San Salvador
and Long Island
T E X T AND P HO T OS B Y A L E X MU S T A RD
SAN SALVADOR
I emerge from the silent world to a commotion. The
Riding Rock dive boat reverberates with joyful shouts,
squeals and laughter — and I can’t say I am surprised.
I’ve just surfaced from an hour underwater, and my
cheeks ache from smiling. Few things are as special as a
wild animal choosing to hang out with you, and we’ve
just had two friendly Nassau groupers, known as Tom
and Jerry, taking the reef tour right in the middle of our
group. I fall for the big brown eyes and rubbery lips that
give the groupers a cartoonish charisma. Their favorite
trick is to sneak up on your blindside and suddenly
appear inches from your mask. Captain Bruce tells us
they like a little tickle under the chin. As a photographer,
having groupers posing inches from my lens is about
as good as it gets. The captain tells us friendly groupers
have been on San Salvador as long as he’s been diving.
San Salvador is famous for being Christopher
Columbus’ first landing in the new world — or as the
locals put it, “Columbus was our first tourist!” San Sal is
small, just 12 miles long and 6 miles wide with little more
than 1,000 residents. It has one of the best runways in the
country and is easy to reach either by island-hopper or
direct international arrivals from the U.S. and Europe.
“San Sal’s tourist draw has always been diving,”
explains Jay Johnson, the manager of the island’s office
of the Ministry of Tourism. “Other islands are most
famous for fishing, beaches, shopping, casinos — and
we have great fishing, nature and beaches here, but
what we’re really about is diving. San Sal was one of
the world’s first diving destinations.
Riding Rock Inn
put San Sal on the diving map in 1973. Now two of the
most popular places to stay are Riding Rock and the
large
Club Med Resort
, called
Columbus Isle
.” Our
visit is split between the two resorts.
The red sun melts into the flat ocean, and it’s time for
a night dive. I enjoyed the fun of group diving in the day,
but at night I prefer my solitude, hunting macro subjects
away from the distraction of flashing beams. I am thrilled
to find bountiful subjects: lots of shrimp, handsome
triplefins, a beautiful nudibranch and more lettuce-leaf
slugs than I could count. San Sal is known for wide-angle
subject matter, with superb visibility and a dramatic
dropoff just off the beach that rims the island. But I am
mightily impressed with the abundance of tiny charms.
The next day I dedicate my dive at
Pinnacle Reef
to
macro photography and turn up tiny treasures including
an arrow blenny, roughhead blennies, whitefoot shrimp
and a decorator crab with orange legs poking out of the
gray sponge covering its body. The big stuff is exciting
the rest of the divers on the boat. During my stay I
see plentiful grouper on all the sites, schooling jacks,
snappers and grunts. Most of the schools are clustered
around cleaning stations, and the grunts seem to almost
unhinge their mouths when yawning to attract cleaning
gobies. San Sal’s larger attractions include rays, turtles
and sharks. Others see hammerheads on our dives, but
I guess my head was too stuck in the reef looking for
sea slugs. Jay says that you can see groups of scalloped
hammerheads in February and March, but you will
encounter individuals year round.
San Sal is a family-friendly destination. The dives are
mostly easy, although there is the option of depth for
those who want it. I saw reef sharks on almost every
dive, but unlike the Bahamas’ biggest islands, they don’t
run shark feeds on San Sal because they have found
their guests prefer it this way.
The big animals are certainly a draw, with a healthy
population of reef sharks and frequent sightings of
hammerheads. But my indelible memories were of
the groupers — not just underwater, but how mutual
curiosity with a wild creature energized a group of
teenagers in a way that a computer game or chat room
never can. Nassau may be the capital of the Bahamas,
but when it comes to Nassau groupers, the Out Island
San Sal must be the grouper capital.
LONG ISLAND AND CONCEPTION ISLAND
Our next destination has an even stronger Out Island
vibe. Long Island has a super laidback, away-from-it-
all atmosphere. The island gets its name because it is
just 4 miles across but 80 miles long, with a population
of 4,000. We’re staying in the north at
Stella Maris
Resort Club
and diving with their water sports crew,
both of which are very hospitable and relaxed. From
here you are able to dive Long Island’s local reefs,
visit a wreck, make a shark dive or take a day trip to
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FALL 2014
