Towards the end of summer, I went on an amazing boat adventure tour in which I got to see some of the Exuma cays. There are over 700 islands and cays that make up the Bahamas although most of them are uninhabited. There are some celebs that own a few private islands in the Bahamas including Nicholas Cage, Julia Roberts and Johnny Depp. But on this tour, I got to see these and some unique treasures that Exuma has to offer.
Who knew pigs could swim?!
They swim pretty fast I tell ya!
Passing a blue hole
Checking out the scenery.
My first time snorkeling! Yolo!
Got to feed the iguanas.
A private island/home you can rent for $50,000/night!!
Looking down into a cave!
Speeding past the white sand beaches!
We did this on a day that a bit cloudy and actually storming in some areas. Imagine if the sun was out shining in its glory! Could you imagine?! Beautiful.
After a long summer hiatus, I’ve decided to come back and continue writing. Before summer started, I had all these wonderful ideas and schemes of how I planned to write about my island adventures in Exuma and how I was going to find an amazing or cool summer job. But, reality happened. Natural disasters happened. Plans changed and I had to deal with it. Dealing with it all, meant a crush in my creative spectrum and I had writer’s block. But as I am starting this new semester off with so many hopes and plans, I will do my utmost best to make writing and updating this blog a habit. That is all I can promise.
For my birthday (back in April, this is wayy late), I did something I have never dared do before: made guava duff. And, I have to say that it came out pretty decent. But let me explain why this is so major.
Ever since I was a kid, I have had a “weakness for sweetness” and guava duff is one of the Bahamas’ most delectable desserts. Guava flesh is cooked down and folded into a dough which is then baked or boiled wrapped tightly in foil. It is then drizzled in a sweet guava sauce that may or may not have rum or brandy in it.
This dessert takes quite a bit of time to prepare so doing it can seem a bit daunting but the end result is worth it. Over the years, Bahamians have modified the method of preparing it so that it’s quicker to do, but it’s just not the same. Some bakeries use whipped cream in their sauces, which although makes it light and airy, takes away from the true flavors. They also would change how they created the dough which became more bread-like which means that it gets soggy when the sauce sits on it for too long. Finding duff still done the ol’ school way is very hard in Nassau.
So finally, I can tick it off of my bucket list of Bahamian foods I need to prepare at least once.
My grandmother prepared this for me and my cousins when we were about 8 or 9 and then I remember an older cousin helping out when I was 12 or 13, so it has been a long time since I’ve seen anyone prepare this. I took to the internet and found two recipes that seemed decent enough to work with. Here’s the one from Food.com, and the other from a Bahamian blogger.
I actually used the Bahamian blogger’s recipe but I decided to experiment and try both recipes for the sauce to compare the difference. A good sauce is very important to me. There aren’t any pictures because for the majority of the process my hands were covered in guava juices or flour and butter.
The good thing is, it can be stored in a fridge or freezer (if you want it to keep longer) so I’ll be sharing it with friends this coming weekend as I celebrate my 24th birthday. It brings some comfort to know that I can still have a piece of home away from home.
Urban Dictionary defines jungaless: females that have pink, blue, green or freaky colored hair wears skin tight clothing with parts of their body out, talk loud and use profanity and is usually seen in Cock Tails & Dream (Jungalass Night Club of the Bahamas) dancing on their head and would have no problem opening up a beer with their teeth! Continue reading →
I don’t mean to brag but hey, the Bahamas is pretty cool and I get to live there and eat all those amazing foods. The end of the semester is quickly approaching which means the assignments are going to be due, exams will be around the corner and stress levels will be high. But the reward will be being able to go home and perch this body a on a beach I hope.
The older you get, the less time you spend actually enjoying summer, unless you’re a teacher. As a college student, summer means crappy summer job or internship with minimum wage pay, but it’s a necessity or my last name will be Broke.
Anyway, I’m still looking forward to going home, taking awesome photos of the beach (if I get there) and documenting some of my summer in this blog.
Baha Life 