193: Our BEST MOMENTS IN THE EXUMAS & a BUBBLE BATH with PARIS HILTON

Hey guys, if you follow us on social media, which many of you do, you know that we are not in the Bahamas any longer. We are on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. Oh my gosh, how did we get here? Did we take a plane? I wish. Anyway, we are going to do the best we can to try and catch up a little bit with our videos, and this week's video is an example of that. We are going to take the highlights from about six weeks of travel in the Exumas and make it into one video of just some really cool events that we experienced. The Bahamas is special, so really glad we have put together this for you guys and for ourselves. Yeah, so enjoy it. We rarely see dolphins at anchor, and all of a sudden these three dolphins simultaneously rested their heads on our back sugar scoop and then showed off their disco moves. It was amazing. Amazing! And we are in on the mooring field in the north field. This is amazing. The beauty of this spot is incredible, truly incredible. This was our first time staying in the north mooring field. It's a giant horseshoe-shaped river that has 22 mooring balls and is a favorite cruiser anchorage. There's great hiking, beautiful sandbars at low tide, and even a hill covered in cruiser boat named Driftwood. The highlight for us is always to snorkel with the five resident eagle rays, sharks, and other ocean life, but this time we were in for a huge surprise and a very special experience. We have heard that there are a bunch of eagle rays over there, so we are going to scale from one to ten. It's rare to see an eagle ray in general, but to see that many, and that they're not fearful, and that they just stay in one area, and with the coral background, and with the three bull sharks, you got to keep an eye on those things. I mean, you want to know where all three of them are at all times. This is incredible. We're walking the river into Rachel's bubble bath. Not exactly sure where we're going, but we do see some people ahead of us, and we're going to try and follow them. Well, it's no longer exactly high tide, so the water's not coming over really fast, but it's not bad. So we got to Rachel's bubble bath, and there was a couple already in the bubble bath, and we just walked in and thought that we'll just share the space with them, and they were so accommodating. They offered to us their snorkel equipment. They're quite chatty. They were very chatty, they were really nice, and they even offered to film us as we went into the bubble bath, which was fantastic. Oh yeah, I can also, if you want me to hold anything. Oh, cool. You want mine? Yeah. All right, she's going in. Going into the lion's den. I'll just keep getting good footage. Just keep having fun. I'll get good footage. Oh, here we go. Oh yeah, that's cool. Thank you so much. No problem. We spent probably about, I don't know, 15 or 20 minutes talking to them, and I think at one point you asked them, you said, we're cruisers, are you all cruising? And they said, yes. In a way. In a way, right. We're more yachties, is what they said, and I'm like, okay. We didn't really understand that until after. But there are a lot of them in that region. Yes, that's very true. So then we just started filming, and we were still talking, and out of the blue, Brown says, you know, you must get this all the time. She looks a lot like Paris Hilton. And then he says, you laugh. You know, as a matter of fact, I do. And it's because there she is. They must have been laughing the whole time because neither of us recognized Carter, her husband. I didn't even know Paris Hilton was married. Yeah, we didn't even know that. We don't follow them. Sure. Which they're probably laughing about. But as soon as Brown asked that question, he said, oh, now that you've outed us, we need to take some video with Paris. So this is what happened. Now on the count of three, let's all say, that's hot. One, two, three. That's hot. It was like 97 degrees the other day. That's hot. Did you see that Ross and Rachel might be dating in real life? That's hot. How would you pronounce Kevin Hart's last name in a British accent? That's hot. That's hot. I need a loves it out of you, my man. Now count of three, because there are other signature phrases. Loves it. Okay. One, two, three. It's her birthday. Here's a birthday splash. Who would have guessed that we swam in Rachel's bubble bath with Paris Hilton and her husband, Carter. How cool is that? And they're just as nice as they can be. They are so nice. It was a good experience. Definitely memorable for sure. Yeah, for sure. As it turns out, we had actually dropped anchor just behind them. They were in a 80 foot sun beautiful boat that they had rented for her birthday. So we ended up seeing them afterwards out on the water as well. We are taking the boat to snorkel the Escobar plane wreck. It is a beautiful day here on the water. There's the plane right there, and it is currently above water. In 1980, the C-46 commando airplane owned by Pablo Escobar made a perfect landing in 10 feet of water on a sandbar parallel to the airstrip. The plane was used for drug running by the cartel and might have been full of cocaine when it crashed. Given the perfect landing and its location, the plane is still