Buses and the Bahamas

Standard Jitney bus crossing in front of us.

On-board Jitney

For our 42nd wedding anniversary, Ruth and I went on a cruise. It’s been 23 years since our last cruise. We drove to Charleston harbor over the weekend and boarded the Carnival Fantasy on Monday to visit Nassau, New Providence Island and Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. We’ve been to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel and wanted to go somewhere new.

The 10 stayed on Bay Street, the 10a went further inland

The two day stops were in Nassau and Freeport. In Freeport we rode out and back to go snorkeling with Pat and Diane’s service from the cruise terminal to Port Lucaya. Our driver outbound tried to fill the trip with snappy banter but he wasn’t ready for prime time. Our bus driver, back from Port Lucaya to the cruise terminal, however, was a pro. He wanted to fill us in on the local culture and maybe earn a tip. I am a tightwad but was so impressed I tightened up with him as I debarked. He regaled us with stories the entire 20 minute ride. While we ate supper that night back on board, I filled in our cruise mates with some of this colorful information, which follows.

The Bahamian people are proud of their independence which was achieved in July, 1973 at 12:00AM.  The Bahamian flag’s colors all have meanings. The black center stands for the strength of the people, 85% of which are black. The blue areas are for the sea and the sky and the yellow stripe is for the sun. Then it got interesting. The white stripe at the base of the flag stands for the white sand beaches. He had a flag posted above the area where he drove. I later found out that there is no white stripe on the base of the flag, except for his copy. Apparently it was just a bunting on the edge. His travelog was probably 90% accurate, which is good. Here are other, colorful excerpts.

Cable Beach

Our children all wear the uniform of their school. Each school has their own color uniform. In the Bahamas, we don’t spank the children. We beat the children. If the children don’t go to school and are caught, they are beaten five times. Once by the adult that catches them, then by the Auntie, the Uncle, the Momma and the Dad. And if the child goes to the police to complain about the beating, you know what happens then? The police beat the child.

There were enough #10s to maintain a 5 minute headway

 
The majority religion in the Bahamas is Baptist. One thing about our churches, there is a bar next to every church and a church next to every bar. You can go straight from the church to the bar and from the bar to the church. What you think the drinking age is in the Bahamas? 18? 21? There is no drinking age in the Bahamas. If you are old enough to be able to reach up over the bar you can get a drink.

Local hipster dude caught the aisle seat.

The man that owns the KFC and Burger King franchises is the richest man on the island. He has the biggest home, called Cooper’s castle. It is right on the shoreline.

We had three powerful and wicked woman visit the islands in 2004&5, Frances and Jeanne and Wilma. They damage us so bad, some things still are not rebuilt. But the government help up by giving the people plywood, shingles and nails. We don’t ever want to see such dangerous women again. You know what you do to a woman named Frances or Jeanne or Wilma, if you meet them?  [author’s note: There was so much beating going on, you had to figure maybe you beat them but no] You leave them alone. They are very powerful and should not be mess with.

His presentation was much like a quiz show, where he asked us questions and then told us the correct answer if we didn’t know. Many of the bus riders had ridden before and knew many of the answers.

Bahamas means shallow water.

Columbus discovered the Bahamas in 1492 and was met by the friendly Lucayan Indians. He turned them into slaves.

The Bahamas consist of 700 islands and 2,400 uninhabited islets and cays. They are located only 50 miles off the east coast of Florida. They extend for about 760 miles from end to end.

Once reliant on agriculture and fishing, the number one enterprise in the Bahamas is now tourism.

Carnival cruise lines own a majority of the dry docks on Grand Bahamas.

It made the ride go quicker and was all in good humor.

In Nassau, I read the best way to go to Cable Beach was to take the local bus, or jitney. A jitney is a series of privately owned buses or vans which serve the public in lieu or a formal transit system. In big cities in the United States, jitneys predated public transit. It was the entrepreneur’s solution to a public need. In New York and other large cities, jitneys competed with one another to make a living by providing transportation. It almost became chaotic and governments began to regulate public transportation. In Nassau, the jitneys are regulated but they are a blend of formal and informal. Each jitney bears a number corresponding to the route it serves. We rode the #10 which sticks to Bay Street and the coast to go from downtown to Cable Beach. The jitneys are everywhere downtown.

The horses all wear hats (grudgingly)

The fare was $1.25, one way. Downtown, an employee vets tourist riders to make sure they understand cash will be required. When I offered the money, it was turned down. We boarded the “bus” which was bigger than a van and smaller than a bus. Ridership is largely locals with a scattering of tourists. Auto traffic, in the British tradition, sticks to the left side of the road.

There's no shame in sitting in the aisle.

When I mentioned our planned jitney trip on the cruise ship I was met with “sounds dangerous.” Perhaps, but the Bahamians we encountered were universally helpful and friendly. Music was played almost everywhere and there was a laid back atmosphere. In fact, most people went out of their way to show us what I asked or if they didn’t know, find someone for me that did. It’s true that tourism is their number one industry and it’s an economic imperative to be kind to strangers but I felt it was more than that. I felt a certain ownership of the islands from their people. No one wanted to besmirch their widely held friendly reputation.  I also felt they are an open, helpful and friendly people because it’s cultural. It’s true a couple of days spent on the islands is not a definitive test and I’m also sure if we’d gone to the periphery of the city at 2:00AM with a handful of cash and snoot full of booze we might have been mugged, but to be honest I think it’s a lot more dangerous in the states in urbanized areas than in the Bahamas.

The jitney operators wait until there’s a good crowd aboard before they pull off. Rule of thumb seems to be the two seats on one side and the one seat on the other should all be full before disembarking. Once we pulled off and made the hill and turned by the Governor’s mansion we started picking up more riders. How do you pick up more riders when all the seats are full? Do they allow standees? Rather than stand people in the aisles, the side of the bus with one row has a jump seat which can be slid out and folded up to sit in what was once the aisle. This means starting at the back of the jitney, the bus fills up across the entire row with four abreast and continues forward until all the rows have four across. Getting in and out then requires cooperation from all. It worked pretty well. If an emergency happened and we had to evacuate, it would be a little ugly (there was only one side door through which everyone boarded and alighted but I’m sure the locals don’t want to run their system based on the unlikely exception, like we do here in the states. I doubt they can afford to. They run it by the normal daily need, which makes common sense but doesn’t protect everyone from everything. It’s pretty laid back.

The driver keeps his money laid on on the engine’s tunnel-home so people can make change. You can change your bills with the coins laid out on a piece of cloth. I surrendered three dollars for the two of us, effectively paying a buck and a half instead of a buck and a quarter. I figured it was an exact change system (it’s not) and wasn’t prepared for the informality of the whole thing. Paying when you get off instead of when you get on spreads the dwell out, it seems. It is quite the honor system, unless they beat you if you don’t pay. Our riders were locals who were going out to work at the hotels and restaurants supported by tourism and others making their daily rounds. Music always blared from speakers on the vehicles and most of it was local reggae or island music. There was lots of greetings as most everybody seemed to know each other but that’s true here in the states when you ride off peak.  All in all a fun day.

The ride in Freeport was on a pre-scheduled parlor coach, which was little different from  the states. We paid $5 one way. There is a transit system in Freeport but we stuck pretty much to the cruise harbor and Port Lucaya because we wanted to snorkel most of the day. It is pro-ported to be more formalized than Nassau. I’ll leave it an open question for another trip, another day, hopefully.