Great Exumas…here I come!

I need a break.  I need to see some fish, feel the salt water, float weightlessly, and dive.  So I booked a trip to George Town in the Great Exumas, the tiny islands of the Bahama chain.  I also want to see Pig Beach!  Ever heard of it?  Seriously, Pig Beach is a beach full of, well, wild pigs, who like to swim out to boats and get fed. Ok.  I’m always up for a new experience. I am game.

My husband and I are members of a “club” called 3rd Home.  The members give away weeks at their second home (ours is in Cozumel, Mexico), and other members can book the homes for a certain number of keys, depending on the monetary worth of the home.  I saw a Villa available at the Grand Isle Resort and Spa in the Exumas and decided to just go.  Why not? My cousin is also going to go…she just decided today that she really couldn’t think of a reason why she shouldn’t go.  She’s on break from the college she teaches at, so why not?  So I’ll have a dive buddy, and someone to go feed pigs with. I am very excited to go and try a new place and a new dive destination.

I plan to dive with Dive Exuma, in George Town. The Exumas are known for excellent visibility, shallow dives with plenty of fish action, blue holes, and sharks.  There are also wrecks, reefs, and walls.  They all sound good to me!

The resort appears stunning, and the water is reputed to be crystal blue because of the shallowness.  I would love to hear from anyone who has been to the Exumas, Bahamas!  Any advice on must-see places, must-go restaurants?  I will make a full report when I return, the plan is to go in early January.  After the ice storms in Dallas, which may not be over, the Exumas may be just what the doctor ordered. You can bet I will be blogging from the Exumas.

Randy, my husband, had a shocking double lung transplant in September (that is another story, Lung Transplant: An Unexpected Journey), but he is now driving and getting around on his own. My daughter is nearby, and we have friends who will check up on him and feed him occasionally.  It is important, to both of us, that we continue to do the things important to us in this, our midlife.  We plan to travel around the USA starting in April…but these dive trips are very important to me. I have always known that life is short, but our recent experience certainly adds an exclamation to that point.  I have to go and do what is important to me while I am healthy enough to do it.  Traveling, exploring, adventuring, in all forms (physical, emotional, intellectually), are an integral part of me.  Randy and I plan to head out west, driving and hitting all of the must see (and off the beaten path) places we can between here and Napa Valley.  Later, we plan to spend time in Lake Tahoe, a place I fell in love with last summer.  We are going to head out and see what there is to see.  I’m also diving Thailand/Myanmar  in March, and Ecuador in September with the Marine Megafauna Foundation.  2014 is going to be a great year! I am planning to take you along.