intact and is a popular snorkeling destination. Wow. Another plane wreck can be found just off the coast of O'Brien's Cay. This one is a small Cessna and it sits belly up on the sea bottom. Its landing gear sheared off on impact. What we loved about this particular site was the clear water and amazing coral structures found next to the plane. Healthy coral and sea life are not easily found in the Bahamas, so this was wonderful to see. So this doesn't happen very often where the wind and the water will cooperate with being out here. We're really lucky that this has happened and we're hoping to be able to spend the night here at the sandbar. Look at that view. I think we're going to get lucky today with blue skies over the sandbar and get some really nice drone footage out there today. Wow. Oh man. Beautiful. Yesterday was good but today's even better. I'm glad we stayed. Me too. This sandbar is amazing. I just cannot believe how beautiful it is in the middle of this turquoise water of seven or eight streets. We're the only people here and it's just here for just a little time. It's just fabulous. It's just a rare treat to have this type of thing not just in the Bahamas but anywhere in the world. It's probably my favorite thing. It's just pristine sand surrounded by beautiful water and it's kind of an exclusive thing. It's incredible. We're just anchored right over there. So thankful. So beautiful. Cannot even believe it. We're gonna take a walk. Yep. All the way down to the end. Shroud Cay might be the most popular island for cruisers and for good reason. It's surrounded by beautiful turquoise water and offers many things to do. A favorite is to explore one of the many mangrove rivers at high tide. The crystal clear water is home to hundreds of turtles and baby sharks. The mangroves provide a safe and perfect breeding ground for all sea life. The water color changes constantly with the depth and ultimately deposits you at a breathtaking delta and sandbar on the ocean side. It's impossible to describe how beautiful it is. At the delta you can climb the hill for great views of the island, walk the beach, and float through the sweeping current. Or you can just stand in awe of the incredible beauty in front of you. It's definitely one of our favorite places in the Bahamas. Enjoy this view. These colors just never ever get old. Amazing. Last cruising season we visited the southern bay of Hawksbill Island and we heard that the north was equally beautiful. So we went to check it out and fly the drone. Eileen and I are at the north end of Hawksbill Cay. We've got some clouds on the way. Hopefully it's not going to cover up the sun a whole lot. Eileen our jet pilot and admiral DJI is skillfully, it's up there somewhere, skillfully piloting our drone. Rudder Cay is a fascinating place. It's owned by David Copperfield but he resides on another island and Rudder is uninhabited. We have heard speculation that Copperfield sunk a bronze full-size sculpture of a grand piano to keep the cruisers away from Moosha Cay where he lives and it worked. We spent a lot of time here riding out bad storms and we loved it. Above the water there are two beautiful white sandy beaches and two caves, one of which you can drive into with your dinghy at high tide. At low tide it's a beach inside. Below the water you will find the piano and some great snorkeling especially just inside the cut. The resident turtles are super friendly. There are tons of rays, snails, crabs, fish and I even found three varieties of invertebrates. I was also very excited to see a large spotted sea hare in a couple of feet of water and to get good footage Brown had to sit on my back to keep me submerged and still. Prime Cay became a favorite of ours for its crescent shaped white sandy beach and for collecting sea glass. A 10-minute walk on the trail took us out to this isolated beach facing the cut to the Exuma Sound. The sand was silky, deep and clean. Before and after the trek to the beach we would spend hours sifting through the sand found in limestone tidal pools. The sharp rock barriers forming the tidal pools created the perfect tumbling environment for polishing the ancient or let's face it probably new pieces of glass. I am very excited. This is my favorite beach to collect sea glass on and here we go. I've already got a few pieces. It's like gold. I don't know why but it's awesome. We are going to explore some new places. This will be fun to check out a new path and some new views. Thank goodness for sea trash. The amazing thing is it seems like everyone loses one foot flop and it's always the right foot foot flop. Look how calm it is out there because it's the southerly wind. Yeah good point. And look it's just amazing. Chile water. Found a couple pieces of sea glass already. We fell in love with Williams Key and hiking on its beautiful limestone cliffs down to the white sandy beaches. The views were spectacular of the Exuma Sound and the rocky coastline. A huge bonus was that we could collect a ton of colorful sea glass that washed ashore at high tide and the proximity of Williams Key to Lee Stocking Island gave us double the trails and views without actually moving the boat. I can't even describe how beautiful this is. It's just stunning. Look at my cute hubby trying to find sea glass.