Fred...The Conch Man

While passing the time lying on the beach in Nassau, there seemed to be some what of a routine. Every morning Bahamian men set up on the beach renting jet skis, banana boats, snorkel gear and offering para-sailing. Every afternoon, the clouds rolled in and thunderstorms ruined the party...for about 20 minutes. And every evening around 5:45-6:00p Fred motored on to the shores of the beach of the Sheraton Hotel. Fred's boat, in desperate need of a paint job, was full of fish, lobster and conch that he collected through out the day. He anchored his boat in the sand, put his pretty conch shells on display for sale, and got to work scaling his fish and removing the conch from the shell. Fred made fresh conch salad ($5) on his boat which is made up of raw conch, tomato, onion, squeezed orange juice, squeezed lime juice, salt and pepper. He cut the veggies and the conch with a rusty knife and rinsed off everything in the salty sea water. Thanks to my "reporter" girlfriend I learned that Fred was almost married twice, has fisherman in his family, swims with the sharks but is no longer scared, eating raw conch turns a man into the Energizer bunny and that the conch doesn't have a brain, so it doesn't hurt them when he removes them from the shell for my consumption (allegedly).

As I was snapping pictures, he told me to put him on the internet so he could sell more fish. Little did he know, my influence doesn't reach very far. But if you are ever in Nassau, check out the shores of Cable Beach and look for Fred, he'll have some conch salad for you.

Shout out to Fred the Conch Man...cool as a fan.