♪♪♪ Neff: I've heard the song of the siren... calling me to Exuma... ♪♪♪ ...where boaters flock to experience blue waters and white sandbars.

It's a world of myths and legends in pure paradise.

♪♪♪ Fantastic people, amazing seafood.

A place where land and sea become one.

♪♪♪ This is The Exumas.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ There's something almost unreal about Exuma.

Perhaps it's the electric blue waters.

It's no wonder that this tropical destination has become a playground for the rich and famous.

♪♪♪ But I'm on a mission to explore this string of islands and find out what makes Exuma tick.

I'm Mirissa Neff, journalist and world traveler.

And I'm chasing the rhythms of Caribbean music and culture.

One artist making big waves throughout the Bahamas is D-MAC.

Dillon McKenzie has roots here in Exuma.

But like most Bahamian musicians, he eventually moved to Nassau to pursue a career as a songwriter and producer.

His music gives traditional rake and scrape a modern sound, and he can be found playing large festivals as well as jamming at his favorite restaurants.

♪ You'll never see ♪ ♪ A dog barking at a parked car ♪ ♪ You'll never see ♪ ♪ Him barking if that car ain't moving ♪ ♪ Man, you'll never see ♪ Oh, Lord.

♪ People talkin' 'bout you if you ain't going nowhere ♪ ♪ But when you're trying to excel yourself ♪ ♪ They got your name everywhere ♪ ♪ Tell them why ♪ Ready to sing?

♪ Because dog don't bark at parked car ♪ ♪ No, no ♪ [ Singing indistinctly ] ♪ The only thing to get dog barking ♪ ♪ When that car start moving ♪ ♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ I see ♪ Neff: Many of his hit songs recall stories and times he spent in this part of the Bahamas.

And it's easy to see why.

The Exumas are a chain of Out Islands stretching 130 miles southeast of Nassau.

Here, there's no clock, just the ever-changing tides and stunning natural beauty.

As I begin my journey through The Exumas, I take some time to soak in the sights -- kitesurfers harnessing powerful Atlantic winds, rolling hills dotted with quaint little towns.

It's a photographer's dream.

And if there's anyone who knows how to appreciate Exumas beauty, it would be a photographer.

So I meet up with Reno Curling in George Town at the Driftwood Cafe.

George Town is the central business district.

Central business district.

That's where we come and we go to the bank, to the food store, the gas station.

George Town was founded in 1793.

It's the capital of The Exumas because of its harbor, but it still maintains a friendly, small-town vibe.

Driftwood Cafe -- what happen to be one of my favorite hangout spots.

Come for a cup of cappuccino almost every day here.

So they know you here.

[ Laughs ] Don't know what to say.

I only have to walk in the door and they already know what I need.

It seems like everybody in Exuma knows each other.

Yeah.

Everybody I believe knows everybody.

And trust me, it's hard to keep a secret around here.

[ Both laugh ] Inspired by his surroundings, most of Reno's landscape photography comes from the Exuma Cays, hundreds of remote islands that surround great Exuma.

Every angle you turn, you see something else.

You know, because me living here, I'm able to see stuff that I didn't see when I was living in Nassau.

So my -- Basically my whole way of thinking and seeing stuff changed.

I could go outside and people call it bush.

I could see the art in the bush, you know, the different colors.

Something that I never even dreamt about 20 years ago.

You know what I mean?

So how do you get to some of these places that you like to photograph?

Well, they are all over Exuma, all over through the Exuma Cays.

So in order to get to them, you must take a boat.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

And I think I know just the person.

♪♪♪ Reno calls his friend Ray Lightbourn, owner of Exuma Water Sports, to show us the Exuma Cays.

Lightbourn: You can see the prettiest places in the world.

And I'm not joking about that.

I'm dead serious.

Ray grew up in the Bahamas and knows these islands like the back of his hand.

His first mate is Awesome Al, one of the youngest boat captains I've ever met.

Awesome Al: In Exuma, you have to have a boat.

It's like having a house without a roof.

My name is Awesome Al.

I'm 18, and I'm a boat captain.

I do tours all day, up and down through the cays, Exuma Cays.

You got hundreds of islands to drive around in all day.

Plenty fish to see, blue holes, caves, all sorts of stuff.

You got to have a boat in Exuma.

Neff: Ray and Awesome Al take me to some of their favorite spots and introduce me to some unusual residents.

Lightbourn: Yeah.

So, Exuma, like, it used to be the boating capital of the Bahamas.

Now it's like the swimming pigs capital of the world.

This guy put some pigs on a little island, and they just started swimming.

Nobody ever had a clue that would ever happen.

And so we started advertising it on our tours and on Facebook and Instagram.

And the pigs are like celebrities now.

Well, apparently pigs can't fly, but they can swim.

[ Both laugh ] A few islands away, Ray introduces me to the original Bohemian natives.

They've been here for millions of years, way before man.

Really?

They still look like dinosaurs, yeah.

They were probably on all the islands at one time, but, you know, development and people got dogs and cats.

Mm-hmm.

So they're actually on seven islands in Exuma now.

And he has a unique way of feeding them.

Here you go.

♪♪♪ I can't imagine that 500 or 600 years ago, this is the first thing that European explorers would have seen coming to the Bahamas -- beach after beach, turquoise waters.

