GREEN TURTLE CAY January, 1996

Our most recent trip landed us on the dock of a beautiful treehouse, which was to be our home for the next 9 days. Situated on the west side of Green Turtle Cay overlooking Abaco Sea in the Bahamas, this 2 bedroom/2 bath hexagon house up in the trees has a view for days! Sunsets were certainly a highlight here.

We arrived with two bicycles, various fly-fishing equipment, snorkels, snacks and all kinds of other food goodies (food here is tres expensive so we always bring as much down as feasible--if we are taking the bikes, we can stuff a lot in the bicycle suitcases), and very little clothing! This is not a resort kind of place and a bathing suit, a pair of shorts, couple of t's and a sweater will last you quite a while. Janet, our hostess, was at the dock to greet us and tell us the lay of the land. She was great. She had stocked the house with some little essentials--coffee, salad, bread, and even a casserole for our first night in caseor our first night in case we got in late--this was a very nice touch. She has only had the treehouses for a couple of years and had just started renting. If you are familiar with Green Turtle, the treehouses are adjacent to the Bluff House and short walk away from the Green Turtle Club. You do need transportation (the popular mode is golf cart) to get into New Plymouth (the town). The bikes were terrific, since most of the road to town is paved and there is virtually no traffic. New Plymouth is very small and populated originally with loyalists from the revolutionary era. We found the people to be very friendly and helpful.

After unpacking and putting the bikes together, we settled in to enjoying our new surroundings. We never got to cook the casserole that night because the power went out for most of the evening. I do not know if this is regular or we just picked a time when they were working on the generator. So we ate the salad and bread and went to bed. No big whop! The next the day we toured with our bikes and picked up some bait in town from Mrs. Sawyer so we could catch some fish for food. This is a family business. Ronnie Sawyer is a fishing guide and Donnie Sawyer rents boats. We rented a boat for a day or two from Donnie and in our opinion, his looked like they were in the best shape. He was pretty nice, plus he delivers and picks the boat up right at your dock. No fuss no muss.. No fuss no muss. Geoff was pretty lucky fishing on this trip. He was catching snappers, grouper, grunts, and all sorts of other tropical wonders right off our dock. So we ate very well that week. We had fresh fish most dinners and lunches. Needless to say, we never got around to that casserole! He was also fortunate enough to catch a nice size bonefish on the far end of CoCo Bay. This is a sport fish and not for eating. When caught with a flyrod, it is quite a treat and a fight. He fought him for about twenty minutes. The bonefish around this island were the biggest we have come to see yet. They were in accessible, wadeable areas so we didn't have to use the boat in the flats. Gillam Bay, located at the edge of the town on the south end of the island, is a great place to go bonefishing and shelling and sunning. Beautiful.

Even though the treehouse was not on a beach, we were able to find some very lovely sites. One of my favorites is Bita Bay. The beach is pristine and also protected. So if the seas are rough, which they were some days, it can still be pretty calm down there and swimable. Since you ble. Since you have the ocean on one side and the bay on the other, there is plenty of beach property to explore. We never did get a chance to go snorkeling. It being January, the weather was cool and the water was rough a lot of the time. We had hoped to go out on a dive boat, but the day we scheduled, it was really nasty so we cancelled. We did hear good things about the diving and snorkeling and hope we get a chance to go next time. As for nightlife -- we really didn't see too much of it. Our big night out was going to the Bluff House to watch the Superbowl. There were a few people there and we all picked our teams and rooted and hollered. We were in the minority by not rooting for the Cowboys, but of course, Dallas won yet again! Admittedly, we were there off season so things were probably quiter than usual. There is a local band that plays in town on the weekends and the Green Turtle Inn has entertainment as well. We do not dine out much so I don't have too much info on that. We ate lunch out once or twice and had the best conchburgers at the Wrecking Tree in town. It is all very casual, but they are big on dinner reservations so they know how much to make of what. There are few phones on the island. All the communication is done by VHF radio. I thought this was cool. Janet lent us one of hers in case we needed to get in touch with her. It came in handy when renting the boat. Not tong the boat. Not to mention, that after a week of listening to everyone's chitchat, you get to know who everyone is and what they're up to. Better than the soaps!

Our last day was the best. The weather was perfect, we packed a lunch and Geoff's flyrod on the bikes and hit every beach we could. Our last stop was Coco Bay, and as we headed back around sunset, we passed by our hosts' house. They shouted for us to come in for cocktails. We chatted for a while and vowed to return in the not so distant future. We are planning on keeping our promise!