Thunderball Grotto, Iguanas and Pigs in the Exumas

Photo taken inside cave looking out.

As we moved up the chain of the Exumas, a string of narrow islands stretching for 90 miles, it became apparent that we would be remiss if we did not visit three particular locations which nearly all sailors do. It would be like traveling to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower. After returning from Paris, people would react strongly upon learning that you had skipped the Eiffel Tower. “Wait a minute—you went to Paris and you didn’t go see the Eiffel Tower? Why in heaven’s name not?”

Cave filled with snorkelers and fish

So it is in this instance. “You went to the Exumas? Did you see the swimming pigs? Did you go to the Thunderball Grotto? Did you see the iguanas?” And so, we did all three. 

Thunderball Grotto - Staniel Cay

The Thunderball Grotto is a cave under an uninhabited island near Staniel Cay. It is underwater at high tide. But, between low and slack tide one can swim into the cave. The cave is filled with fish that also like caves and it is, quite spectacular. 

Queen Angelfish

I had a tete a tete with a Queen Angelfish that was astonishing. She repeatedly swam so close to me that it was difficult to photograph her. A superb problem to have from my point of view.

Huge cave with high ceiling and natural
sky lights

The Thunderball Grotto has two entrances and so we felt compelled to exit by the other which led to significant corals and fishes outside the cave as well. Beautiful! I highly recommend this snorkel spot.

Since the cave must be entered at slack tide, the tourist
boats delivered many other snorkelers to explore at
the same time as we did.

Iguana Preserve - Bitter Guana

The island of Bitter Guana is home to an iguana preserve for endangered rock iguanas. Most of the remaining 5000 live on that island, enjoying the dry heat and sand and plant life that they eat. We anchored nearby and went to shore to see them, the only people on the beach at the time. We’ve seen many kinds of iguanas on various islands but these were a different species. 

Note the criss-cross striping on the sand.  Those are from iguana tails.

It is not hard to believe that there are thousands of iguanas on the island. Everywhere we walked iguanas have left signs of their presence. Iguana tracks criss-cross the sand between all the clumps of Sea Grape bushes. Those and other waist high plants are really good for hiding, especially if you are an iguana. With some effort, we found two large ones by following the sound of rustling leaves. 

Found one large iguana hiding here.

In time a speed boat arrived with a load of tourists and music blaring. I thought, ‘Oh great, the iguanas are going to run as far away as they can now.’ But instead, it was as if a dinner bell had been rung. Iguanas came out of hiding onto the beach, running to greet the tourists. 

A tourist handed me her skewer to feed
the iguana

Unbeknownst to me, the tour boats, in an effort to ensure that their guests get to actually see the star attractions, had taken to supplying their guests with tiny pieces of food attached to long bamboo skewers. 

One of many who came hustling out of hiding
for tour boat

One of the iguanas, being sorely mistaken that I would have food as well, ran right up to me and put his face into my camera lens as I knelt on the ground. I got some great shots of an iguana front and back leg, belly, and tail. Real close-ups.

How's this for a close-up?

The Swimming Pigs - Big Major Cay

On to the story of the swimming pigs. Yes, there are pigs living on the island of Big Major Cay and pigs do know how to swim. That is not astonishing. They are not wild pigs, which I had assumed they were, prior to our visit and that fact surprised me. I had thought that they were feral pigs which ended up stranded on the island after some shipwreck 200 years ago. That would have made some sense to me. But no, some residents of Staniel Cay nearby, brought piglets to Big Major Cay.  And the pigs, in turn, have certainly brought in the tourists.

Pig who wants me to feed him.

The pigs sometimes swim out to meet people. They did not feel so inclined for our visit. There are awesome photos of pigs online, swimming with tourists. Cute, I admit. There are also reports of the pigs biting people. Can a pig differentiate between a scrap of food and my finger? Essentially no. Pigs will eat anything. Their primary objective in life is to eat and cool down. 

We did bring scraps from our lunch

As a farmer’s daughter, it is my opinion that pigs do not belong in the Exumas. There is no mud to lie in to cool down. The ocean is there of course, but does not provide a covering for their skin as does mud. Ocean water evaporates quickly, the salt is a desicant and the sand is HOT! There is no fresh water on the island.  It is now provided by people bringing it to them. Apparently there were a few pig fatalities until somebody figured that out. 

Since the pigs are accustomed to getting food from
people, I caution turning one's backside
to them.

Pigs do not sweat. I know it is a common phrase, “I’m sweating like a pig.” But pigs do not sweat. And that is a bit of a problem for them. They need to keep cool and certainly not over exert themselves in the heat because of this. They are at risk for heat stroke and death. So, bringing them onto a hot coral island with no soil, is not a very nice thing to do to a pig.  

There are a few half-grown pigs
 and one piglet on the island.

If they’re bent on bringing in an animal to attract tourists, I suggest an animal that thrives in this environment. Like maybe…. camels? Again, just my opinion.

A Live Volcano

Ropey lava covers the landscape near the Kona airport, Hawai'i

We had been up close to an active volcano before this one—the Hawai’ian Kiluea Volcano has been putting out hot lava for many years. After we were married, 17 years ago, we took advantage of a professional conference scheduled in Hilo, Hawai’i, to circumnavigate the Big Island. Following the circumference of the island, we were able to see different types of lava in various stages.  

