Suddenly, the salivary glands are activated, although the alert fades. The cell phone recalls a liquor and chocolate pairing seminar in just three hours. “It’s one of the most successful activities among adults,” recalls Paula Machado, public relations manager for Disney Cruise Line, over dinner. We give faith.
Taking advantage of the night, the dreams It points its bow in the direction of Nassau, although of that old New Providence from which Charles Vine, Jack Rackham and Blackbeard wrote the golden age of piracy at the beginning of the 18th century, only the octagonal prison remains, today converted into a public library, and the memory of Queen Victoria, an essential figure in the last century and a half of Bahamian history.
In the capital, however, the options are not too many: “diamonds, Atlantis or Mr. Frog’s,” says Myleen Davis, the company’s media services manager, while destroying my romantic idea, built through literature , from what was an almost mythological place only 300 years ago. It doesn’t matter, I tell myself, and after the pertinent lost in translation With a member of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, I walk through the commercial street and the bustling and port (very port) bars of Bay Street to enter the interior of Nassau.
The objective is to find John Watling’s Distillery, manufacturer of one of the most delicate and exclusive rums in the region and whose headquarters, an old renovated colonial house, rests on the slopes of one of the hills that watch over the port. In the canteen, and after purchasing a special edition bottle of rum aged in sherry barrels, I enjoy a hemingway special (rum, lime and grapefruit juices and Maraschino) with the vivid memory that the Maestro also lived here.
“Havana, Madrid, Nassau, Paris, Key West… A phenomenon”, I think silently as I walk towards the National Gallery of The Bahamas, the national museum housed in a colorful mansion just a few blocks from the distillery. One of the most special places of the trip.
That night, the dreams You will leave Nassau to sail towards Castaway Cay, the private island that Disney owns in the Caribbean (actually it is a 99-year exploitation concession granted to the company by the Bahamas government) and a mandatory stop on all its itineraries. A key north of Nueva Providencia where the company deploys all its logistical and organizational power.
In just a few hours, most of the service on board the cruise ship goes ashore to build a city that will only have a few hours to live. Giant open-air restaurants, theme bars, VIP cabins, adult beach, bike tours, snorkeling… Or, why not, stay on the cruise. “It’s the best time of the week,” John, over 65 and originally from Brooklyn, will say that afternoon from the Currents bar. “The ship is empty. It is wonderful. I look forward to this moment since we left Miami ”, he adds. Alberto, the bartender Argentinian, laughs openly. It’s not the first time she’s heard it.
It is the last day on board and it is also the last dinner, reserved in Palo and, for dessert, a gargantuan feast, with its calamari and prawns, its burrata with tomatoes heirloomhis pasta arrabbiata and his steak angus. Too much protein, too many carbohydrates, I think the next day, about to leave the port for the airport. In line for the truck I meet Matteo, originally from Rome, slightly over 40, together with his family. We parted with a hug. We’ll be back.