An
article I wrote for the online magazine Tropi-ties last year.
Majors
Electronics
Tarpum
Bay
Queens
Highway
Eleuthera
Bahamas
Phone
12423344076
Fax
12423344076
I am
about to describe a travel situation that is not for everyone but for those who
love finding a second home in a travel
experience it is ideal.
I live
in beautiful Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera Bahamas. Tarpum Bay is a tropical, friendly
waterfront Out Island community in the Bahama islands. We are somewhat remote
but accessible by a few major airlines originating out of Miami and other US
cities especially the flag carrier of the Bahamas, Bahamasair. We are located
120 miles east of Miami and 60 miles east of Nassau. We have regular mailboat
service weekly by which many people are choosing more and more because of its
low cost and unique charm. We are frequented by passing sailboats and yatchs
traveling and looking for picturesque ports and charming villages in which they
can come aboard and relax among the friendly natives for a few days and get
some of the local flavor and cuisine.
Tarpum
Bay is in short beautiful. Its a splendid place for any world traveling tourist
looking for friends and a pleasant place to call home. Over the past
twenty years we have become the second
home of many return travelers who make their pilgrimage to our shores annually.
We have been delighted with this happening and have quietly become the favorite
place for several families who have enjoyed our unique people and the
friendliness and acceptance of our island lifestyle. The village is a
waterfront community with its beautiful bay stretching for miles and miles as
the island curves in the far distance creating a lovely body of water which is
just a most tremendous sight to be viewed by cityscape weary travelers. Tourist
exclaim at every opportunity of how they love Tarpum Bay because of its lovely
water front harbor and its friendly people. We are still untouched by much of
the touristic development that goes on in the countries major cities like
Nassau and Freeport. The town is made up of a collection of quaint beautifully
painted neat houses. Especially along the waterfront. The splash of pastel
colors adorning the many buildings, many of them ancient, is captivating. The
freshness of the turquoise waters bordering the seawall as one makes his way
along the waterfront highway is simply astounding. This scenery is the single
most captivating land mark that Tarpum Bay has. Locals as well as visitors
congregate daily and on into the evening along the water front shore where each
evening the daily cleaning and selling of the days fish catch is carried out by
the individual fishermen located in several different locations along the water
front harbor. This is truly a spectacular sight as visitors and tourist clamor
around the fishermen bargaining and teasing for the best prices on Lobster,
conch, grouper and other popular varieties of great tasting fresh fish for the
evening meal. Conch are stored in wired water gardens just out beyond the
swimming areas where the locals can be seen enjoying the splendor of the summer
surf in order to combat the sometimes warm summer days. All of this is played
out before an unsuspecting audience of travelers who traverse the waterfront
looking for that special scenery or some unique island memory to take back home
from their travel experience. They do get those opportunities in Tarpum Bay.
Our treasured visitors come to us unsuspectingly from various places around the
world and in what is unique to us and something to treasure they have formed
the habit of adopting some family and friends who treasure them and hang out
with them during their travels along the island and on into the ocean on daily
fishing trips. These adopted friends and families feel a certain pride in
keeping the friendships with their new travelers going and do as much as they
can to foster the new touristic friendship which end up in some rather unique
exchanges of visits and counter visits to the cities from which the tourists
descend. Our local people have learned to cultivate these relationships greatly
and are now moving into the next phase of encouraging these visitors to stay in
our local community. As a result of the outpouring of love and friendships
fostered by these annually travelers new homes are being built by several
tourists who have vowed to make this lovely tropical paradise their home.
Tarpum Bay has certainly benefited from these relationships that have grown out
of the simplicity of world travel and a curiosity to get to know more than just
the physical location to which these tourists travel. They all share the unique
quality of wanting to get to know and love the people who inhabit these islands
to which they travel. Perhaps this is a new trend in tourism and traveling
which has turned out to be quite an asset to both these tourists and the local
recipients. These newly forged friendships generate some truly interesting
exchanges between the visitors and their adopted families who do all they can
to accommodate the needs of their guests. In one instance one of the tourist
paid for his vacation by purchasing and delivering a used car for export to the
island from his area in St. Louis. This not only paid for his vacation while on
the island that year but paid for his transportation as well. Now he has a car that he can request to use
whenever he is on the island for his vacation time. Others bring boats down for
their use when they travel during the fishing season. They employ the help of
the local fishermen who are more than eager to make a new friend and assist
these visitors in having a great travel experience. Most of the families here
have guest cottages and villas for rent to our beloved visitors.
One of
the largest activities enjoyed by our new friends is fishing. These gentlemen
mostly from Chicago, St. Lous organize annual fishing tournaments which they
attend now twice during the fishing season for Ma-hi, Ma-hi, Barracuda, and
dolphin(not the flipper variety). They
have a tremendous time during the winter season in their adopted home villas
brewding, fraternizing and generally having a great time enjoying the local
people and the local Bahamian beer which they have come to love. I look forward
to their annual arrival mostly during the christmas season when our annual
Junkanoo celebration is at its peak. During other times during the year the wives
of these men and some of their single friends travel down separately away from
the men to have their own space and enjoy themselves sunning on the lovely
beaches getting out each night to a local bar for the festive late night
dancing and fraternizing by the local people. We just love it. Theres no
telling where this brand of mutual loving exchange will go. Its fantastic to
see our visitors among us enjoying themselves as if they were at home. They
dance, laugh enjoy the music and engage us in conversation as we move around
the club looking for something exciting to do on the average days visit to the
club. Our wonderful friends provide us with the excitement of new friends and
acquaintances, all with loving ways and pretty faces to enjoy. Its fun to see a
newly divorced woman come down and mix with us perhaps in her attempts to
forget her misery at home. Her getting out on the dance floor and tapping out
some newly learnt Bahamian Calypso dance. Our job is to entertain and ensure
them a pleasant, friendly good time. We hope that each time we encounter a new
visitor we fill them with the desire to return and visit with us again. We’ve greatly benefited from tourism and
love to promote our island and our village as the premiere place to spend a
small portion of your lifetime among friends that will love you for who you
are. This unique experience is available for those tourists looking for a
special experience in their traveling.