Mayaguana - Bahamas

The Big Picture (click image for detail)

Thanksgiving in the Bahamas? Why not?? This holiday found myself, Judith and our Powell Butte, Oregon neighbor, John Langston, in the S.E. Bahamas on Mayaguana Island. If you have not heard much about Mayaguana before, you are not alone.

Mayaguana is a medium sized island, about 30 miles long and around five miles wide, with only 400 people living there, in three small towns. There are several roads that access the three settlements, several good flats and miles of pretty beaches. This is the place to go for people who like "doing your own thing". There is lots to do and you will be the only one "doing it". Besides respectable bonefishing, there is scuba diving, snorkeling, blue water fishing, shelling, exploring a nearby island with iguanas and goats and cooling off at the week-end fish fry.

I first got interested in Mayaguana when I flew over it coming back from the Turks and Caicos. Out the window was a sparsly populated, large island, with big bays and flats. Then my buddy, John Pinto (bonefish maniac and Bahamas expert) told me he was in cahoots with a nice little hotel, The Baycaner Beach Resort, and there were big bonefish on those flats. Then he added that he had canoes shipped there to access the fishing. My kind of place.

We fished three different areas. North, south and east, all different, all very fun and rewarding. The owner of the Baycaner Resort is "Shorty" Brown and he showed us the roads and turned over a Ford F350 van to us and away we went. We worked the tides and the islands supply of Kalik over pretty hard. Back at the resort we ate conch; as salad/ceviche, deep fried, steamed and in fritters. There was also fresh fish, lobster/crayfish, chicken and ribs. Peas and rice, nice salads and a big breakfast kept our calories up.

Enough of this, check out the photo essay and ask yourself: "What am I doing next Thanksgiving?"

For more photos of this trip, checkout brianokeefephotos.com