Bahamas

I was hoping to do 'Explorers Week' next week, but we're somewhat unexpectedly 

 headed to Ohio. That's going to have to go on the back burner, either for a couple of weeks- or maybe longer (we also booked our flight to San Diego, so we're going to be there in early November). 

But anyway, Columbus Day was going to coinside with Explorers Week, but that got tricky with scheduling. We had planned on doing Hati that day, but we're going to leave that with Explorers week, and so we decided to do the Bahamas for Columbus Day. After all, he landed there first, we think anyway, documentation from 1492 is only *so* reliable. 

History tells us he probably landed on Watling Island or maybe Guanahani- but either way, in the Bahamas  on October 12, 1942. I think most of us know now, Columbus wasn't exactly the hero our-elementary-school-selves- once hailed him to be.  But that is best saved for our lessons during explorers week. 

Columbus Day was known as Discovery Day in Bahamas, to celebrate the day their land was 'discovered', but since their people were taken advantage of and killed, they decided to go ahead and change that in 2012. Today, the Bahamas celebrates 'National Heroes Day' on the second Monday in October. 

The Bahamas are one of those countries where I'm not so sure we have to cover super indepth. It's only 50 miles off the coast of Miami, Florida, so I'm like.. well, the Bahamas... it's basically Florida, guys. I had held out hope we'd cover it by taking a fun trip there, but that's just not going to work out. So, we ended up doing the Bahamas on a Monday when we had a lot of other stuff going on. 

But, it got it's due. There's 3,100 islands and cays that make up the Bahamas. Some inhabited a local paradise, some touristy (hello, Atlantis!) and a vacationers paradise, some no bigger than some limestone jutting out from the surrounding water. If you visited an island a day, it'd take you over 8 years to get through them all. 

So it's fitting that our landmark is a beach. Harbour Island is famous for its pink sand beaches, that are found all along the east side of the island. The pink comes from foraminifera, the microscopic organism that has a reddish-pink shell. 

Speaking of pink, lets talk two pink animals: flamingos and pigs. 

The 'Vacationing' suggestion on the country sheet was super easy for me on this one. If there is one thing I could do in the Bahamas it would be to swim with the feral pigs. It's the 'Official Home of the Swimming Pig', after all. Travel and Leisure has a great article about swimming with the pigs, and every single picture just makes me want to do it more. For real, I don't have a ton on my bucket list as of late, but this is one I REALLY want to do. Someday Peyton will be able to get a passport again, and then we're totally there. 

Then there's the flamingos, the national bird of the Bahamas. I'd love to see Flamingos in the wild (it's possible, but not probable to see them right here in my home state if we just headed to the Everglades). They are much more easily spotted on Inagua Island in the Bahamas. There, at times, you can see roughly 80,000 flamingos in one go! Inagua Island is home to the largest breeding colony of flamingos in the world. 

It's also worth noting the Bahamas are known for their 'tame sharks'. In Compass Cay, you can swim with the docile nurse sharks. It's just 10 bucks! And, I mean, only one person on trip advisor said one bit them, so that's good right?

Another couple of fun Bahamas facts for you: 

It's snowed there ONCE, on January 19th, 1977. It's the only time in recorded history the Bahamas has had any snowfall. 

The famous pirate Blackbeard sailed the Bahamas.

The name, Bahamas comes from the Spanish 'Baja Mar', meaning 'shallow seas'. 

The highest point in the Bahamas is Como Hill, at 206 feet above sea level. A monastary sits at the top. 

Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas was the deepest blue hole in the world, at 662 feet (not to be confused with the largest Blue Hole in Belize). However, just last year a new hole was discovered in the South China Sea (at 978 feet deep). 

It's also known for it's underwater caves. These caves were once above water (you know, rising sea levels for hundreds of years will do that), and were formed by acidic rain. The longest known underwater cave system is in the Bahamas at Lucayan National Park, on Grand Bahama Island.

The boys made their postcards. 

Calib's featured the wahoo fish. The silver fish grow up to 8 feet long and have super sharp teeth. 

Peyton's featured the pink sand beach with flamingos. 

And Hayden's including golfing, and Blackbeard. It's also worth noting Hayden included the most popular form of music in the Bahamas: rake n scrape. It consists of instruments made out of saws, hammers, cans... basically anything you can bang or scratch loudly. Usually lost in my blogs is that we try and remember to put on music from the countries were on during dinner. Rake N Scrape was the choice for the Bahamas. 

While Conch is the most widely eaten Bahamian food- be it fried, grilled, or raw, we've had enough experience with conch to know the boys are not big fans. But, the Bahamas is one of those places where I didn't have any trouble finding an abundance of recipes! 

For dinner we had Banana Bread, Bahamian Peas and Rice  , Bahamian Jerk Shrimp, and Pineapple.

This dinner earned five spoons up.

A couple of recipe notes: yes, I know that Banana Bread recipe technically days 'Jamaican' , but it's close. We did skip the coconut, because as much as I've tried with this project, I just can't get some people to like it. The peas and rice we used actual peas, because I had forgotten to pick up pigeon peas (which are beans, not veggies) at the store. But, I'm just getting the family's veggies in. Oh, and the shrimp, we skipped the beer in favor of veggie stock.

But, really, it was all delicious. That bread was more of a dessert, so I'm warning you now, in case your kids want seconds... or thirds... as mine did.

Even Hayden ate the rice, and he isn't usually a rice fan, and Peyton ate the shrimp, and he's not usually a shrimp fan. It was like some kind of miracle!

Oh, and for the adults there was Goombay Smash, a rum punch that's one of the most famous drinks in the Bahamas. 

We added some pink dots for the Bahamas islands right off the coast of Florida. 

That's 132 down, 64 to go! 

Up Next: Uzbekistan