Lava rolled across the roadway to the ocean

On the southern end, we carefully walked across lava that spilled across the highway as it snaked it’s way to steam in the ocean. That lava looked like miles of ropey sharp-edged licorice. 

Volcanic sulphur gas leaks from many vents

We had driven over older lava fields which were like miles of giant spilled pepper as far as we could see along the eastern shore. And of course, we’d seen ancient lava flows smoothed by time and weather in which tropical plants now grew between the cracks.

Plant life inside a crater

But this volcano, the Soufriere Hills Volcano in Montserrat is a different kind of animal.  It had not spewed molten (liquid) lava but rather, over the course of the last 20 years, has coughed up flaming boulders, sand, ash and gases.  

Soufriere Hills Volcano, 1997 eruption
(brochure photo, Montserrat
Volcano Observatory

The major eruptions have occurred a handful of times and generated clouds of gases and ash many thousands of feet high. But aside from major eruptions, the volcano routinely emits ash and gases alone.  We could in fact, see and smell the sulfur emissions from a couple of miles offshore as we were sailing away.

Deep trenches carved into the mudslide by tropical rains

With each major eruption, the mountain would grow another knob upward higher and higher, building onto itself with each belch from the opening. Eventually the growing pile could no longer balance where it grew and toppled over. During the next major eruption, the growing pile of rock from another  vent would lose its’ balance and fall in a different direction. 

A more recent eruption which covered Plymouth

With daily tropical rains, all that stuff became slow rivers of mud oozing down the mountainsides, along with the occasional house-size boulder.  Layer upon layer of mud spread out over huge expanses of land, filling valleys and rivers and slowly covering up everything in its’ path.

Many feet of mud, sand and ash filled in rivers, valleys

In some areas away from the direct flow of the mud, the billowing clouds of ash would accumulate in layers over days and months.  Now and then, a burning boulder would come flying from thousands of feet in the air away to land on a rooftop, incinerating it and all that is wood.  

Ash covers much more of the island than the two enormous swaths chosen by the mud paths.  The ash fertilizes the land already verdant with trees and plants, and speeds along the process of the jungle retaking the towns that it smothered.  

A home in what was Cork Hill, half buried in ash.

We went on a “volcano” tour with a gentleman who has been a guide for 30 some years on Montserrat.  He showed us photos and videos of the island and the towns before the volcano woke up, breaking its’ 400 year hiatus. 

Piles of mud and sand narrowly missed this house

On steep and windy little paved roads with curb and gutter, he drove us through an area where the only noticeable sign of prior human habitation was an elevated cricket field which someone had continued to keep free of jungle growth.  

Jungle reclaiming the land

In order to “find” the rest of the village he stopped multiples times to point out what were once nice homes, but now were burned-out roofless shells hidden behind dense jungle vegetation. 

A garden planted on fertile ash where Cork Hill once stood.  

The village had been Cork Hill, and our guide had lived there. With the exception of that cricket field, his village has been swallowed up by jungle growing on top of fertile ash.

Abandoned home overlooking Plymouth

We were taken to what was once, a lovely home overlooking the town of Plymouth, now labeled an Exclusion Zone. The abandoned home was still coated in ash and grime. Modern furnishings and utilities were left behind along with a house key.  

Occupants left in a hurry

A couple hundred feet below was a sports stadium, but only the elevated stands were visible.  

New waterway sliced through the many feet
of mud to reach the ocean

The remains of Plymouth, once the capitol of Montserrat, now seem as a dystopian moonscape of brown block houses, most without roofs.  Here and there, a roof remains as the only evidence of a house that lies entombed in mud beneath it. 

In the Exclusion Zone.  Most of the brown "blocks" on the horizon are shells of homes, businesses

Travel is forbidden within the Exclusion Zone but for the companies with heavy equipment that go in to harvest the rainwater washed sand which is now the island’s only export.  The mountains of clean sand sparkle with silica.

Rainwater cleaned sand, Montserrat's only export

On the other side of the island, the miles of mud and boulders had filled in what was once a bay adding an unknown (to me) number of acres to Montserrat. In so doing, it enveloped the airport.  From a distance we could see the top of the old airport control tower rising out of the mud.

Look for the air traffic control tower on the far right of photo

We talked about the thousands of people who fled Montserrat after the first major eruption.  The 11,000 citizens of Montserrat at that time, were British subjects.  They were welcomed, in fact, encouraged to leave the island to become permanent residents of Great Britain with talk of the island being unsafe to live on. At the same time, however, there were mainland Brits who were grabbing up prime properties on Montserrat for a pittance of their previous value. 

This old church is being repaired for families to live in. Churches
and schools served as residences for years.

Many, like our tour guide, refused to leave the island.  With the loss of so much housing, he was obligated to live in a school classroom with his family for two years. 

A small-farm owner who remained on Montserrat tending his pigs.

Now the island’s inhabitants number only five thousand, and of those, only two thousand are natives of Montserrat.  

Nobody lived on the north end of Montserrat before the volcano erupted. New towns sprouted up here.

I will conclude with a light-hearted tidbit that just may come in handy during a game of Trivial Pursuit or during one of those awkward lulls in conversation after meeting a future in-law.  

Wild goats, as well as donkeys roam Montserrat mountains.

Along with Ireland, only Montserrat celebrates St. Patrick’s Day as a national holiday!  And, if you were of a mind to earn a degree in Irish Step dancing, you would have to go to Montserrat to study because that is where the professional school exists.  Who knew?

"Like SHE said, 'Who knew'?"