Paradise Island - Lost City of Atlantis

We could not visit the Bahamas and not 'find' the Lost City. Our countryman Sol has outdone himself. This place is quite amazing.

The attractions being the aquariums, there are apparently seven and the fun slides. 

We are not sure we found all the aquariums. Under the buildings, through tunnels and suddenly you are faced with a huge tank with HUGE fish. Pompano's, sting rays, eagle rays, are some of the larger ones. Then of course a multitude of smaller reef fish. 

Then there are dedicated tanks. One full of huge Sword fish, one of giant Grouper looking like they have been there since the dinosaur era. The beautiful spotted Eagle Ray glide effortlessly through the water. 

Then of course the predator tank, holding two to three meter Reef and Nurse Shark. Many of them have wounds and scars. Apparently this is a sign of a healthy tank as it means they are following natural instinct to vie for food. 

Giant Grouper

Between the buildings are pools of different fish, many of which have been bred in the park. There are pools of Cow nosed rays, turtle, reef shark nursery and sting rays, to name a few. 

 The buildings hold exclusive dining and stores. Handcrafted jewelry, flawless diamonds, Colombian emeralds, Rolex, Gucci, Versace and Salvatore Ferragamo bags and wallets. This gives you a small idea of the type of money that frequents the hotels. 

As you can imagine although we enjoyed window shopping after playing in the pools and drooling on some of the merchandise this was not one the main attractions for us.

Other than the aquariums we reverted to crazy teenagers and hit the slide park. The guys could not convince us to slide the first one with them! The Drop; a virtually vertical slide of about 50 meters into a small pool. Even some of the most rugged men we saw coming down screamed like girls as they went over  the drop through the predator tank. It is so fast one doesn't even notice you are in a transparent tube falling through the shark tank, if you could just keep your eyes open you would see the sharks watching as you fly by. Our guys reached the bottom with grins from ear to ear chuckling and ran to do a second slide. Was it perhaps an evil glint we saw in their eye when they convinced us to do he next slide with them?

With racing heart and breathless with nerves we followed them up, The Serpent Slide! This one drops, levels out and drops again into a pool. At the top you can't see what is coming, so with bated breath you sit yourself down on the flat surface and wait for the attendant to say 'GO'. It probably just as well or we would never have done it. The 'rules'; cross your legs , cross your arms, lie flat and GO GO GO!!!

Andre had warned me, that if I didn't want a full nasal washout to also hold my nose. I did so and I closed my eyes, I did not want to see what was coming. The first drop ripped and involuntary scream from me that would have won an Oscar in a low budget horror movie. The second drop a slightly shorter scream that was cut off by the planing across the top of the end pool. Quick adjustments to wrench free your bikini bottoms that were now well hidden in the cracks!! I made it!!!

Next on the agenda was 'The Abyss' need I say more? You first climb stairs to the top of a tall tall tower, standing in rows of giggling girls and boys trying to look macho! Trying to breath your racing heart to a more normal rate as butterflies become vultures swooping around in your belly! This ride you can't see from outside at all. The route begins and ends in the tower. The entrance at the top is a dark tube about a meter diameter. All you hear as people before you launch themselves into the darkness is petrified screams that seem to go on the whole ride. Did we really want to do this? Closing eyes tight, holding my nose and my breath telling myself I would NOT SCCCREAAMMMMMM. Oops no luck as I pitched into the darkness and fell seemingly endlessly down the first slide a scream was torn from me. Water rushing in your face, I was too scared to open my eyes and too scared to breath, I did not think I could hold on any longer when I burst into the end pool in a softly lit 'cave' the the laughing faces of Andre and the ones who went before me. This WAS fun, I think!

Our favorite ride was 'The Surge'. This is done in tubes. We took a double one. You sit in it and try keep your bum from hitting the floor below and you 'fall' down waterfalls, race over rapids and float across ponds. It was wonderful fun. we did two rounds of the route which take about an hour. Conveyor belts pull you on the tubes up to higher levels and you start again.