Kamalame Cay

Andros Island, Bahamas

by coneyislandgreen

Andros Island is not a tourist destination in a sense. It's more for the native Bahamians a place to live and for the occasional adventurous tourist a place to fish or scuba. It hails itself as the bone fishing capital of the world and also has the third largest barrier reef as well. While the other islands bank on heavy tourism Andros island ships them fresh water from it's vast inland.

The largest and least explored of all the Bahamas when you land you feel a slowness of character after the aerial view of a unexplored vastness. The landing strip is small, the international arrival building is also a small yellow room and although there are plenty of places to eat and drink they are probably someones house who will treat it as a pub if it means some extra money. There is not much money on Andros but the untouched beaches and normal everyday people, about 9,000, on the island make it a unique and rewarding place to be in the world.

Andros is blessed with natural wonders. A blue hole, many are sometimes shallow and blue or deep and green. They are formed from sinking sand and the coral life conitnues to thrive in them even inland because Andros is so shallow it was once under the water. Most life is on the east coast of Andros and much of it is untouched leaving pristine place to seek and find. There are nice family owned motels and lodges for anyone visiting Andros and the food from anyone of the locals places is fantastic like their conk fritters, a big snail from a conk shell dipped in spicy batter and fryed into puffy breads rounds.

Andros Island - No tourists, just sand and water

by E_R_I_C

"Just a quick visit"

I flew to Andros Island in a US Navy cargo plane - something like a C-3, but I can't recall what it actually was. From Jacksonville, it was a pretty long flight, especially since I had to be strapped into a little chair that was less comfortable than an old lawn chair... you know, the kind with the nylon mesh straps. Oh, and of course there was no air conditioning. But who am I to complain?

Anyway, the island is inhabited mostly by locals and the Navy base. That's about it. There are no commercial hotels or big businesses there of any sort. I rented a snorkel, mask and fins and spent part of a day swimming around a manmade barrier reef, accompanied by some barracudas that were interested in me. That was the highlight. That, and spending an evening at the local beach bar that was straight out of a Jimmy Buffett song.

The island is actually the largest of the Bahaman islands. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is too low-lying to accommodate any big resorts and they are restricted from building there. I was sent down there to write a story for the Navy about an aviation training school that is conducted there (and probably still is today). The sad thing is, I don't think I kept a copy of the story or even any of the photos I took. Maybe I'll run across some. I know I have them packed away somewhere.

But overall, it was a very awesome experience. The beach was EMPTY and there were no tourists on the island AT ALL. The bad thing is that there was nobody with me to share the adventure. Oh, and it would have been nice to have a few good restaurants. :-)