Originally published Sunday, November 13, 2005
It is a humid Sunday morning, and a large black pig lies on the walkway at Ardastra Gardens, sleeping. In the sticky heat, few people come to see the marching flamingos - the signature event at this small zoo - and the pig sleeps on, undisturbed.
At Ardastra's tiny arena, about two dozen flamingos are briefly flustered when a peacock unexpectedly joins them, but they follow a human drill instructor into the ring, obediently turning, stopping and marching for a small but enthusiastic audience.
Flamingos have been marching here for more than four decades, a bit of old-fashioned entertainment that stands in sharp contrast to Paradise Island's high-gloss Atlantis Resort, with its snorkeling lagoon, Mayan Temple and a water slide that zips you through a shark-filled lagoon.
These are the two sides of New Providence, capital of the Bahamas and home to two-thirds of its residents: Nassau and Paradise Island, connected by a great arcing bridge.
Nassau is a longtime cruise-ship port of call with both luxury inns and down-at-the-heels beachfront hotels. You can sunbathe and snorkel, take a party cruise, golf, gamble in the Crystal Palace Casino, buy cheap souvenirs in the Straw Market or emeralds on Bay Street, visit old attractions like Ardastra Gardens and the Pompey Museum of Slavery & Emancipation, or new ones, like the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.
PARADISE ISLE
Paradise Island has a clean-scrubbed Disney-like resort feel, with few quirks that distinguish it from any other tropical beach. Most of the beaches are private but its main strand, Cabbage Beach, is open to the public.
Atlantis has its sprawling water park and The Dig - underwater views of marine habitat where rays glide past at eye level and lobsters walk in conga lines below them. If that doesn't keep the kids busy, Atlantis has a day camp, movies, and a nightclub for the soda pop set.
There are a golf course and casino here, too - although with higher table minimums - and a cigar shop where a man rolls fat cigars by hand. Paradise Island also has the exclusive One&Only Ocean Club, where Jason Priestley got married and Martha Stewart spent her last weekend of freedom before going to prison. There are no errant peacocks or napping pigs.
Atlantis has a self-contained feel; you never need leave the property, unless to go to shops and restaurants at the adjoining Marina Village - built in part to accommodate the overflow from the resort's pricey restaurants.
Few Bahamians live on this side of the bridge; you're more likely to mingle with them going about their daily business in Nassau. One local I encountered on Bay Street, on learning that I planned to take the ferry to Paradise Island, scowled and said: ``Only the tourists go there.''
But Paradise Island clearly has what tourists want. Atlantis' 2,300 rooms are often sold out, sometimes weeks in advance. Owner Kerzner International, citing demand from its guests, is building a fourth tower of nothing but luxury suites.
Atlantis ``was a huge success,'' says David Johnson, deputy director-general of tourism for the Bahamas. ``It drove up the occupancy and average rates at unprecedented levels all over New Providence, especially Cable Beach. It led to a huge comeback for tourism.''
ON NASSAU
Once Nassau's main tourist draw, Cable Beach had suffered a decline in tourism blamed on poor service and aging hotel rooms. Today it's lively, if not jammed.
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