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Too much 'fun'?

The alcohol is cheap. The outfits are small. And inhibitions? When young people head to the islands to party, it's no holds barred.

By TAMARA LUSH
Published July 4, 2005

	At 2 p.m. on a Saturday, Prewitt was just waking up in her hotel room in Nassau, Bahamas, shaking off a hangover after a night of partying. The Bahamas' rarely enforced drinking age is 18.
	Bahamian children play at Saunder's Beach, while thousands of passengers from the cruise ships docked in the Port of Nassau are off exploring the island. The beaches are one of the Bahamas' main attractions.
	Gerti Capollari, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y., right, dances with Megan Prewitt, 19, of Clearwater at Senor Frog's, a Nassau bar owned by the same company that owns the bar in Aruba from which Natalee Holloway vanished in May. It offers free shots, cheap bar, loud music and a sexually charged atmosphere.

NASSAU, Bahamas - It's 1 a.m. at Senor Frog's, and Megan Prewitt, a fresh-faced 19-year-old from Clearwater, is shaking her behind for several hundred screaming drunks.

"Should she stay?" the emcee asks the crowd, holding his hand over Prewitt's head. Prewitt beams from the stage and exposes some cleavage. She sticks out her backside and a guy on the dance floor slaps her.

The crowd goes wild.

Prewitt is pretty typical of the patrons at Senor Frog's: She's young, has never been out of the United States and has lost track of how much she has had to drink.

At Senor Frog's the shots are free, the beer is cheap and the music is pumping. There are few parents, and fewer rules; the drinking age is 18 but rarely enforced. Yet the atmosphere seems safe and distinctly American: Sweet Home Alabama is one of the most popular songs on the dance floor.

For a $7 cover, bartenders literally pour shots down kids' throats. Sloppy kissing and groping are encouraged and it's easy for sweaty, hormone-charged teens from around the world to hook up on the dance floor.

It's the kind of bar from which Alabama teen Natalee Holloway vanished in Aruba one month ago (Senor Frog's is owned by the same company as Carlos 'N Charlie's, where Holloway was last seen).

Resort destinations like Aruba, Cancun and the Bahamas are popular among the under-21 set, especially during spring break and after graduation. They offer gorgeous beaches, crystal-clear water and no-holds-barred partying.

The loose atmosphere - it's like a high school dance with booze - helps explain how a young woman like Holloway could vanish.

"It's sad what happened in Aruba," said Nancy Thigpen, a 46-year-old Jacksonville-area police officer who stopped by Senor Frog's while on vacation and was appalled by what she saw.

Kids feel safe here, she said. It's an English-speaking country catering to tourists with a lax attitude about booze - a potentially dangerous mix.

"I can see it in this environment, where everyone is elbow to elbow, things are getting crazy," Thigpen said.

As Thigpen looks around the dance floor, she sees Natalee Holloway in the face of every young woman here.

* * *

It's a mystery that has become a cable TV news obsession: What happened to Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old, college-bound blond who went to Aruba on a graduation trip?

She spent five days on the island with seven chaperones and 140 classmates. She met brown-haired, doe-eyed Joran van der Sloot, 17, an island judicial official's son who liked to party with tourists.

He and the Alabama kids gambled in a casino and posed for photos.

The night of May 29, the group's last day in Aruba, Holloway went to Carlos 'N Charlie's, a restaurant by day and popular bar by night. She "drank responsibly," her friends told local media, and met up with van der Sloot.

At 1:30 a.m. May 30, Holloway climbed into a silver car with van der Sloot and two of his friends.

She hasn't been seen since.

Her father, Dave Holloway, described his daughter on CNN: "She always liked to make a lot of friends. And she's from the South. And a lot of people from the South are very friendly. They want to make friends, and are very hospitable, and trusting, to some extent. And that may have been part of the process, was that she may have trusted these guys a little bit more so than maybe someone from somewhere else."

* * *

Three months ago, Megan Prewitt and Ayla Burnett, best friends since fifth grade, began planning a vacation to celebrate Ayla's 19th birthday.

Neither had been out of the country before, but the Bahamas seemed pretty cool. It was cheap and close to Florida. And the drinking age is 18.

"When you're drunk, you can have fun easier," Burnett explained.

