RECONNECTED AND READY FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS!

Have you ever dreamed of a faraway place where the mornings are lazy, the days full of adventure and the view breathtaking? Well, I have dreamt about it and now I have found a slice of paradise that I can't wait to get back to. TJ and I decided to go away for our 10th anniversary and we have found an amazing place. We flew from BWI to Fort Lauderdale (thank you Tracy and Randy) which is a quick 2 hour flight and then we caught an island hopper flight directly to the Congotown Airport on South Andros Island in the Bahamas (and it only took about 55 minutes!) We arrived and went through customs and walked outside to find Timmy, our driver, waiting to take us to the boat dock, about an 8 minute drive away. We got to the dock where Captain Moss was waiting to take us to our final destination----TIAMO!!!!!!!



We had about a ten minute boat ride in the most beautiful water imaginable and then all of a sudden we see a dock coming out from the beach with another small boat tied up. Could this be it? We couldn't see anything that looked like a resort anywhere. There were beautiful palm trees, and the closer we got we could see hammocks hanging between the trees and adirondak chairs scattered down the beach. Wow, this is amazing! You would never know that behind all the beautiful island brush you would find our haven for the next 5 days. We were met at the dock by the local staff and taken to the lodge for our intro to the ways of Tiamo. We sat at the bar and ordered our first of many delicious island drinks made by Sandy and Eulika!!

We were taken with drinks in hand to see our Bungalow (#4)!! Wow, wow, wow! The place was unreal! All wood floors, totally screened in, tied back curtains (later untied for privacy!!!!) blowing in the breeze, and a stone floored, fully private outdoor rain shower. Unbelievable and yet so minimalistic at the same time.

There are only 11 bungalows total which means that the max # of guests at any given time is 22.



We had coffee delivered to our room each morning and then at our leisure we would walk up to the lodge for banana pancakes or whatever was being served for the morning. We had the whole morning to relax and read or go for a swim or sail and get ready for the day.

There were daily guided tours by Steve and Sammy, our nature concierges for the trip, either hiking, kayaking, sailing, snorkeling the blue holes or searching the resort for the 3 resident iguanas (Chuckie, Agnes and King). HUGE IGUANAS!!!!!!!!!!!

We chartered a flats boat for the whole day on our Anniversary and went bone fishing. We had never used fly rods before so Shine (our captain) had to first try to teach us how to cast the fly rods and then we set out for the day. Fly fishing is not easy to learn but is much fun to try. We both managed to catch bone fish (me more than my husband)!! which is not an easy task,and we owe it all to Captain Shine for he was an amazing fisherman and patient teacher.

I have to tell you, there was another couple that came for their honeymoon, (real fisher people with thier own fly rods and all the fancy gear you can imagine). Well, they went bone fishing on 2 separate days, all day, and they never had a bone fish on the line!! They were 2 pissed off people, not one fish!! And we, who had never touched a fly rod caught at least a dozen fish between us.. You gotta love beginners luck!

Ok, enough about fishing.

After whatever activity we chose to do, we would head back to the lodge for lunch and drinks!!! and relax some more. Or go sailing or swimming in the beautiful warm water.

Dinner was at the lodge as well, unless you wanted it delivered to your room for a romatic dinner for two, which we didn't, and we all sat at one big table. Mike, the owner and his wife and 8 year old daughter ate dinner with us every night and drank at the bar with us until we were all ready for bed. They also went on most of the excursions with us as well!

After drinking and listening to the bartender on the bongo drums and Sammy singing Bob Marly and playing his guitar(quite well) we would take our wind up flashlight and head back down the beach to find the little wood stump that marked bungalow 4 . We would let the drapes down, turn on the fan and most nights listen to rain trickeling on the tin roof of our wonderful little piece of paradise that was our bungalow!!!!

Anyway, we snorkeled with stingrays and sharks and thousands of beautiful fish and coral and we will never forget it. It was, by all accounts, the best vacation either of us have ever taken.

Their website is beautifully put together and represents them quite well. It is www.tiamoresorts.com if you want to check it out.

Thanks to Tracy and mom for giving us peace of mind so we could really relax and reconnect after 10 years and 3 kids!

We hope to go back often and next time we are hoping to get a few couples to go along and see how great the place really is.

Oh, I almost forgot. The chef was a local Bahamian with no formal training, except her mother, and the food was (as our British friends at Tiamo would say)was quite extraordinary! So much so, that for the first time in my life I ate Lamb Chops and savored every single bite. Me--lamb, no way!!