Juan's Secret Bridge Scene from Romancing the Stone Movie (1984) | MOVIECLIPS

When we reached Nassau, Bahamas we decided to take a tour.  We had arrived a day earlier due to cancelled ports earlier in the cruise.  Our tour guide so reminded me of Juan in the movie Romancing the Stone.  He knew every building, every road, every tree (no kidding) on the island.  Watch the clip above.  The driving wasn't so erratic but the commentary was something like this;  "Now Ladies and Gentlemen, you will see up on my right hand side a pink building, that building is the ..." or "Now Ladies and Gentlemen, you will see up on my left hand side a tree and that tree..."  We learned that all buildings have names and that all the government buildings are painted pink.  There are two types of houses on Nassau:  the very rich and the very very not rich - no middle. 

All kids wear uniforms to school. The Bahamas are part of the English Commonwealth but they are their own country and gained independence from Britain (but not really) in 1973.  They were getting ready to celebrate the Queen's birthday so there were posters and signs everywhere.  The island that Nassau was on isn't very big in fact it is only about 7 miles wide and 21 miles long.  Most Bahamians work in the tourist industry.  Whoever I talked to was always friendly and had a smile.  It was their smiles that caught my eye.  Often I noticed a gold tooth or a tooth partially wrapped in gold with glittery stones on them.  I'm not sure if this is a cultural thing or something else.  When we were done with the tour we returned to our ship.  We had dinner, chatted and then decided to head to the Hard Rock Cafe to purchase t-shirts.  By this time it was around 10pm.  It was fairly close to port so there was really no problem just a couple of blocks. We found it OK but it was closed.  I thought for sure that it would be open.  Nope, we missed it.  Then we walked through an argument of some sort - about money owed I think.  It was dark and people were stupid so we quickly walked to the government building that led to the port.  So outside this building are stationed guards from the Nassau Defence Force (not an army or navy but something similar).  Inside the building, is a person checking to make sure you belong to a cruise ship.  You have to show your sign and sail card and your passport/id.  They don't scan it just look at the photo quickly.   There are a couple of people behind a desk but this is a very relaxed place not like the entry to the port in Miami.  We walk in and I look over to see some American guy take a big sniff of white stuff on his hand!  Yes, there was someone snorting coke inside the government building five feet from one of the desk people.  After I announce it to the whole room what he's doing, they kindly asked him to take it outside!  Really!  I am so naive.