Nassau - Day 8 (Andros Trip)

So on Tuesday we made our way to the small Andros Town airport. We boarded the small commuter turbo-prop and flew back to Nassau at 4:30p. After the "long wait" for luggage (less than 5-minutes from landing) we got our luggage and grabbed a cab to Paradise Island.

Our cab driver, Phillip, was very friendly and knowledgeable, and provided a thorough driving tour on our way across the island. It's about a 30-minute ride from the airport to Paradise island. We had a chance to see Cable Beach and Bay Street, two of the main tourist draws in this area. He pointed out Eddie Murphy's private island, the church where Anna Nicole Smith's funeral was held, (and the hospital where her baby girl was born on the return cab ride) and suggested a number of restaurants along the way. We scheduled to have him pick us up for the return trip on Wednesday at 1:00p, and he even arrived 10 minutes early!

We checked in at the Comfort Suites on Paradise Island around 5:30p. It is immediately adjacent to the Atlantis resort, and they provide their guests with a ID card to gain full access to Atlantis. This was a much better way to go, since it was almost half of the price of the cheapest Atlantis room.

Since we still had a bit of daylight, we went over to Atlantis to see some of the aquarium features. Huge doesn't really capture the size of Atlantis... and they are STILL BUILDING! 4 more towers are planned, adding to the two older towers and two gigantic new towers that already exist. They employ 8500 people now, and each tower probably adds another 1000 jobs to the area.

We started our tour in the marina, where you can dock your $20,000,000 yacht right next the the casino and luxury shopping. We made our way through the casino and to the Predator Tank. They had some great fish in this exhibit that you could view from above, or through a dark tunnel that enhanced the eerie atmosphere of observing some of the largest predators in the ocean. They had Goliath Grouper, Barracuda, several specials of Shark, and even Octopus (in it's own small tank). This was a fascinating exhibit, and given more time here we would have planned to observe one of the feedings.

We made our way through the resort to check out the second large marine tank. On the way we passed "lagoons" that had schools of cownose rays, 10 ft hammerhead sharks swimming in the shallows, stingrays, and even a pool with several large Spotted Eagle Rays. Underground at the base of one of the towers is a piece tourist propoganda referred to as "The Dig". This is supposedly the site they uncovered during construction that is the ruins of Atlantis. They have artifacts including alien looking diving suites, and even their own souvenir store. It's a fun story that the kids really got into... and believe us, there were a LOT of kids running around.

Throughout the Dig, they have included several small tanks with marine critters, such as Spiny Lobster, Green Moray Eels, Jellyfish, Seahorses, and Grouper. The tanks are consistent with the theme as most include artifacts from Atlantis. However, the main feature of the dig running thought the tunnel system is a series of large viewing windows into the primary marine tank. They had large schools of Jacks (Bar, Black, Crevalle, Horse-eye), various large Grouper and Snapper, Stingrays, Angelfish, Grunts, Spotted Eagle Rays, Guitarfish... the list goes on.

However, the premier tank guests were three Giant Manta. There were two smaller Manta with an estimated 6 foot wingspan, and one large male over 10 foot tip to tip! Once he reaches 14 foot the will release him back to the ocean, as they can reach up to 29 foot in the wild. These are amazing creatures that are graceful to watch as they circled the tank. They were definitely worth the effort to come and see!

After our tour, we headed bank to our hotel and went out to dinner at Anthony's Grill, which is just across the street. The food was good; we had cold conch salad as an appetizer and a mixed seafood for our main entrees. After dinner, we went back to the room for an early nights sleep so we could get an early start to see the rest of Atlantis.

After grabbing a bite at the continental breakfast in the morning, we left our luggage at security and headed back to Atlantis. We visited the remaining lagoons we did not see on Tuesday. We saw Sea Turtles, Bonnethead Sharks, Nurse Sharks, Rays, Starfish, and a painfully slow race between two conch. We toured the Predator and Manta tanks and took some photos along the way to capture the resort.

We grabbed a bite to eat in the marina, then headed back to the Hotel to gather out luggage and meet Phillip for our ride back to the Airport. The great thing about flying back out of the Bahamas is that you clear US Customs at the Nassau airport, so when you hit the ground you just grab you luggage and go. We had no issues, and made it home by 7:00p.

The cats were attention starved when we arrived; we got the Dogs the next day at lunch. Everyone is OK and it's nice to be home... but we do miss the lazy dive days on Andros!