The Bahamas, the first landfall that Columbus made in the new world, are a long holiday playfround, 760 miles of hundreds of islands stretching from Florida to Haiti. Fringed with palm trees, beautidul beaches and birght resorts, the Bahamas seem almost as much a part of the sea as of the land.
The Name ‘Bahama’ comes, in fact, from the phrase Baja Mar meaning under water or shallows, sed to describe the islands by the 16th century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon. Of all the buccaneers, gun runners, speculators, cotton traders and rum smugglers who visited the islands during their strange, piratical history, most were just passing through, though some stayed to give the Bahamas their unique cosmopolitan flavor. Today the islands’ economy is still based on tourism and one of the pleasures of visiting the Bahamas is their wide open friendliness, welcome and providing for his comfort.
The 700 islands and their towns have seperate characters; Freeport provides modern glitter, Nassau traditional dignity and any of hundreds of resorts up and down the coasts give unrivalled opportunities for fishing, swimming, diving, sailing or lying on a long white beach. There are casinos, clubs, restaurants – entertanments both indoor and outdoor, both simple and sophisticated.
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