The Bahamas [1] (officially named The Commonwealth of The Bahamas ) or The Bahama Islands , is an archipelago consisting of many islands. There are about 2,000 islands if you include the cays which are small islands that are formed on coral reefs. The word Bahamas is of Spanish descent and means 'Shallow Water'. They are located in the Atlantic Ocean, not the Caribbean Sea.
When Christopher Columbus first arrived in the West Indies in 1492, he landed on a Bahamian island he named San Salvador. The island now presently known as San Salvador (formerly called Watling Island) has long been thought to be the island where Columbus landed. But in truth, historians do not agree on the exact site of the landing. The possibility narrows between two islands: San Salvador itself montreal downtown online hotel reservations and Samana Cay, about 80 miles southeast.
Arawak Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador Island in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands montreal downtown online hotel reservations became a colony montreal downtown online hotel reservations in 1783. Since attaining independence montreal downtown online hotel reservations from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas have prospered through tourism and international banking and investment management. Because of its geography, the country is a major transshipment point for illegal drugs, particularly shipments to the US, and its territory is used for smuggling illegal migrants into the US.
The official language spoken in the Bahamas is English. The populace is predictably montreal downtown online hotel reservations friendly and more religious than one might expect: the Bahamas have one of the highest ratios of churches per capita in the world, with Baptists being the largest single montreal downtown online hotel reservations group. Local newspapers montreal downtown online hotel reservations will reveal religious references by elected officials in a manner that exceeds what would be found in the United States. This devotion does nothing to prohibit the activities of visitors nor is it intended to. There is a very "libertarian" attitude about personal morals.
The biggest event in the Bahamian calendar is 'Junkanoo', a street parade montreal downtown online hotel reservations held on Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year's Day (January 1). Junkanoo groups "rush" through the streets of towns, especially Nassau , wearing spectacular yet disposable costumes of crepe paper and playing distinctive Junkanoo music, which combines African rhythms with loud brass and cowbells, fusing them together in a medley that veers on cacophony but is exceedingly dancable. The costumes, made from scratch montreal downtown online hotel reservations every year, are disposed of on the streets as the party ends and make a great free souvenir to bring home!
There are many types of music known in the Bahamian culture but the four most prevalent forms of music are Calypso, Soca, Junkanoo and Rake and scrape. The music of the Bahamas is associated primarily with junkanoo, a celebration which occurs on Boxing Day and again on New Year's Day. Parades and other celebrations mark the ceremony. Groups like The Baha Men, Ronnie Butler and Kirkland Bodie have gained massive popularity montreal downtown online hotel reservations in Japan, the United States and elsewhere.
Soca is a form of music which involves dance and originated from calypso music. Originally it combined the melodic rhythmic sound of calypso with firm percussion and local chutney music. Soca music has grown in the last 20 years primarily montreal downtown online hotel reservations by musicians from various Anglophone Caribbean countries including Trinidad, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, United States Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, montreal downtown online hotel reservations Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica and Belize.
Rake and scrape music comes from the musical traditions of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and is characterized by the use of a saw as the primary instrument. It was brought by immigrants from those islands from the 1920s to about the 1940s, who settled on Cat Island, and elsewhere. Rake and Scrape is traditionally used to accompany montreal downtown online hotel reservations the Bahamian Quadrille and the heel-toe polka all relics of the initial mixture of Africa and Europe [1].Many of these Turks and Caicos Islanders became some of the most famous musicians montreal downtown online hotel reservations in the Bahamas. Many eventually moved back to their homelands, bringing with them junkanoo. Turks and Caicos are now the second home for junkanoo.
montreal downtown online hotel reservations The climate of the islands north of the Tropic of Cancer are subtropical, and shares an identical climate with South Florida. Despite being generally warm and humid, wintertime may see cold snaps, and snow flurries have been sighted once. Nighttime lows also dip into the 40s and 50s during the wintertime. The islands south of the Tropic of Cancer are tropical, with winter night lows usually in the upper 50s and lower 60s,and hot, humid days.
The Bahamas archipelago are in fact the tops of banks that were formed montreal downtown online hotel reservations some time between 90,000 montreal downtown online hotel reservations and 120 years ago from coral reef formation. The well known pink sand beaches of the Bahamas get their vibrant montreal downtown online hotel reservations appearance from the fractured pieces of seashell combined with the sand.
Wildlife in Bahamas contains various species. Many different breed of crabs can be found on the beaches. Hermit and Cardisoma guanhumi are two of the land crabs to be noted frequently in the island. The wild horses of Abaco are famous in The Bahamas.
During montreal downtown online hotel reservations a tour of the Bahamas, montreal downtown online hotel reservations tourists can come across various other species including montreal downtown online hotel reservations the Bahamas Hutia, numerous frogs, rocky raccoon, snails such as Cerion, cicada, blind cave fish, ants and reptiles.
The Bahamas is also home to numerous aquatic life. Sharks, manatees, dolphins, frogfish, montreal downtown online hotel reservations angelfish, starfish and turtles montreal downtown online hotel reservations can be viewed in the waters surrounding The Bahamas. Apart from numerous species of fish, tourists can spot several types of worms also.
Officially 120V 60Hz, which is identical to the U.S. and Canadian standard. Outlets are North American grounded outlets, identical to standard U.S. and Canadian wall outlets. Occasionally non-grounded outlets may be found, montreal downtown online hotel reservations which do not accept the third, round pin present on grounded plugs, and require an adapter. montreal downtown online hotel reservations Older North American outlets may not be polarized (with one slot wider than the other). Otherwise, adapters are available which accept a polarized plug and adapt it for use with a non-polarized outlet.
The country has a parliamentary form of democracy and regular elections are held. The Bahamian senate consists of 16 members, who are appointed by the Governor-General. The Governor-General also appoints the Chief Justice on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom serves as the highest appellate court.
The local government montreal downtown online hotel reservations districts in Bahamas elect local councils for town planning, business licenses, traffic issues and maintenance of government buildings. Lower level town councils are also accorded minor responsibilities in some large districts.
Several cruise lines operate private island retreats in the Bahamas. Disney Cruise Line owns Castaway Cay, Norweigan Cruise Line owns Great Stirrup Cay, Princess Cruise Line owns Little Stirrup Cay, and Royal Caribbean owns Coco Cay. To visit these islands you usually have to be a passenger on the cruise line that owns the island.
Dolphin Encounters is an all natural seawater dolphin facility with Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions located on Blue Lagoon Island, (Salt Cay), a private island retreat and tourist attraction 5 km (three miles) from Nassau, Bahamas.
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If you require a visa to enter the Bahamas, you might be able to apply for one at a British embassy, high commission or consulate in the country where you legally montreal downtown online hotel reservations reside if there is no Bahamian diplomatic post. For example, the British embassies in Al Khobar [2] , Amman [3] , Belgrade [4] , Budapest [5] , Damascus [6] , Guatemala City [7] , Helsinki [8] , Jakarta [9] , Jeddah [10] , Kiev [11] , Moscow [12] , Phnom Penh [13] , Prague [14] , Pristina [15] , Qatar [16] , Rabat [17] , Riga [18] , Riyadh [19] , Rome [20] , Sofia [21] , Tallinn [22] , Tashkent [23] , Vienna [24] , Warsaw [25] and Zagreb [26] accept Bahamian visa applications (this list is not exhaustive). British diplomatic posts charge £50 to process montreal downtown online hotel reservations a Bahamian visa application and an extra £70 if the authorities in the Bahamas require the visa application to be referred to them. The authorities montreal downtown online hotel reservations in the Bahamas can also decide to charge an additional fee if they corr
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