Caribbean Travels – Bimini, Bahamas

For the next foray into travel to the Bahamas, after examining New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Abaco Islands, it?s Bimini. I just have two words to conjure up all you need to know about this island ? Ernest Hemingway. When you?re talking about adventure and men?s men, it?s rare to find someone that embodies it all and for Hemingway, Bimini was his island fishing paradise that inspired ?The Old Man and the Sea.?

Fishing

The glorious Bimini

So, if the fishing was good enough for Papa Hemingway, I?ll bet it?s good enough for us. Bimini sits right on the Gulf Stream, so the warm water rushes by and carries food and fish in a kind of fast moving seafood buffet for predators. (Some of those tropical fish even end up in the waters around Long Island.) So, if you?ve ever wanted to catch a record setting fish, Bimini is the place to do it as its waters lay claim to over 50 record-setting catches. If you go in the winter, you?ll probably fish for mackerel and wahoo, while the spring and summer mean the more popular marlin, mahi mahi and blue-fin tuna.

If you?re traveling with your best girl and four others, you can charter the Bewitched and Captain Lou for $1,750 a person for a week, which includes fishing and diving trips every day and lodging in a two-bedroom villa. If you just want to sample a day, you can go with Captain Jerome for $1,400. Add in the cost of lunch though, because according to the web page, providing lunch for the boat crew is proper etiquette. (The page also gives a helpful chart for what fish are in season at different times during the year.) If neither of those choices strikes your fancy, you can contact these captains from the Bahamas directory.

Other Activities

If you would like to learn more about sharks, but from the safety of land because of your fear of Jaws, you can go to the Sharklab and take a tour. Did I say dry land? Well, the video on this page tells a different story. Baby sharks can?t hurt you right? Right? Please tell me right.

For people that like to dive, Bimini has some great options. For those that want to look at history, there are dives to explore wrecks, like an ocean going barge and a sunken floating nightclub. There are also a few different reefs to check out, as well as Bimini Road, that some people call the Road to Atlantis, which sounds a lot more mysterious and fun.

To continue the mysterious theme, you could enjoy a few days at Spook Hill Beach, so named because of its location near a cemetery. If you?re tired of the eerie though, you can go to Radio Beach, the most popular of the beaches of Bimini and surround yourself with people so that you don?t get scared.

To put all of Bimini together in your mind, you can go visit the Bimini Museum and you can find out about the history of bootleggers, celebrities like Walter Payton who have visited, as well as where filmmakers shot the ending to Silence of the Lambs. Then you can go back to your boat, your beach or your dive site and enjoy some of the same things that brought the others here, minus the illegal rum.