Warderick Wells mooring channel; a tight fit!  Only the teal section (not sand or turquoise) is deep enough.

Once your pulse returns to normal after squeezing through the narrow arc of a channel, as shallow as 7 feet deep (and it feet like not much wider), you notice Warderick Wells, home of the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters, is stunningly beautiful.  Did someone knock over a giant sized tumbler of fat pastels, layering fat vibrant stripes in aqua, light blue, golden sand, chocolate brown, white and kelly green?

Eagle Ray with12’+ longggg stinger at Warderick Wells

 “Hey!  There’s a huge ray headed your way!” shouts the neighbor on the mooring ball in front of us.  It was a deep tan Southern Ray, with wingspan a good 6′ across.  I fretted that it wasn’t my favorite, a spotted eagle ray.  Then again, we saw one of those the next day….

On land, cute curlytail lizards posed, lazily.  The blue tails were too quick for my camera click.  

Starfish at Warderick Wells, Exumas.

While we dinghied over to the reefs, we didn’t dive in.  Instead, we scouted out the small wonders seen walking on water…. ambling over the shallow sandbar a few feet from our mooring.  Colorful coral, stiff starfish, delicate sand dollars, psychedelic sponges.  Who knew how cool a bland looking stretch of slightly submerged sand could be?

Does this guy look like he’s posing?  Curly tailed lizard, Warderick Wells, Exumas.

And the hutias?  Watch for that in future post.

Sand dollar, Warderick Wells, Exumas.

Chartreuse coral at Warderick Wells, Exumas.

One of many exotic corals on Warderick Wells sandbar.