Blue Holes of the Bahamas

We had a great opportunity, while Billy and Courtney were visiting, to take a tour of the Blue Holes of the Abacos. Until fairly recently I  like so many others, was completely unaware of the structures we were walking on and the uniqueness of this environment.
The Bahama Islands are all coral and calcium deposits that were created over a very long time. You can see the stalactites in the first picture. These were formed during the last ice age when the sea level was close to 200 feet lower than what it is now. These form by dripping down from above and can only form while exposed to the air and later, as the sea level rose, they became submerged in a mixture of fresh and salt water. To give you some scale, the Abacos are anywhere from to 3-30+ feet above sea level. Moving off shore it rapidity drops to thousands of feet deep! 

Our tour guide for this expedition was Ricky Johnson of abaco nature tours . He is such an interesting person who knows so much about the local natural history and wildlife of the Bahamas. We dubbed him the "croc hunter of the Abacos". Aside from being extremely knowledgeable, he has a very energetic and engaging style. Part of the joy of going was being entertained by Ricky as he spun around quickly to point out some exotic bird or a unique physical attribute of where we were. He was no ordinary tour guide;  this was high drama, fun and a fascinating learning experience; the sort of quality you might expect while watching a NATGEO program. In fact National Geographic did an article on theAbaco Blue Holes in 2010, national geographic.bahamas-caves.

We visited all of the Blue Holes that were discussed in the article. These are all land based and found in the interior woodlands. They typically are rounded openings that descend into the ground and can be quite deep. They have fresh water for the first 25-30 feet then a shallow but caustic layer of dilute sulfuric acid, followed by deep salt water. The lowest layer has no dissolved oxygen.

As a result of this harsh environment and no dissolved oxygen in the sea, water animals who for whatever reason, fell in and sank to the bottom  are preserved in pristine condition. This fossil is an extinct alligator which was well preserved.















Here is a picture of the night dive...
(taken from Nat'l. Geographic magazine)

...followed by our visit to the site

Billy, as well as Susan and Ray Cope who joined us on the tour in the foreground listening to Ricky's commentary.  Ricky was actually present at the sites when many of the dives took place.

Not all of the blue holes are round and sitting symmetric on the surface.
This one was under a cliff overhang and was quite lush and tropical.

While going to and from various caves and blue holes we did enjoy seeing a tree full of Bahamas Parrots right after a rain shower. They are much better looking when they are dry, but the weather was on and off rainy the day of our tour.

Our final adventure was kayaking through the mangroves on the western side of the Abacos.

All in all, this tour was one of the highlights of our time spent in the Abacos and we feel a bit closer to these beautiful islands as a result.