On the day they were to fly out, Prewitt almost canceled.

"I couldn't find Cottontail," Prewitt said of her faded, pink stuffed rabbit she's owned since childhood. "I always bring him when I go somewhere."

But she found Cottontail and packed him into her suitcase along with countless pots of lip gloss, a few bikinis and two sparkly evening dresses.

Prewitt and Burnett's parents lectured them before they left.

"Don't get too drunk there," Prewitt's mom said. It was weird, Prewitt said, because her parents don't drink and rarely talk about drinking. Her mom also told them not to put down their drinks in a bar - somebody could slip a date-rape drug into the glass - and don't go off with strange guys.

Ever.

Both girls' parents mentioned Natalee Holloway, who had disappeared three weeks before they left.

When they arrived, they headed straight for a liquor store, where they bought champagne and a bottle of Bacardi rum.

"It felt so good to just walk into a liquor store and just pick some up, like yah, mon," Burnett said.

Then they met the guys.

Prewitt and Burnett were standing on their hotel balcony looking at the pool. Two guys were standing on a balcony a few floors above.

The girls' phone rang; it was the guys. They are brothers from Albania who now live in New York.

Prewitt wasn't interested; she has had the same boyfriend since 10th grade and wants to marry him. Burnett doesn't have a boyfriend and admits being a little shy around guys.

The two brothers came down to their hotel room. Eventually, they all ended up at Senor Frog's.

* * *

"It's gettin' hot in here/So take off all your clothes/I am gettin' so hot/I wanna take my clothes off."

The DJ at Senor Frog's has played the rapper Nelly's song at least twice on this Friday night. Everyone sings along.

By 11 p.m., everyone is dancing and sweating and flirting. An angelic-looking blond guy from Virginia kisses two girls at once. Says he has downed 12 shots. A raven-haired girl from New York nurses her foot, bitten by a shark days earlier. The 20-year-old isn't taking her antibiotics tonight so she can drink.

And then there are the orgasm girls.

They are three blonds from Detroit - two are 17, one is 20 - and are onstage for the "orgasm contest," where participants loudly fake sex noises.

The girls all wear tiny tank tops and tinier skirts.

They lose the contest, but get free beer. They wobble to the restroom, holding hands so they don't lose each other in the thick crowd.

They are confident nothing bad could happen to them in the Bahamas. They've heard of Natalee Holloway, but one girl's mom is around, just in case.

A few minutes later, the trio are dancing to a Bob Marley song with two locals: "Don't worry 'bout a thing/cuz every little thing/gonna be all right."

"Whatever," said Tonya Hubbard, 20, shrugging. "I ain't going home with him."

* * *

Before going to Senor Frog's, Prewitt and Burnett drink the champagne and half the Bacardi. They apply blue sparkly eyeshadow and don miniskirts.

At the bar, they spend $19 combined on alcohol, which they think is a lot. The next day Prewitt is a little embarrassed.

She had danced with one guy who put his hands near her breasts while she wrapped her legs around another guy. "I feel like a skank," she said, sighing.

"I didn't kiss anybody, though," she adds, rubbing her eyes, still rimmed with last night's blue shadow.

They had left the bar with the two brothers from New York, who had a rental car. The brothers had brought them back to their hotel and made sure they were safely in their room - without hitting on them.

"We're really pleased they weren't creepy," Prewitt said.

* * *

Several hours later, the scene at Senor Frog's is the same as the night before. Same music. Same DJ. Same sex jokes. Kids snaking around the dance floor while bartenders pour shots into people's mouths.

The DJ is on stage, screaming over a pounding hip-hop beat.

"Who's drunk?" he asks. Cheers erupt.

"Who's horny?" he asks. More cheers.

"Who's drunk and horny?"

A group of fraternity guys from UCLA are at the bar, all over 21, all just graduated. They are appalled.

"I would never, ever send my daughter on one of these grad trips," said Joey Famini, 21. "They are way too young."

At 1 a.m., Prewitt and Burnett walk in with the two guys from New York.

"We're sober tonight," Prewitt yells over the music.

"Yeah," Burnett says. "Besides, we've got the booze cruise tomorrow."

--Tamara Lush can be reached at lush@sptimes.com or 727 893-8612.

[Last modified July 4, 2005, 01:43:04]