Big Majors and Thunderball Grotto, Exumas

[Kyle]From Great Guana, we sailed the few miles northwest to Big Majors Spot. Big Major is a big, major tourist spot for the Bahamas as it is the site where you can come to feed the famous swimming pigs. These are not wild boars, but former livestock who have gone feral and now roam the island freely. They are pretty tame for feral animals, as they are regularly fed by pretty much everybody that comes to the island and are really accustomed to humans.

As soon as Maryanne and I rowed to the beach through the throngs of anchored boats, several of them swam out to meet us. The piglets are adorable, but some of the big adults are a little intimidating as they outweigh us and can be a bit bitey when taking food. The smarter ones have figured out this scares people, so they have learned to open wide enough for us to toss food into their maws from a distance. You have to be a pretty good aim as pigs aren’t as good at catching flying food as dogs are, for example.

"Feed Me!". Pig Beach certainly lives up to its name. We visited in the late afternoon after most of the crowds had departed and the pigs were generally considered not to be so hungry (or boisterous) after all the daytime feeding.

The anchorage at Big Major was a bit crowded for us (get used to it, I’m thinkin’), so we moved around the corner to Thunderball Grotto, a snorkeling site famous for being featured in the James Bond movie of the same name (it has apparently featured in serveral other movies too). {Maryanne: We've been remote so long that it doesn't take many other boats for us to see a crowd.}

The grotto is really a small islet that has been hollowed out by erosion into a series of well-lit caverns and passageways. The main cavern/grotto is open to the sky above so is well lit. It is also a big stop on the tourist circuit, so there are almost always half a dozen tenders or tour boats anchored outside the main entrance. We added ours to the group and went in one of the back ways. The fish are well fed by the visiting tour guides and so are quite happy to swim up to their visitors.

As we were poking around, thoroughly enjoying the geology and the schools of friendly fish, we noticed that the average time most people spend in the cave is maybe only a couple of minutes. The tour boat drops them off, they pull themselves in against the current along a rope that has been strung for the purpose, take a couple of photos, and then leave, on to the next thing.

That’s too bad. The grotto is much more extensive and interesting than just the main chamber, and the coral gardens ringing the island, particularly on the opposite side, are lush and beautiful. Maryanne and I quickly came up with a favorite route, where we would swim through the main cave and exit through an aperture at the back. Then we would let the current sweep us past the coral gardens before reentering the island through another narrow entrance on the northern tip. Then we would snake our way back through the passageways back to the main chamber again. It was so beautiful that we did it over and over. Sometimes, we would enter the cave and find it packed. The next time, it would be completely empty and almost no one ventured into the farther corners. This way, it was actually a much more serene spot than the queue at the main entrance would lead you to believe. We liked it so much, we went back the next day and did several more circuits again. Also living in the cave is a group of small bats in one of the ceiling chambers.

In and around Thunderball Grotto

{Maryanne: We didn't visit, but also really close to this same area is Staniel Cay (with grocery, restaurants, etc) and a downed small drug-running plane that you can readily snorkel - it's a great area to spend a few days}