This was the first island we went to, and we headed there the day after we boarded the ship. Pulling up to the island, we didn't think that it looked like anything special. It looked small and kind of woodsy, but we were still just excited to be getting to our first destination.
However, once I got off the little shuttle boat that brought us from the cruise ship to the island, my mind was literally blown. The sand was completely white and you could see directly to the very bottom of the ocean. It was clearer than bath water. However, instead of just going to the beach, we decided to try and find an area a little more secluded on the other side of the island to get away from the noise and families and humans - gotta hate them. So, we took off on the "nature hike" path, and managed after what felt like 16 hours to find a little lagoon. My inner 5 year old felt a need to frolick in the water, so I went in to about my waist, which was about 20, 25 feet out from the shore. I found a white plate in the water.... classy. So, after like 5 minutes of playing in the water by myself, I decided to head back to the sand and my towel and get my tan on.
About ten minutes after laying out and enjoying the quiet of the lagoon, the organized nature hike excursion group came walking right up to our lagoon. At first I wasn't paying attention cause I was jammin out to some CCR, but then I took out one headphone thinking I could maybe learn a cool fun fact from the tour guide. However, right as I pull out my headphone nonchalantly so that no one would see me, I hear the tour guide talking about how this lagoon was prime breeding ground for sharks, stingrays, and baracudas, and that they're the only frequenters of the area. She then continued to state very loudly - NO ONE GO SWIMMING HERE. This is the first time on the cruise that I avoided Steve Irwin's fate. As I tried to stifle back my chuckles, the group carried on to the next stop.
After this, we basically peaced out after five minutes. We decided to climb a little hill to see the ruins at the top - by "ruins", I think of huge castles. Not quite what my company thought, though. They get excited if they see two bricks sitting next to each other, looking as if they may have once been part of a building. Our ideas of "ruins" are quite different. At the top, naturally, I was underwhelmed since the ruins were literally just ruins and big piles of brick things. The only thing that I found amusing was that I got pricked by a cactus - three times. If you ever would have told me that I'd one day get pricked by a cactus in the Bahamas, I would have called you a liar. There's the one thing interesting I learned that day - cactuses extend beyond Arizona.
My favorite part of the day was getting to the real beach and having a legit frolick session in the water. I was so amused by the fact that you can see to the very bottom of the water. I really felt like I was in the pool - the only differences were a) the bottom was sand, not concrete, and b) it is much harder to do handstands due to the currents. The neatest part was that you could see our cruise ship just a little ways away in the middle of the bright blue ocean, which was real cool. The water was so warm and I was so compeltely content with my life on the beach. The only thing that have could have topped it was Carnival Cruiselines telling me that they built me a little shack on the ocean and that I could stay there forever. Hands down, an awesome way to start the trip, and easily the most beautiful thing my eyes have been lucky enough to see.
