I’m basking in the Bahamian sun, collecting rays and passing time on the warm white sand.
It’s not long before I’m learning how to eat like a Bahamian. I’m craving for conch, peas and rice, and cold Kalik beer.
It’s not long after setting foot and spending time in the Bahamian city of Nassau when signs of great wealth and great poverty begin to stand out, with visitors pouring out of the enormous cruise ships and residents making ends meet with modest fishing boats and conch stands. Near Junkanoo Beach, this piece of art appears on the wall of an abandoned building surrounded by a chain-link fence. Who is represented in the mural? Who is caged in, behind the fence? The bahamas.com website? The city? The country? Her people?
I made the photo above on 3 May 2012 near Junkanoo Beach, known also as Western Esplanade Beach or Long Wharf. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com, and also appears on Travel Photo Thursday for Nancie McKinnon’s Budget Travelers Sandbox.
The sand is snow white and soft to the touch. The skies are deep blue, and soothing on the eyes. The water is welcoming: its colours shimmer between aquamarine and turquoise, the waves lapping gently against the smooth shoreline.
That’s just my imagination – it’s all in my mind, right?
It should be so easy on the senses, but it seems too much to believe in the convergence at the same time. It seems unreal, best left to dreams from within the confines of a landlocked town.
But I slowly wake, and I open my eyes.
Disorientation gives way slowly to observation.
I feel the warm breeze against my skin, the soft sand between my toes. I breathe deeply to smell the salt in the sea air. I hear small ocean waves roll and dissipate on the beach. I can’t get enough of blues and greens.
I’m committing this to memory.
It’s time. Please hand over that rum for a sip, time for another snooze in this hammock. Perhaps there’ll be time for a short dip in the sea, before I go looking for some conch salad …
