Gang murders in broad daylight are now common

https://www.mlive.com/news/2024/01/u...-daylight.html

 

Bahamas used to be safer, but there are many islands where the locals would kill you for a few bucks. Sadly the cost of living has only gotten much worse in many of the islands and people are getting desperate. I never expected the Bahamas to be that bad as they made a lot of money off tourism, I know Covid19 hammered tourism in many of those countries for a long time and made it more difficult for people. One other country I would avoid is Dominican Republic, I would not go back there even if it was free, I tried it once and it was bad. We always had good experiences with Antigua, and the safest of islands for us has always been Cuba.

 

I suppose if you stay with the tour itinerary, you'll probably be safer.

 

Joey, you can go to Cuba. we can't, at least not easily.

I'm not sure where I'd want to go.
Bermuda is too built up now.
Jamaica, yikes.
Mexico the Cancun side is iffy, and we brought back bedbugs from Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo on the other side. It'll be the last time I take a beach recommendation from Tim Robbins or Stephen King.

Branson won't take my calls so his island is out.

 

As far as I am concerned the Bahamas could sink into the ocean and would NOT be missed. I think that is interesting that when you look at trips to the Bahamas that it is always the least expensive of any of the other Caribbean Islands. There is a reason why.

Let me share my story with you: In November of 1979 me and my lady friend at the time took a trip to Freepor for a long weekend. We went to a disco about a 1/4 mile from our hotel. That night when we came out of the disco there were no taxis so we decided to walk back to our hotel. We were robbed at gun point at an intersection that had a walled house with large bushes along the street side. The male with a pump action shot gun cocked it to get our attention and demanded our "purses" (wallets). As things played out my lady friend put her purse behind her back. I was able to draw the person out of the shadows of the bushes and into the light of a street light so I got a look at his face. He got really agitated and demanded that I throw my wallet down towards him. Which I did. I could hear another person in the bushes but never saw him.

When we got back to the Holiday Inn we called the police and it took them forty minutes to respond. The next morning we went to the Police station and filled out a report. Cancelling my credit cards was a nightmare as it took me about a half hour to get a phone call through to the United States.

As it turned out, I was the only person that could identify the person with the shot gun. He and his partner had robbed twelve other groups of people, often while on the beach at night. But they were always in the shadows and NO one else could identify them. Subsequently the Bahamian Government flew me down to appear in court twice. The first time was to convict the guy with the shot gun. He got twenty years in prison. The second time was a few months later. By that time I had broken up with my lady friend. They flew me down to Nassau for the trail of the second person. Amazingly although I could NOT identify him he was so stupid that he convicted himself by describing the crime scene and that it could not have been him. How else would he know all of the details?

As it turned out the Bahamian Government put me up at the Jack Tar Hotel in Nassau which also housed the Playboy Casino. I am not a gambler but I had time to kill the day before the trail so I went to the casino where I spotted a very attractive female. I went to the cashier to get a roll of quarters to put into the slot machines and much to my surprise she was behind me on line. We got talking and she had arrived on Sunday. Because she had won an incentive trip working for the Jack Tar Hotel chain. This was on Tuesday after noon and she told me that she was flying home to Texas tomorrow because she was so disappointed with this trip. She said it was the worse thing that could have done because based on her experience she would NEVER sell this package again.

The bad news and good news follows: I asked her to join me for dinner that evening. We were seated in the restaurant and then it took twenty-five minutes before we even got a menu. Then we ordered dinner and the food took almost one hour. For this service the Bahamian Government mandates (at that time) a 15% gratuity. They may as well called it an additional tax. The good news was that because it took so long to get our food we had the opportunity to get to know one another and after everything was said and done she invited me back to her room and we had a one night stand. She flew out the next morning and I never saw her again.

 

Dad, is that you?

 

Got back from my first trip to the Bahamas. Took an authentic food tour. I was shocked at how poor people were. It was kind of sad. Not scary because we had local guides but a bit sad.

 

When we came back from our last trip to Cuba I was a bit depressed, everything was great on the resort and the beach, but seeing what the local people had to endure was tough. It was a 1.5 hour bus trip to the airport and the level of poverty was really bad through the countryside. Hitchhiking was an actual mode of travel there, they had hitchhiking centers run by government officials, young teens would hitchhike home from work and school, it was so weird. Our resort package came with a "butler" , we certainly are not the type of people who would ever need a butler in life, but we were allocated one from the resort. Our butler was female and the poverty she described to us was bad. They cannot get common things like soap, aspirin, feminine products, toothpaste etc. Their highways are predominantly filled with horse drawn buggies, not many cars on the road. Fuel and electricity shortages are everywhere. Many people ride around on broken bikes with flat tires and such. They have about 4 hours of electricity per day, so they go home and live in the dark after a long day of work. Food shortages are everywhere. It is such a beautiful country , and the people are fantastic.

No matter how poor they are you can walk anywhere and it is completely safe, they would not steal or rob anyone despite them being in dire need of everything. It was depressing to travel through the countryside and seeing how the locals had to live. You drive by a typical house and they would have no screens on the windows, no air conditioning, you can see through the entire home from front to back as the windows and doors were wide open. Such a different way of life.

 

Thanks for sharing. That is indeed a sad sight. Hope to make it to Cuba one day as I enjoy their cigars quite a bit!

 

This is a drive through Havana, Cuba. I love how many ‘50s cars you see! They are non-stop and everywhere.