Bahamas

It took me a while to finally visit the Bahamas, despite it being less than an hour’s flight from Miami, where I was attending college at the time. I went with my friend Alex and his friends. Alex and I first met by chance in Jordan and stayed close over the years, traveling together through South America before later reuniting in Australia.

To be honest, Nassau wasn’t really our style. We found it very touristy and super expensive. But once we made it to the Exumas, everything changed. The water was some of the clearest I’d ever seen, and we spent the day exploring by boat, including a stop at Big Major Cay, better known as Pig Beach, where the island’s famous swimming pigs greeted arriving boats. On that same day trip, I also happened to meet a traveler from Cameroon, the first person I’d ever met from there. Growing up, I had a huge Cameroon flag hanging in my room and always cheered for them in the World Cup simply because we shared the same name. So finally meeting someone from Cameroon was unexpectedly exciting.