We hadn't done the jungle walk on Compass Cay in many years, and the day we decided to do the walk, we tried to go across the 'underwater bridge', but the tide wasn't right, so we did other things on this hot day. Finally in fairly late afternoon on this warm day, we made it across and proceeded on the walk. Nobody must've done the walk in a while because there were several spider webs along the path. I made the mistake of leading the way with a stick to push aside the spider webs. A large spider, not the largest I've ever seen, but big enough to make this 'little girl' scream, landed on my shoulder. Poor thing disappeared pretty quickly and Stan led the way from that point. Though there are supposed to be large 'land crabs' and boas in the jungle, evidently they are only out at night. The only other wildlife we saw were the cute lizards everywhere and some happy birds.

On a following day, we took the kayaks over and had a much more enjoyable time in the jungle, exploring the ruins. Someone has done excellent home-made signage along the walk, such as "Trail to Creek", "Crabbie Flats", and my favorite, "The Snake that guards this Well is Our pet Willy the Water Boa".

There is a wonderful reward at the end of the 1 1/2 hour Cliff Walk on Compass Cay, especially if the tide is close to high.

Rachel's Bubble Bath is aptly named. At the right tide, the breaking waves from the ocean side spew into the cove and push you around in a natural whirlpool bath. The water fizzes and you feel like you are drifting in seltzer. The marine life here is also gorgeous. This is another lovely place to watch and take pictures of small fish flitting around among the corals, and live conch hobbling along the sandy floor of the shallow pools.

One of the things Staniel Cay is famous for is Thunderball grotto. This is a cave in a hollow island, a short kayak trip from the Staniel Cay shore. You can enter the cave between 20 minutes before and after low tide. Other than that, the current is too strong and forces you in or out of the cave, or the entrances are entirely submerged. This is a great place for an underwater camera and you can take lots of pictures of fish without having to dive to do it. Twenty (or less) seconds of the James Bond movie feature this cave. A very special place.

The Compass Cay Marina has 12-14 pet nurse sharks and numerous other fish. No fishing is allowed at the marina and there are several places on the island where there are protected conch nurseries. It's a very wildlife-friendly place. For more information about Compass Cay, see http://www.compasscay.com.

We had a very good year of travel in 2009 and are trying to top it this year, starting with a 2-week trip to the Exumas, Bahamas.

We hadn’t had a trip to the Bahamas since 2006 and assumed that once we were retired, the Bahamas would be forever out of our budget.  Well, we decided to splurge and make one last trip to two of our favorite islands.  We stayed at Staniel Cay (pronounced like ‘key’) the first week and at Compass Cay the second.  We really enjoyed the hiking and kayaking and swimming. 

We discovered that Staniel Cay has added an official ‘Staniel Cay Ocean Park’ with a nice hiking trail that starts, or ends (matter of perspective) on Pirate Trap beach, near the once famous Club Thunderball.  It’s nice to spend time on an island where the primary mode of transportation is golf cart.  We were sad to find out that Club Thunderball closed last year.  Now the only restaurant in town is at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, and that is much too boisterous for us.

Compass Cay is privately run by Tucker Rolle, who is someone to admire.  He has a lot of drive and vision. The island has gorgeous beaches, miles of trails and an unbelievably beautiful crescent beach. The trails include a real jungle walk and a ‘mountain’, Compass Peek (sic), that is 92 feet tall, with great views of the entire island. We discovered that the Cliff Walk is not a good idea on a hot day since, for the nearly two hours that it takes to make the walk, there is no access to a place to cool off.  We both overheated and were ecstatic when our bodies finally got to immerse in ‘Rache'l’s Bubble Bath’, another highlight of the island. 

We’re glad to be home in Maine, but can dream of returning to Compass Cay someday.