Travel Blog Exuma Bahamas

For my first travel blog I decided to dedicate it to one of the most beautiful places I have been to thus far Exuma Islands in the Bahamas. My husband and I went to Exuma as one of the stops we made on our honeymoon and it was so breathtaking I had to recommend going there to everyone I knew. We booked our Exuma power boat adventure from a brochure that we saw at our hotel and decided to go on the last day of our vacation, it was a bit costly at approximately $100 dollars per person but it turned out to be the highlight of our entire trip!
 note:

We found our brochure for the power boat adventure tour at our resort (Breezes Resort in Nassau) the prices I found online vary. I would suggest you ask at your resort.

Crystal waters of Exuma (from my camera)

We took a speed boat from Nassau to a private island in Exuma and when we pulled up to the island the view was breathtaking! The water was crystal clear (some of the clearest water on earth I’ve recently learned) the view was better than a postcard! And the pictures we took can attest to that.

The tour takes about 9 hours so your day has to be free to take part.
 The tour included:

-Full day trip from Nassau to Ship Channel Cay in the Exuma chain

-Powerboat cruise to Allen's Cay

- Buffet lunch and after you eat you can throw any left over’s into the water to feed the sharks and tropical fish that swim freely in the crystal water as you dine.

- A boat ride to iguana island (home to aprox 500 iguana’s) where you get a chance to feed them if you choose.

-Snorkeling (equipment provided)

-Time to enjoy the beach and swim

- A ride out into the water where you can get out of the boat and wade through the sand dune. If you can manage to carry your camera and not get it wet you can take some fantastic photos so that it looks like you are standing in the middle of the ocean with beautiful green hills and crystal water surrounding you!

- A guided nature trek of the island

- Pick up and drop off from your Nassau hotel.

Although this was the highlight of our Bahamas stay we also did a lot of other fun activities while in the Bahamas that I would recommend including:

-A visit to downtown Nassau to the Senior Frogs restaurant and bar

-Paradise Island Atlantis: If you are not staying at the Atlantis hotel you can always go to visit and take a guided tour. The resort is a tourist attraction it itself with great shops, restaurant and many lovely aquariums to visit. My friends that have been there also recommend the night club located close to the casino.

-The Straw Market downtown Nassau: This is a must for anyone who wants to get some great deals on souvenirs and a lot of nice purses and accessories for the ladies!



Atlantis resort (from my camera)

-Luciano’s of Chicago restaurant: This restaurant it beautiful, in fact a friend of mine attended a wedding at this restaurant! Not only is the ambiance spectacular but the food is great and if you sit outside on the patio there is a beautiful view of the Atlantis resort across the water. (If you do go try the rum and raisin bread pudding! It is yummy!)

Cable Beach

-Cable Beach: This beach is great for relaxing, swimming, and water sports. You can stay at a resort that has access directly to this beach.

-Conch: conch is one of the main dishes in Nassau, it can be found almost everywhere you go and cooked in many different ways. I detest sea food but I thought “ah well when in Rome” or in this case the Bahamas do as the locals do and try something out of my comfort zone. I had the conch salad and actually liked it enough to finish it.

Downfall:

The only downfall I found in travelling through Nassau was the solicitors trying to get you to go to time share meetings. Everywhere we turned even on the beach of our resort there were people surrounding us like vultures to try and get us go to their presentations. They offer you incentives such as money, and you will find these people everywhere you go! Some that we encountered were disguised as tour guides and security guards. It is up to you if you would like to attend but we found that having to constantly duck these persistent people who sometimes follow you along the street even after you say no is something that the government should look to correct for the sake of tourism.


Feeding the sharks (from my camera)

Iguana island (From my camera)

Snorkeling boat (from my camera)

                                                    

The King's Speech

Hi everyone, my first blog is going to be based on a movie that saw recently called The King’s Speech.

Movie Info:

Release date: Friday December 10. 1010,

Tuesday April 19^th 2011 (on DVD)

Genre: Drama

Running Time: 118 min.

Director: Tom Hooper

Producer: Lain Canning, Gareth Unwin, Emile Sherman

Screenplay: Davis Seidler

Cast: Colin Firth, Geoffery Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Ehle, Derel Jacobi

Synopsis:

Based on the true story of the Queen of England's father, King George VI (Colin Firth), who unexpectedly becomes King when his brother Edward abdicates the throne. Speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) helps the King find a voice with which to lead the nation into war. [Tribute.ca]

My review:

I have to admit the previews for this movie looked rather dull to me even though the media hyped it up and repeatedly mentioned that this film is a major contender at the Golden Globes. So today despite my first impressions I buckled down and watched it. Unfortunately for me my first impression proved to be correct. This movie was dull, boring and bland. It lacked a strong engrossing story line that could keep my attention and instead settled for being simple, straight forward and void of climax. Simply put it was about a king with a speech impediment who befriended his speech therapist; that was all there was to it, any other attempts to develop supporting story lines failed to captivate my interest.

Although I didn’t think the story line was fantastic and Oscar worthy I did appreciate the acting and the strong portrayals of the characters. Helena Bonham Carter seemed born to play the role of the queen; she exuded regal sophistication and the grace one would expect a queen to exhibit.

Colin Firth was also brilliant in his role as King George VI and Geofffery Rush was funny and fast witted. It may win a lot of awards but movies are very subjective so if you want to see what all the hype is about watch it and make your own assessment. J  I rate it 2 stars out of a possible five.