Journey by Plane to the Exumas Part 1

Bahamas Day 1

In Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020, I was going to be on the American side of the planet. I wanted to visit a place I had traveled to when I was young and was looking forward to experiencing it again as an adult. I planned to visit my Bahamian family in the capital island of Nassau over Spring break. The week before I flew out, Covid 19 had taken over our lives, was everywhere on the news, and school was essentially canceled for the rest of the season. Countries were not shutting down at that time, so I decided to go ahead and fly out to meet up with my cousin, Melissa anyway. I took a prop plane from Tampa Bay to Nassau, and the journey took around two hours.

One of my favorite things about arriving in tropical countries is that first blast of humidity that hits you when you walk out of the airport doors. Melissa and Paul came to pick me up. We started talking our heads off about adventures as Melissa and I are very much alike in our passion for nature and wildlife. The weather looked like it would be excellent for flying conditions the next day, so Paul, who owns a prop plane, planned to fly me out to Stanley Cay, which is an islet in the Exumas. We arrived at Melissa's place, I put my stuff in the guest villa and joined them to plan all the things I wanted to do for the next week. We headed out to a favorite restaurant of theirs for some good Bahamian food and beer and enjoyed the sunset. We headed to bed early as the next day would be busy and long.

Bahamas Day 2

I woke up around 6 am and got my gear for the day organized, had some breakfast and then we set off for the airport at 6:45 am. Paul keeps his Cessna 172 airplane in a private section of the airport. Paul has been a pilot in the Bahamas for ages. He has written a book titled, “Sharks on the Runway” a very entertaining and interesting book about all his years of flying there. The clouds were a little low, so we waited a bit to take off. Paul is an expert in aerial photography. If clouds block the sun, it leaves dark spots on the ocean and is not great for photos. The light got better, and we prepped the plane for take-off.

Paul was in the captain's seat and I was in the co-pilot's seat while Melissa sat in the back. We took off, and as the airplane rose, the striking shades of blue spread out underneath me. It took about forty-five minutes to reach the Exumas chain of islands. The first island we flew over is where the famous pink iguanas of the Exumas are found. They are endemic to the island. We headed southbound and observed the gorgeous ribbons of sea water that crisscrossed the islands as the tide came in. Paul was telling me about the different islands we were crossing over and which celebrities they belonged to. He used to fly Johnny Depp and a long list of other celebrities from island to island. Paul's plane is uniquely designed for the window to open, allowing a photographer to put their camera outside. Once we got to the perfect altitude, I opened the window and stuck my camera out to start taking photos.

We passed one island, and in a tidal area there was a sunken airplane that belonged to some drug dealers. I got a gorgeous photo of the wreck while a catamaran passed by.

We eventually worked our way south to Stanley Cay, where we would hang out for the rest of the day. We landed the airplane and headed into the town spectacularly decorated with bright Caribbean-colored houses.

While walking through the town, we came to a beach, and right there, I saw my first shark of the trip. A beautiful nurse shark around four feet long. The Bahamas is known for its abundance of sharks. It is one of the top destinations on the planet to see sharks. In Grand Bahama, you have tiger sharks. Bimini has Great Hammerhead sharks and the Exumas and Nassau have Caribbean Reef and Nurse sharks. We arrived at the Stanley Cay Yacht club and right near the dock were around forty, give or take, nurse sharks of varying shades of brown. Some have a more, red hue, while others lean toward purple.

Fishermen tend to clean their catches around this area which is the primary reason the sharks hang around. I got my Go pro and dome port to allow for under and over shots and got right in the water with the nurse sharks. They are incredibly docile sharks and pose no threat to humans. Just be mindful of where you place your hands when guiding them away from you! A nurse shark's diet consists mainly of mollusks and shellfish and they sift through the sand or wedge themselves into crevasses searching for food. While in the water, I was constantly being bumped by the sharks as they are curious to see what I am. I honestly was so excited to be there and see this many sharks in one place as I have not witnessed anything quite like that, especially in such crystal, clear water. Sadly, the shark populations worldwide are in decline due to overfishing and bycatch.

After an hour of playing around and photographing the sharks, I got out of the water and used my DSLR to get photos of the sharks from above the water. From this vantage point, their colors pop against the turquoise Caribbean waters. Afterward, we had lunch at the yacht club, relaxed a bit, and I went through my GoPro photos to see what I liked and what I wanted to reshoot and got back into the water to get some more pictures.

When it was time to head out, we walked back to where the airplane was parked, and as we passed over a bridge, I spotted two southern stingrays. They were a little shy, so I was not able to get any photos of them. I was amazed at how plentiful the marine life was here in the Bahamas. When it comes to protecting its ecosystems, the country does a stellar job. We took off from Stanley Cay, and Paul put me in even better spots to take photos. The colors popped even more with the sun higher in the sky.