Andros

a few years ago, i had read an article about the island of Andros, that it is an island in the Bahamas with few tourists. that appealed to me. so when we started thinking about our winter migration, Andros naturally came to mind. there weren't too many options in terms of lodging. many places only offered cabins for 2 people - not too kid-friendly. Phil managed to find a house for rent where we would have 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a beach right in front of the house. too good to be true!

we set off, happy to be escaping the snow and the cold. and of course, our dear Claire, our little reluctant walker, decides to take her first independent steps in the middle of a busy airport! she still prefers to walk holding our hand, but we do know she can do it on her own.

Walking at last! from slkim on Vimeo.


we arrived in Andros to warmth and gentle breeze! the sun felt delicious on our skin.


we couldn't quite believe it, but the beach was literally the backyard of the house. here are Skye and Claire playing in the sand.


here we are at the sandbar. almost every day we were in Andros, we would trek out to the sandbar when the tide went out in the afternoon. it was a long trek, at least a half hour walk, but the reward was great. stepping onto the sandbar was like sinking your feet into cream cheese. the sand was so white and so fine! Claire, who wasn't too crazy about all the sand sticking on her feet while playing on the beach, adored the sand at the sandbar. she would crawl on it, walk on it, and even eat it! because the trek out to it was so long, we put the girls on an inflatable mattress and pulled them out. the best part of the sandbar? we felt like we were the only humans on the earth! when they said Andros has few tourists, they meant DESOLATE. i felt a little guilty at times, i mean, are we really the only people enjoying such luxurious sand and ocean? and Skye could collect as many sea shells and sand dollars as she wanted. there were so many of them as there was no one else to compete with Skye.



Phil and Skye and Claire tried their hand at fishing. they are standing on a cement island that was in the water at the beach behind the house. during high tide, most of the cement was underwater. it attracted lots of fish, so they tried fishing, but unfortunately caught nothing. during high tide, i did snorkel and saw lots of fish around the cement block. Andros is known for bone fishing, so while there aren't many tourists, there are people who come for fishing. too bad we didn't catch any! we did, however, eat some really good local fish and even picked up several conch on our trek to and from the sandbar. the first batch we picked up, the local people laughed at - you call that conch, they too small! but they cracked open the shells for us to get the conch out. the next batch we got met with approval. we had some fantastic conch fritters made by Cathy, a local woman who runs and bar & grill.




Skye loved becoming a mermaid at the sandbar:

Skye the mermaid from slkim on Vimeo.

so here we are on our way back to the house from the sandbar. the inflatable mattress was usually laden with shells and conch and snorkel gear. snorkeling wasn't all that great, but more on that later.


on one of our trips to the sandbar, we stopped dead in our tracks. i saw a stingray gliding by just a few feet away from us! and then we saw several more - a whole family of stingrays! i couldn't quite believe it because i've only seen them when snorkeling in deeper waters. and then we saw stingrays from the beach by the house. i couldn't believe they came so close to us and in such shallow water. i wondered if perhaps they were curious about us?

here we are in front of the house. it was great except for one thing: the bathroom. for some reason, the rooms and kitchen were upstairs and the bathroom was downstairs. it made middle of the night toilet runs with Skye difficult. we ran up and down many times throughout the day with Claire's potty. and we had to get used to well water. the smell was actually quite bad - as Skye said, it's stinky water! other than that, we loved how we could run down the stairs straight onto the beach. we loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves and coconut trees rustling in the wind. we ate lots of pawpaw (papaya) and coconut.


Claire bundled up after splashing in the ocean.


Skye with Zephyr. we met Zephyr and his mum a few days after we arrived in Andros. they were staying a few houses down from us and i think were quite happy to meet some other people, especially since Skye and Zephyr are the same age. here, we are at Mars Bay where there is a blue hole. you can see in the photo, the blue hole is behind the children off to the right. once the tide goes out, there would be no water around the blue hole, just sand and then this pool of water. i learned that a blue hole has no bottom. there are many blue holes around the island and they are all connected and there are lots of sea creatures that live in them. apparently people dive in blue holes. kind of freaked me out. nevertheless, i did snorkel in the blue hole, but stayed away from the deep centre! i saw lots of fish, but unfortunately, the water was really murky that day and i couldn't see as much as i maybe could have on a clear, still day. oh well, but at least i got to snorkel in a blue hole!


one of Claire's favourite activities was walking under the coconut trees and picking up all the coconuts that fell on the ground. here she is holding onto a small coconut.


here is how much the girls enjoyed Andros:

Tuckered Out! from slkim on Vimeo.


we had all gotten so used to walking barefooted it felt very strange to put our socks and shoes back on when we returned to Madison! and what a winter we have returned to! this weekend, temperatures dropped down to the negative at night and during the day, only rose up to 4 or 7 F.