Work and life in the Bahamas

Work in the Bahamas was apeshit due to my second job doing all the work I'd normally be up to in Boulder. So I'm just now getting a chance to put some thoughts down. I just arrived in Belize after a week in the Bahamas. The Bahamas are a strange place. I think most people only ever see Nassau. Every morning when I woke up around 6:30am, I looked out the window of my cheap hotel and saw 2 or 3 new cruise ships pulling into port - there were 4 new cruise ships each morning every day that I was there except the first Sunday. I've been told these mammoth cruise ships hold between 3,000 and 5,000 people each. That means that each day a brand new set of 12,000 to 20,000 tourists wake up on the ship, walk out into Nassau and spend on average $45 each.

If those numbers are right (they've been told to me by people who should know), then you can imagine what kind of economy an infusion of some $500,000 - $900,000 per day creates when spent on duty free beers, lunch, souvenirs, and the occasional Colombian emerald. This is what drives New Providence (the island on which Nassau sits) to be the most expensive place in the Caribbean. But that doesn't mean people in the Bahamas are rich either. Unfortunately, it does mean that their per capita GDP is too high for them to qualify for a lot of development aid. GDP, of course, does not account for the incredible income inequality that is on full display in the Bahamas.

New providence is just one island out of some 700 that make up the Commonwealth of the Bahamas (I've been told there are another 2000 cays, rocks, and other sub-island stature land protrusions form the sea). But New Providence is where some 75% of the Bahamian population lives. The map of the Bahamas above gives you some context. The out islands or family islands tend to be much less developed with a greater poverty rate than the main islands of New Providence and Grand Bahama.



While I was in the Bahamas, I traveled to Cat Island and Great Exuma as well. The contrast with New providence is stunning. For example, here is the "international airport" on Cat Island. I think this might be the only piece of firefighting equipment on the entire island as well - it services only the airport, so make sure you don't catch your house on fire here - it WILL burn down.

I'm adding a couple of pictures to illustrate the disparity of wealth within the Bahamas. The little blue house is one of many small residences I saw on Cat Island. Cat Island as it stands is pretty much undeveloped. There is basically nothing there - although the PGA has proposed and started preliminary construction of a golf course on the island.

The massive development pictured is Bahamar - a Chinese partnership with a very wealthy local entrepreneur to create a resort to rival the existing resort/casino/money pit that is The Atlantis. I've been told that the Bahamar will have around 3000 rooms in the two buildings that are currently under construction (with more planned!). This development has also led to a massive public road works project between the airport and this resort. The influx of private capital seems to spur public sector investment. I have no idea who or how many people are making money off this project, but it is changing the face of New Providence forever.

But not everything Bahamas is about development. Check out this picture of the resort (maybe the only resort) on Cat Island where we had lunch. This place is so low key and undiscovered that you damn well better plan your trip there before the PGA golf course opens and the island loses its remote nature (contact me for details if interested!).

Since I haven't really talked about work yet, I'll give you a quick glimpse. The project I'm looking at is the redevelopment of a small commercial port for the island of Great Exuma. My job is to make sure that vulnerability to current and future climate is taken into account in the site selection and design of the port so that this project can tap into subsidized development financing (subsidized b/c it is "climate action"). It is a pretty political and nuanced task that I am finding quite challenging and fascinating. Here is a look at one potential site for the new port. The sunk/grounded ship in the background is named "Arctic Circle" if you're into a little irony.

 

But of course, yes, I went snorkeling on Thursday afternoon after a couple of meetings w/ government officials. While I cannot take pictures of all the cool stuff I saw underwater, I can post a couple of cool pics of the Caribbean Sea - no modifications to color here - that is really how it looks in person. The Caribbean is incredibly beautiful. The lighter aquamarine color is where the sea bed is just sand. Where it is darker is a coral forest. A forest full of parrot fish, reef sharks, and lots of other creatures. The water was so clear this day that even the guide said it was the clearest she'd seen the water in the one year she has been working here.  

So I guess I got a good day! It was clear enough that one of the guides took me on a little private excursion to see a sunken ship that would not normally be visible to snorkelers.
She also showed me where the sunken plane for Thunderball (the Sean Connery James Bond flick) was constructed. That's right, it was not a real plane wreck they filmed in, it was constructed. Most of it was destroyed by now - except the substructure. However, that substructure is now covered with mature corals. There is even scientific instrumentation installed nearby to try and understand why the coral is growing so well in that particular location.

The trip to the Bahamas ended something like this (colleague Matthew)... 
 

...with a trip to The Atlantis and a disappointing waste of money on the tables there. But all in all, another fascinating, beautiful, and educational experience.