Great Exuma, Bahamas (Aug17-Aug24, 2008)

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Mom has been working out of the country on a huge house for the past 3 years and the project is coming to a close... finally. The contractor really milked the job. None the less, she has gone in there and lceaned up after him to repair alot of his mistakes. Comments regarding my mother's work from third parites have been made like, "You really made a silk purse out of a sow's ear" and "Your work really hides alot of ________'s mistakes." Anyhow, Here's the shameless plug I have been building up... www.deboedesigns.com

The journey begins in Fort Lauderdale, boarding a little 19 passenger plane.

This one is for you aviation junkies...

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Bye Bye Florida!

This is the Grand Bahama Bank located directly east of Andros. It is where the gulfstream meets the land... You can see where the water changes color, that is where the ocean rise from a couple thousand feet of depth to a mean tide depth of around 4 feet...

My first glimpse of the Exuma Island Chain.

I coul actually see th house I was to stay in from the air. The photo doesn't show more than a couple pixels of lighter color, but it was plainly visable...

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It sure was pretty...

A stand of coconuts that naturalized... (These things are on every tropical beach, great seed dispersal!)

A common shoreline in the bahamas, sharp sharp rocks... Is this "Dogtooth Limestone"?

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So here's my first approach to the home I would be staying in, followed by a couple snapshots of the interior... Not too shabby! (Take notice of all the FL grown landscaping! )

A large native P. sargentii right on the patio!

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The house is situated on a point lot of a culdesac, a Greg Norman golf course wraps the perimeter of the point and distances the home sites from the water... Hurricane proof windows provide protection from bad golfers...

You can see a good overview of the community at this website

http://www.emeraldbayresort.com/master.html

The home is siutated on Lot 22 of The Ocean Ridge Estates...

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I spent a good portion of my indoors time in this room!

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So as soon as I got settled in, we hoped in the lovely Mistubishi van and went palm hunting... I had already noticed the native palms in the haunts, but needed closer inspection...

The island had two native palms that were in abundance... Loads of C. argentata... Tens of thousands I would imagine... I snapped plenty of pics...

C. argentata

You can tell it is a constantly windy island...

The seedlings are everywhere... EVERYWHERE!

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They were literally growing out of rocks... I think these things must be part cactus.

Some orchids attached themselves to the trunks of the Coccothrinax

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Seeeeeeeeds! (birdfood?!)

This palm was approx 25-26 feet tall... It was the tallest I saw on the island! Anyone have a guess as to it's age?

How about some night shots to accentuate the silver undersides of this palms leaf?

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This palm really stood out to me... It was very blue compared to the rest of them... Coccothrinax sp. "azul"?

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The water was calling...

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We went and rented a little boat from Minn's Watersports...

We beached at a few uninhabited (by humans) beaches

We could not stop at most shorelines... Big rocks...

[Gbarce]

William - Nice house. Nice location and what a view. Your mom sure does nice work. You should be a landscape consultant and advise on what palms you should use to accentuate the property.

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There were lots of shell treasures along the beaches to be found.

Katie and her finds...

I found some species of Poison Bulb in habitat

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There were old C. argentata on Stocking Island... PiousPalms in da house!

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We returned to shore after a bowl of conch salad at the local hangout "Chat N Chill"... http://www.chatnchill.com/

Back in the van for a tour or the island's P. sargentii...

Obviously a palm lover's home...

You could smell the smoke pouring out of this happy Rasta's home...

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On to the P sargentii's... I would venture to say, without a formal count there were about 2000 trunking specimen on the 55 mile long island...

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There were huge temite colonies on the local scrub... And no exterminators on the island...

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No clue what this was... But it was neat, so here's a pic...

Some tiny seagrape type flowers...

Some other flower on a bush...

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We heard there was a great restaurant on the end of the island... So we headed towards Santana's...

Saw a speedy lizard with a blue tail... Couldn't get a great photo...

Stopped at the Salt Beacon on the way...

It was a huge column in the middle of nowhere... (Maybe old sailors used it as a reference point to come pick up salt for delivery?)

There was a cannon there!

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A freshly painted house on the way to eat...

The Four Seasons always has a comanding presence on any small island...

Lots of Floridian plant matter...

But this is what most of the "civilized" parts of the island look like...

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Wished for an underwater camera on this trip... Found lots of corals, fish, conchs, starfish and other goodies in the bay...

There were loads of skiddish birds that were unusual to me.

The only marine thing I could get a decent phot of was a boken spined sea urchin precariously placed in a tidal pool...

Our day ended at Santana's with healthy servings of Cracked Grouper, lobster and shrimp...

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks for the photo tour! I haven't been to the Bahamas in a number of years. I forgot how the water seems to "glow" around those islands!

[paulgila]

great pix--the house was amazing! cool to see all those palms in habitat,too!

i really enjoyed these photos,william.makes me wanna hit the beach this weekend

[Tala]

great shots, 2 of my all time fav palms in habitat, the beach and pretty girls to boot! Both are quote unquote bulletproof here in O'town (the palms that is, not sure about the ladies).

The "blue" palm in post 14 is a Lucothrinax morrisii. Note the criss-crossed leaf bases.

[realarch]

Thanks Bill, I really enjoyed that. I'm sure Paul was scarfing up on those house colors.

Tim

[paulgila]

oh yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhh..................

[Mike4284m]

Wow! I fell in love with the out islands years ago. I hope to buy a bit of land one day on San Salvador. I actually didn't realize the Exumas were than developed.

P.S. The bird is a night heron.

[bubba]

Wow! How did I miss this? Great pictures and your Mom's house is beautiful.I have heard about that Norman course and when the Four Seasons comes in,growth will follow.That is Blue water?

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bumparooski, just cause I've been daydreaming bout getting a Whaler.

[Al in Kona]

Thanks for sharing your trip to that part of the Bahamas. It certainly has its unique charm and isolation beauty but all I could think about was how vulnerable it must all be to a hurricane. I can only imagine being there in a category 4 hurricane on that very low elevation island.