while wearing my tuxedo on the ship.  Notice the shell cufflinks, which my son and daughter-in-law gifted me before their wedding in Bermuda.  Incidentally, Bermuda is another great destination easily accessed from the Eastern Seaboard.

When you take a cruise, you are creating your own unique adventures, likely not as thrilling as those of James Bond but certainly revitalizing, and no matter what Dr. Fauci may say, cruising is safer than staying home.

Don't miss your opportunity to live your life your way.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

In the afternoon, what looked like possible thunder clouds rolled in, but rain didn't follow, at least while we were there.  That was another motivating factor for returning to the ship for a very late lunch rather than dining at the funky seaside restaurant through which we entered Love Beach.