NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS -- "Expulsis Piratis/Restituta Commercia."
It means "Piracy Expelled, Commerce Restored," and it remained the national motto of the Bahamas until the islands got independence from Britain in 1973.
There have been no pirates in the Caribbean waters around here for quite some time, save for Johnny Depp, two of whose buccaneer movies have been filmed here. But the fact the motto survived so long shows how closely Bahamians are connected to their past -- history and culture. There are lots of both here and they are everywhere. This is not Cancun.
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Be careful, Depp. A boatload of your forebears had rather nasty vacation experiences in The Bahamas some years ago.
Edward Teach, for one. Nobody can say Eddy, a.k.a. Blackbeard, didn't know how to have fun in the sun. He and hundreds of other pirates all but set up a buccaneers republic in the islands here, based out of Fort Nassau and ambushing British and other ships. Probably drank a bit of rum and danced with the ladies, too.
Enter Woodes Rogers, definitely not a fun guy. He arrived in 1717, the first British governor of the islands, and he didn't come here to booze and cruise. Blackbeard and nine other bad guys refused to make nice with the new sheriff, so Rogers' forces tracked them down off Virginia in 1718. After Blackbeard stupidly ran aground on a sandbar, he saluted his enemy with rum, fought like a demon and eventually was beheaded. Rogers hanged the others. No doubt travel agents, if there were such people then, were happy to report all was headed in the right direction in this would-be vacation wonderland.
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I'm feeling like a pirate myself, right now. I've hoisted my Jolly Roger at the Sheraton Cable Beach Resort (about 700 guest rooms in a U-shaped design around seven acres of tropical waterscape) on West Bay Street, 15 minutes from the airport and 15 minutes from Nassau. I'm seven floors up in a hotel, where just about every room has a sliding door to a good-sized balcony with an expansive view of the ocean and a bunch of pools and waterfalls, and 1,000 feet of white sandy beach. Out at sea, a towering white cruise ship leaves our waters and in the distance, another approaches.
I'd heard stories about sun seekers hitting the pool and beach areas real early in the day to claim a lounger before all were taken. That won't be a concern at the Cable Beach resorts. At the Sheraton alone, I'm looking down on about 1,400 of them around the pools and on the beach.
The Sheraton was celebrating its official grand opening, but it was more of a reopening. It had been a Radisson-run property, owned by the Bahamian government. A group called Baha Mar Resorts Ltd. (it means shallow sea) bought the Radisson and the towers of the Wyndham Nassau Resort next door, including the 35,000-square-foot Crystal Palace Casino, with 3,500 Vegas-style gaming machines and tables.
The former Radisson, I'm told, was looking a little tired. So Baha Mar gutted all eight storeys in both wings, right down to the concrete. They spent almost $100 million to renovate and hurricane-proof (to Dade County specs) their new property under the Sheraton name. Everything in every room is new. Everything in the building is new.
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The most fun I had in The Bahamas? A round at the Cable Beach Golf Club, five minutes from the resort, was a joy. But I best liked touring Nassau in an escorted group. Nassau is on New Providence Island, one of 700 in The Bahamas archipelago (only 30 are inhabited) and it has a population of about 100,000. It is entirely reliant on tourism.
You can do Nassau on your own but with a knowledgeable tour guide, you'll learn so much more about the history.
Like Fort Fincastle, built by Lord Dunmore, the governor, in 1793 when the islands feared a French invasion. The fort is in Nassau, overlooking the harbour and was designed to resemble a huge frigate from the sea, for two reasons. The sight of what appeared to be a great fighting ship might discourage the cautious from attacking. Better yet, it might lure in the foolish, to be blown to pieces by red-hot heavy rounds from the fort's battery, as described by Dunmore in 1794: "two 24-pounders, two 32- pounder carronades, two 12-pounders, and one Howitzer." (In centuries past, Bahamians made a good living by luring ships to landings where they would crash on rocks and reefs, thereby providing all form and manner of goods for salvagers, who were licensed by authorities to carry out their trickery).
Don't miss the Queen's Staircase that leads from Fort Fincastle to a nearby shoreline. It's a passage carved out of rock, an escape route to an awaiting ship if the fort was overrun. It took thousands of slaves most of a decade to carve the giant gorge. I can't imagine how many must have died digging it. It was named for Queen Victoria after she declared emancipation of the islands' slaves in the 1830s.
Nassau is a city that simply bustles. Its building are colourful (Bahamians love colour) and generally only two to three storeys high. Traffic is heavy, but moves easily through narrow streets. Even horse-drawn carriages get about nicely.
My tour stopped at two markets. About 700 Bahamians sell all manner of traditional crafts and clothing (three T-shirts for $10) at the Straw Market, located opposite the harbour where as many as six cruise ships can tie up and turn loose thousands of shoppers. Haggle for everything (offer to purchase two, with half-price on the second. It usually works.)
If you're looking for high-end jewelry, Nassau is the place. Every second store on the main street downtown sells it -- duty free and no luxury taxes.
Jitneys -- 28-seater buses -- are a great way to get in and out of the city if you're on you own. They're clean and safe, run about every 10 minutes on main streets and a ride is just US$1. (Curiously, most riders pay when they get off, not on. I never did figure that out).
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If your pockets are really deep, you might visit the historic Graycliff hotel, restaurant and cigar factory (it has a spa/gym as well, and a pool) in downtown Nassau. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous has rated the restaurant one of the world's 10 best and it's the only five-star restaurant in The Bahamas and the Caribbean region.
Its humidor boasts the world's best cigars. Its wine cellar is the third-biggest private collection in the world, with more than 250,000 bottles. Want a bottle of nice courvoissier for your table? That'll be about $35,000 please.
Graycliff was build as a mansion in the 1740s by a privateer whose ship was scuttled off New Providence.
The executive chef will be happy to create a meal for you and seven guests for about $2,000, not including booze.
A certain major league pitcher dined there just before his appearance on 60 Minutes, where he denied using steroids and other juice. There were questions after he left about whether he asked for large doses of Vitamin B in his dinner.
It's not Graycliff, but a trip to Nassau wouldn't be complete without a meal at the Big 10 Fish Fry, a grouping of non-descript older buildings on West Bay Street housing eateries whose specialties come from the sea. "If you want it any fresher,'' states a sign at one, "go catch it yourself."
I sat on a second-floor veranda and enjoyed breaded, deep-fried conch (first time), lobster, shrimp with a mountain of spicy, dark rice and a great creamy coleslaw, with beer (two for $5). Total cost was $39. I'll be a conch lover forever.
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The premiere tourist destination near Nassau right now is Paradise Island -- hotels, casino and water adventures. The Baha Mar resort group has plans to change that by 2012.
They and Harroh's from Las Vegas (with a 47 per cent investment) plan to spend $2.6 billion on a project on about 1,000 acres across the Cable Beach strip. It will include about five more hotels (mostly high-end, but with different services and rates) between 22 and 26 restaurants, a massive casino (the licence will be transferred from the Wyndham) and a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. It will feature a huge water-wall and world-class spa, all connected by a series of waterways. The goal is to make it pedestrian-friendly and to keep it in the colonial style of The Bahamas. Once up and running, it will create 7,000 new jobs.
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