A helping hand in the Bahamas shows side of islands not as grating as Patriots' overblown greatest-ever farce claim

I don’t know if the Bahamas should be encouraged that it has a few defenders or if it should be discouraged that it has so many less defenders than the New England Patriots - in response to WorldGolf.com’s Willie K. Wolfrum writing a largely admittedly fawning ode to the fraud Pats. Newsflash: If these Patriots go 19-0, they’re still not close to the greatest NFL team ever. A number of Joe Montana’s 49ers teams would destroy these little-defense Pats. The NFL’s just much more watered down now and weaker overall.

Now, back to the Bahamas.

Some people just don’t like truth telling in any travel writing. Sorry, Nassau, Bahamas isn’t all wonderful and yes there’s a good chance that someone will offer you free samples of heroin when you’re there. At least if you leave Atlantis’ fake fantasyland.

A little truth doesn’t indict a whole island though.

You’ll likely come across plenty of genuine people too. I did at the Cable Beach Golf Club. After a late round there, finished with the sun setting, the courtesy shuttle I was depending on for a ride back to my hotel didn’t show (not such an uncommon occurrence in the Bahamas). Seeing this a local Bahamian woman doing some work at the course and a Canadian transplant roofer who was there to conduct some repairs immediately stepped forward and offered to give two other stranded golfers and myself a ride to the hotel.

They wouldn’t think of letting us walk down the street to try and catch a taxi at another hotel.

Instead we all threw our golf bags into the back of their small SUV and headed off. The Bahamian woman and the Canadian transplant refused to take even a few dollars for gas (and at $4.98 a gallon, gas is no small luxury in the Bahamas). They simply helped three strangers because they could.

That’s part of the Bahamas too.

I wrote about this in the course review of Cable Beach that will go up later, but was reminded of it when a reader defending the Bahamas wrote about how he’d often give rides to lost visitors. I do always listen to you readers. Even when you don’t want to hear the truth because you’re too close to the situation (i.e. working in Bahamas tourism).

Now if only the Bahamas could have as many people passionate about it as a football team with an overblown sense of importance and its place in history.