Bahamas Food
Bahama Islands News, Articles and Information
Catching some Rays
GREEN TURTLE CAY, THE BAHAMASBrendal Stevens expertly eases his boat out of his dock at White Sound Harbour, then flashes a mischievous smile."On this boat," he announces with a flourish, "a good time is mandatory."
We're heading out to Manjack Cay, less than an hour away, for some snorkelling, followed by a beach picnic of fresh seafood that Stevens will prepare over a campfire.
Expert cook, scuba-diving instructor, beachware fashionista in skimpy Speedo swimwear today's colour is a startling yellow there's no one quite like Brendal Stevens. It would be hard not to have fun with him around, especially when he invites you to get upclose and personal with his good friend Georgette, a large stingray
Recent winner of the The Bahamas Cacique Award for Sustainable Tourism, Stevens has been leading such trips for more than 20 years and is a local legend.
Aruba Woos Visitors, if They've Got Passports
Revamped passport rules that make it harder to travel aren't usually the kind of thing that excite us. But a group of clever hoteliers in Aruba plans to make the best of an otherwise bad situation. You see, starting on January 8, 2007, all travelers leaving the US will need a passport, even if they're headed to countries like the Bahamas, Panama or--you guessed it--Aruba. Previously, you only needed a photo ID and maybe a birth certificate to get back into the US. What's the big deal? Well, aside from the monumental headache involved in filling out the forms and waiting up to eight weeks, it now costs $97 to apply for a passport. All this for a little book containing an easily hackable microchip!Now the good news: To combat what they expect will be a drop in tourism from the US, five Aruban hotels are offering up free food and car rental vouchers for guests that get down to Aruba before the end of 2007.
The untamed tiger called food prices
Over the past two weeks, several business organisations and individuals have objected, with wide media coverage, to what I said in the Senate about the distressing escalation of food prices in this country. That is alright. But let me first recall for the public benefit some of what I said in the Senate on October 17. I said: "From 2004 to 2005, food prices in Trinidad and Tobago increased by 15 per cent; twice the average for Caricom which faces the same international pressures" the business community here complains about. (This year's increase is worse).After noting that this increase for Trinidad was higher than that for Haiti, I pointed to, among other things, the average for the Bahamas at 2.3 per cent, Belize at 4.7 per cent and even Barbados at 6 per cent. Why then are prices so much higher here for the same period?
I called for the business sector to give a reason since they "must have a proper, responsible role to play in helping to keep food prices down." I then pointed to the related fact that in the 2006 budget speech, the Minister of Finance announced "with immediate effect" the significant reduction of import duties, between 5 per cent and 30 per cent, on 30 basic food items, ranging from meat, baby food to condensed milk, coffee, juice, macaroni, oil, etc.