March 7, 2013
Yesterday we rented a car for another day and traveled north. Our objectives were to get our immigration stay extended and to see the north end of the Long Island.
We failed to get an extension on our immigration stay. We were 13 days from the end of our current permitted stay and the official at Stella Maris airport insisted he could only extend it on the day it expired or at most the day before. We were told in Georgetown that they could extend within 2 weeks by calling Georgetown. When I relayed what we were told, the officer said “ I have never done that”. Dealing with immigration is one of the most frustrating aspects of cruising in the Bahamas. The requirement to appear on the expiration day is a real burden to people like us traveling by boat who are subject to wind and weather. Our current plans are to return to Georgetown and get an extension there.
We visited the Columbus Monument at Cape Santa Maria, the northern end of the island. Long Island is regarded as Columbus’ third stop in the New World. As we have come to expect, the road to the site was long and very rough. In deference to our Dodge Caravan (an ‘awesome’ off-road vehicle) we parked about a ½ mile from the monument and walked the rest of the way. Ironically, after the very rocky section just past where we parked the road was much smoother.
The monument impressively sits high on a point overlooking the Cape. The views in different directions are strikingly different:
 |
| Ocean-side |
 |
| Beautiful white sand flats |
 |
| Salt Pond to the south |
We found it interesting, that the monument is primarily dedicated to the Lucayans, the indigenous people of the island. Between the diseases that the Europeans brought and brutal slavery, the Lucayans were virtually extinct in a short period of time. Very sad and oft repeated story.
We then visited Cape Santa Marina Resort http://www.capesantamaria.com/. The whole Cape area has beautiful white sand and the beach at the resort is gorgeous. It regularly appears in the those lists of ‘Top Beaches’ and graced the cover of a recent edition of Frommer’s Guide to the Bahamas.
Lastly we visited the ruins of the Adderly Planation, another failed Bahamian agricultural project. Again the road to the site was rough and the site poorly marked. We would have never found the ruins if not for the advice of another cruiser who advised to turn right and walk down the beach where you will find an unmarked path; in all honesty although it had no sign, it did have a few conch shells marking the start of the path. As with most of the ‘ruins’ that we have seen, they are overgrown and crumbling and will not be much to see in a few years; historic preservation is not a priority in a third-world country. Joyce says she has seen enough ruins for the trip.
When we returned to Thompson Bay, a west wind had picked up in late afternoon and we had a very lively and wet dinghy ride back to the boat.
Tom
Anchored Thompson Bay
Long Island, Bahamas
No comments:
Post a Comment