Feb 7, 2015 Tour Again and Junkanoo

The English dude, Simon, and his dog were talking to Rich and Kathy about the Junkanoo in Andros and how they really should see it. (Simon and his wife Carol left England 3 years ago and never looked back.  They love the island and the easy living). Trouble is you really need a car to go to Nicholls Town as it is about 15 minutes away.  Rich asked some of the new cruisers in port if they would be interested in renting a van, doing some touring, and then the Junkanoo at night.  So off they went.  Kathy and Rich are becoming quite the tour guides, as they have spent so much time here.  They went to the usual spots, but also found this really nice liquor store in Lowes Sound, and bought some Bahamian rum called "Fire in de Hole".  They stopped at a local grocery store for some hamburger buns, tomatoes, and onions.  Lunch again at the Andros Island Resort.  Excellent, but took over 2 hours, as they were really busy with the Junkanoo people and there is a funeral tomorrow for one of the Defence Force personnel.  You may be asking yourself, what is a Junkanoo?  It is basically a street carnival with costumes, music, and dance inspired by a different theme each time.  This year's theme was Africa.  Simon said that the costumes are sent to all the islands that have Junkanoo.  There are a number of different beliefs on how Junkanoo started, and one is that it developed from the days of slavery when the Loyalists gave the slaves 3 days off at Xmas, which they celebrated by singing and dancing in colorful costumes.  This year was no exception.  Junkanoo was elaborate and done extremely well.  Food vendors were selling fried chicken, ribs, Jerk pork, fried snapper, peas and rice, crab rice, coleslaw, and conch salad.  The food was excellent.  Kathy and Rich said that the people are the most genuine and friendly around.  There are a lot of people from the US, Switzerland, England, etc that have moved here permanently, and the Bahamians have received them into their communities with open arms.  Bitts and I heard they like dogs too, but it appears we are not allowed to mingle as we did not go to Junkanoo!