Day 4: Rose Island Excursion

Today we spent the entire day on an excursion to Rose Island, an all-inclusive packaged event organized by Club Land'or. We met up around 11 am with the group (15 or so couples, both young and old) that were staying at Land'or and boarded the large party boat (pontoon-like). We knew the day would be really fun when the first thing the boat captain did was hand us a drink upon boarding. We cruised out of the harbor to "Party Till the Break of Dawn," "Dance Up On Me," and other traditional Junkanoo songs (Junkanoo music is the traditional folk music of the Bahamas...it's considered to be a percussive sound of dance music rooted in West African rhythms, its dominant elements including goatskin drums, cowbells, horns, and whistles).





























We arrived at deserted Rose Island 45 minutes later and helped the crew carry our BBQ lunch and beach bar libations up the cliff on the bay/docking side of the island, over the top of the island, and down the other side to the beach. The island was very rocky and pirate-like, with little beaten wooden shacks and huts and painted wooden arrow signs directing to the beach, the bathrooms, and the dock. After crossing over the top of the island, we had to walk through a palm tree grove, littered with hammocks, to the beach. I walked around all day in bare feet, to which the excursion hosts called my "island feet."















Dan and I snorkeled on the bay side for a while (gorgeous fish and conch and reefs) and then feasted on the buffet lunch on the beach side. The food was good and the liquor was unlimited and strong (They had good stuff - Bacardi 151, Jose Cuervo, etc.) After lunch, we played some organized "camp games," one of which was the egg toss (nothing like chucking a raw egg at your guy from 50 feet away). Dan and I won and I think he was very proud of me since I was his football protege.


































We got some beautiful pictures of the island and of Dan in his kilt and me posing like the Little Mermaid (he made me do it!). We danced our way back to Club Land'or late in the afternoon (notice evidence of a guy who had a little too much fun on the island with the open bar) and invited two of our new friends over for dinner (Dan is quite the host and cook). We drank lots of rum and had a fun evening with Dan wearing his kilt all around the Atlantis grounds.