It keeps getting better

Warderick Wells Island is part of The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which protects 176 square miles of water, reefs and cays. Warderick Wells, where the park headquarters are, turned out to be the crown jewel of The Exumas. Unknowingly, we had left the best for last.

We picked mooring buoy number nine from the field that the park manages in an anchorage that’s well-protected, albeit narrow and subject to a wild tidal current. We lost the boathook in the process and recovered it later, but from what we saw during our stay, that appeared to be standard procedure when trying to pick up the buoy pendant in those strong currents. Never mind that we arrived at slack tide and didn’t really have any current to contend with, but we like to blend in, so we lost the hook anyway.

Buoy nine happened to be the closest one to an old sunken boat that became an artificial reef, home of a multitude of fish. A flood current would place Ñandú right on top of the sunken boat, gifting us with a colorful tropical garden underneath us. Getting wet was optional, as we could see the schools of fish, the huge resident lobster and the visiting nurse shark from the deck.

We spent an entire week enjoying the spectacle in our backyard, watching the tide come and go and the sand bars hide and show. We snorkeled in nearby reefs, and took the dinghy to shore to explore every inch of the hiking trails. The trails zig-zag from sandy beaches on the Bank side to rocky bluffs and seas that roar through blow holes on the Ocean side. They took us through mangroves, shady palm forests, not-so-shady Swiss-cheese-like rocky terrain, ponds, sand flats, small hills, ruins, and even a pirate lair.

What a gourmet dessert it was! You can see twice as many pictures in the photo album.