On our way to the Bahamas from Jamaica, we had to fly Eastbound to avoid Cuban airspace. Though even then, we were in their airspace for about 10-15 minutes, during which time I was on pins and needles awaiting the Cuban military to come after us. We also struggled with being able to communicate to air traffic controllers in both Haiti and the Bahamas. The reception was horrible and thankfully there was an American Airlines plane flying above us that was able to relay our messages to the airports below.
Our first stop in the Bahamas was the beautiful island of Great Inagua. Believe it or not, this island is known for producing salt and for the over 60,000 flamingos that reside there. Little Inagua, five miles northeast of here is said to be the home of over 35000 wild donkeys, as well as wild pigs and cows.
The local people were very nice and the teal blue waters of the Caribbean made it easy to understand why the Bahamas are such a vacation destination. Since the population of the island is only 1200, we quickly learned that there were no taxi drivers to be found and because of the island being a tourist destination, all the hotels and bed and breakfasts were well over $100US. Thankfully, we were able to meet some great locals who gave us a ride and allowed us to sleep on their couch for a small fee.
The next morning we flew over the rest of the Bahama Islands and landed in Nassau. Again, flying over the aquamarine and sapphire waters was a magnificent experience. Once on the ground, we were well aware that this was a tourist destination as the taxi from the airport to town (a few miles away) was $27.
We were able to do a few media interviews before taking a commercial flight over to Cuba (since we were unable to obtain a permit for our plane, we had no other choice). The Bahamas Tribune did an excellent article, thanks to Noelle Nicolls who was very caring and interested in learning more about our cause. Thank you also to Shenique Miller who took the time to interview us for ZNS Television.
Upon return from Cuba nearly a week later, we were able to meet with Kendeno Knowles from the JCN news (who own The Bahama News, Love97 radio station JC television) before heading to over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to meet with Permanent Secretary Patricia Rodgers. She was very honest and friendly and mentioned that they had been getting “lots of pressure from all over” to work on the Kosovo issue. She said that they were temporarily waiting on the formal result of the International Court of Justice decision, which is expected some time this year.
