Winter, 1999

To the friends of the Club Peace and Plenty, Beach Inn and the Bonefish Lodge, the owner, management and staff wish to bring you this Exuma update.

Many of our guests have visited with us over the holiday season and have joined (at 4:00 A.M.) in celebrating Junkanoo on Boxing Day, Dec. 26. Junkanoo is a cultural event held over from the plantation days. Costumes and floats are fashioned from cardboard and crepe paper, while music is supplied by goatskin drums, horns and whistles. The Peace and Plenty is helping to sponsor a group of students from the nine primary schools on Exuma to encourage the youth of the island to continue its cultural heritage into the next century. If any of our guests care to assist in the purchase of crepe paper, musical instruments and prize awards, they may do so by mailing donations to Club Peace and Plenty's "Junkanoo Account".

The Peace and Plenty Beach Inn has suspended the "All Inclusive" rate structure and returned to the European Plan rate structure (room and tax only). While the all inclusive was popular with some of our guests, management felt that most of our repeat guests prefer to book the room and add a meal plan, airport transportation, etc. as individual taste dictates. Any guests that wish the "All Inclusive" package rate may book it until Dec. 16, 1997.

Speaking of hotel rates…. The owner, Stan Benjamin, has put on hold rates at both the Club Peace and Plenty and the Beach Inn from Dec. 16, 1997 to Dec. 16, 1999. Thanks Stan!

Special Offer! Club Peace and Plenty has a 2-night hotel / airfare package priced at $299.00 per person, double occupancy, and a 3 - night package priced at $349.00 per person, double occupancy. The hotel / airfare package uses American Eagle or Bahamasair from Miami and Air Sunshine or Island Express from Fort Lauderdale. Not too painful a way to sneak in a breather. The package is good until Dec. 15, 1997 and reservations must be made 7 days in advance. Call 1-800-525-2210 for details and restrictions.

The World Championship Invitational Bonefish Flyfishing Tournament scheduled for July has been rescheduled for Oct. 19-25, 1997 at the Peace and Plenty Bonefish lodge. The Bonefish Lodge held the Bahamian National Championship on July 14 and 15, which was won by Henry Roberts of Grand Bahama Island. Henry caught 6 bonefish at least 22" long and one weighed 6 pounds. He will represent the Bahamas in the World Championship against nine other contestants from the world fishing community. Speaking of the Lodge, we have recently completed the new reception area, office, manager's quarters, dock, landscaping with lots of flowering shrubs and a pond where fish feeding is an exciting event. On your next visit come on by and see it all for yourselves.

Lynx Air International has expressed an interest in operating air service from Fort Lauderdale to George Town starting in Dec. in time for the Winter Season. We'll update the airline access to Exuma in the next online version of the newsletter.

The resource Centre at the Benjamin Foundation will soon begin to distribute learning packages on environmental issues to all the primary schools in the Bahamas outside Nassau and Grand Bahama. The first package will be on endangered animals in the Bahamas and is based on material produced by the National Trust. This will be followed by a package of material developed by the Marine Research Station on Lee Stocking Island which seeks to teach that mangroves are an important part of the environment and not a wasteland as is commonly believed. The package will contain materials in classroom quantities and will be "pupil ready".

In our last issue, we discussed that anyone who stays 20 times for at least 140 days is eligible for a free week stay. If you have stayed at the Peace and Plenty 15 times or more, please call or write Charlie Pflueger to verify you are on our list. We would hate to miss anyone.

Most recently, Sandra Sherman our receptionist at the Beach Inn has decided to move to Nassau to tend to her mother who is quite ill. We will miss her. Hopefully her mother will recover quickly and Sandra can return to Exuma.

Charlie Pflueger will be traveling to London in Nov. this year for our 'UK' family get together and for the World Travel Mart. As a special added attraction Lermon 'Doc' Rolle will be going.

With effect from July 1st, 1999, all of the various charges now applicable to boaters will be replaced by a single levy. The flat levy of $100 per vessel with four persons or less will cover the cruising permit, the fishing permit, Customs and Immigration charges and the $15 per person departure tax for up to four persons. Each additional person above four will be charged the normal $15.00 departure tax. This flat levy will simplify and speed up the entry process for pleasure vessels entering The Bahamas.