Nassau, Bahamas (Ardastra Gardens and Conservation Center)

We left Chub Cay and cruised to Nassau on Tuesday January 7th.  Our friends Russ and Michele had to go back home to Ocracoke, and Nassau has a decent sized airport.  They left us on Wednesday to go home.  We are so glad that they came to stay with us and hope they will do it again.  We are also excited to spend time with them in Ocracoke in May.

Entering Nassau Harbor from the Western side

The way most of the supplies are distributed to the many out islands of the Bahamas

Nassau is the capital city and commercial center of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.  It is located on New Providence Island and has a population of 274,400 people as of 2016.  This accounts for just over 70% of the population of the entire country.  Nassau's modern growth began in the late 1700's when thousands of  "Loyalists" and their slaves came to New Providence Island from the new United States after the War of Independence.  In addition, after the British abolished the international slave trade in 1807, thousands of liberated Africans from slave ships of the Royal Navy were resettled here.  A large portion of the population of Nassau are descendants of these people. 

The city has its pluses and minuses.  It reminds me somewhat of a misshapen pearl, with areas that are certainly nice to see as a tourist; however, there is a substantial crime problem and rundown areas.  We are docked conveniently with a very nice grocery store and large shopping center just across the street.  There are numerous security guards stationed all over the shopping complex and you have to be buzzed both in and out of the locked store fronts.  We are taking reasonable precautions while here in Nassau.

Atlantis Resort is likely the best known attraction in Nassau.  This resort is located just across the harbor from Nassau proper on its own small island called Paradise Island.  The resort is enormous and is the second largest employer in the country next to the Bahamian Government.

Atlantis Resort

Since the wind was high for days, and we were stuck waiting patiently in Nassau; we tried exploring the city a bit.  This was a little easier said than done.  As I mentioned before, it may not be the best place to just up and walk anywhere, so we asked about getting transportation to the zoo near downtown.  The dock office personnel advised us to catch the bus, but after waiting quite some time with no bus in sight; we were offered a ride by a local woman who saw us standing on the street corner.  She took us across town and dropped us right at our destination.  She confirmed that there is quite a lot of riff-raff around and was very kind to give us a ride.  

Ardastra Gardens and Conservation Center was started in 1937 by Jamaican horticulturalist Hedley Edwards.  It is approximately 4 miles of tropical gardens and animals.  One of its most famous residents are the national bird of the Bahamas, the Caribbean flamingo.  Edwards brought the endangered bird from the island of Inagua (one of the southern-most in the Bahamas) in the 1950's and developed a successful breeding program here in Nassau.  Over the years some of the birds were trained to perform for visitors and today the marching flamingos are a hit at the zoo.  The gardens were purchased in 1980 by Norman Solomon who turned the gardens into a boutique zoo by adding several additional species of animals.  There are multiple bird species and several reptiles including the Bahamian Boa (yes there are boa constrictors here in the islands).  This is not like a zoo in the US.  It was quite interesting to see.

The marching flamingos of Ardastra Zoo

Here they come

Here some are in their enclosure, the marching ones are loose in the zoo to walk among the visitors. 

 Here are some fun flamingo facts (say that 5 times fast).  The Caribbean flamingo is the largest of the flamingo species.  They get there name from the Portuguese term meaning "red goose".  They are not pink when first hatched, rather obtain their pink color from consuming carotinoid pigments in their diet.  Flamingos feed with their bills upside down in the water, filtering microorganisms, algae and diatoms from the water using special adapters in the top half of their bill.  It is estimated that Caribbean flamingos can live to be 30-40 years.

There were sleeping owls

Kestrels

And Iguanas

The other exciting animal we got to interact with was the zoo's Rainbow Lories.  This colorful and energetic bird is from Australia.  The zoo had several that are in an enclosure that we were allowed to enter and feed them pieces of apple.

Feeding the Rainbow Lories

This one is getting fresh with my number one guy

It was certainly an interesting visit.  As I said, this zoo is not like any in the US.  The animal species were limited and the grounds maintained with a minimum of funds, but I am still happy we explored this spot.

View of some of the enclosures

I guess these are some low cost plant pots, go figure (?)  Would have been even funnier if one of the animals was on top of one of these.

The wind is not predicted to calm down until early next week, so we will need to entertain ourselves for a few more days here in Nassau.  Stay tuned.