It's absolutely stunning.

As we coast through this gorgeous archipelago, I get to know Reno a little better.

His trained eye spots an island that could provide his next great shot.

Curling: Follow me.

There are so many beautiful beaches.

But why this one?

What's so special about it?

In any other beach, you wouldn't see a natural pool on one side and the ocean on the next side.

♪♪♪ This is so gorgeous.

It reminds me of a movie.

Well, you know, they shot quite a lot of movies over here.

One of the most famous ones was "Thunderball" with James Bond.

Sean Connery.

That was in 1965.

And my father was in that movie.

But the most famous of all movies was in 2005, they did "Pirates of the Caribbean."

So is that why Johnny Depp bought an island in Exuma?

Exactly.

That's right.

He fell in love with it and he bought one called Little Halls Pond.

Now, people like Tyler Perry own an island.

David Copperfield.

So how can I go about buying an island?

Hey, look around.

Pick one.

All right.

I got a pretty one to show you right over here.

I can see why buying an island in The Exumas is so popular.

The streets are paved with electric blue water, and seclusion is the name of the game.

Talk about living in one of the most exotic neighborhoods in the world.

Look, Mom, I made it.

I'm in the Bahamas.

I'm on TV, and I'm gonna buy my own island.

As I scout the island with Reno, imagining the potential for lounging on my own private beach in the mornings and throwing lavish dinner parties on my other private beach in the evenings, Ray calls the real estate agent.

What kind of towels you think you're gonna have in the house?

I don't know.

Maybe some kind of, like, Mediterranean look.

Nice.

Nice.

Mirissa!

$6.9 million!

Mom, get my old room ready.

I think I'm coming home.

Maybe buying an island was wishful thinking, but finding great food in Exuma is a cinch.

After working up my appetite on the boat, I head to Big D's Conch Spot where I meet the owner, Darren Tucker.

Well, I heard that this, of all the places in Exuma, this is the place to come for conch salad.

Oh, yeah.

You come to the right place.

[ Laughs ] This is the spot.

This is the spot.

When your restaurant's on the beach, it's easy to dish up fresh seafood.

Dwayne, a chef at Big D's, can literally put his hand in the water and pull out fresh conch.

In 20 minutes, it'll be on my plate.

Is it hard at all to maintain what's Exuman about Exuma?

No, it isn't hard to maintain what it's about, Exuma.

You're not afraid that it's gonna get too touristy or... Well, you know, that's why we have a local government system here.

Local people in every township have a voice to say, well, look here, if you don't want that because we think it'll overpopulate it or we think this will happen, so they have a voice before any decision is made.

So you feel like the people's voice is heard here?

Yes, it is.

It is.

Conch salad is a traditional dish in the Bahamas, and this is as fresh as it gets.

That's some damn good conch salad.

Tell me about it.

[ Laughs ] They say freshness makes the difference, man.

Yeah, it's super citrusy, but there's, like, a little bit of a kick in there, too.

That's the local goat pepper.

You know, I get it from the local farmers, and the salt, it just comes from the salt plantation down at the salt pond down in William's Town.

A salt plantation?

Yeah, it's right on the island.

You got it all.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, well, it's got a pretty laid-back kind of flavor.

Well, you know, that's the island flavor, you know?

Like an island groove.

[ Laughs ] That's the Exuma move.

Oh, yeah.

The Exuma move.

[ Laughs ] All right.

♪♪♪ Big D's restaurant is located in Steventon, just north of George Town, which I found out was also the home to a Bohemian national hero.

Now, Steventon itself is home of Pompey, the runaway slave that led a revolt.

Now, the slave owners wanted to remove the slaves from Steventon and take them to Cat Island.

Pompey, with 30-plus other slaves, stole a boat, went to Nassau.

They were caught.

Pompey, while beaten, shipped back to Exuma.

And that was the end of Pompey himself.

Neff: Hearing the story of Pompey made me curious about Exuma's history, which stretches back for centuries.

So to learn more, I reached out to Basil Minns, a local historian on the island.

Minns: This funny one.

Where is it?

About this gentleman who had two lady friends and he was seeing one of them more than the other one.

Throughout the 20th century, Basil was a photographer for the Bahamas Development Board, and he documented many great moments in Bohemian history, as well as Exuma's annual regatta.

And the one lady friend that he wasn't seeing got very jealous, so she cast a spell on him and turned him into a bird we call a galden, which is a night heron.

Oh, wow.

I also found out that he's something of an expert on Exuma's myths and legends, and he was eager to share them with me.

So he jumped on the shark's back, rode the shark to shore, killed the shark, and pulled the pole out.

Among the stories he told me was one about a treasure chest guarded by a mermaid in an underwater cave.

Years and years ago, a pirate ship was being followed by a British warship and they had treasure aboard.

They decided they would not be caught with this treasure chest.

He looked around for some place to put his treasure and found this underwater cave.

And while he was doing this, a mermaid came up and he says, "Well, I want to put this treasure chest in your cave and would you guard it for me and keep it until I could come back and pick it up?"

Well, it's still there today, as far as we know, supposedly, as the story goes.

Neff: Mermaid stories like these have been recorded all over the world throughout history.

Even Christopher Columbus recorded seeing mermaids during his voyages from Spain to the New World, possibly even in the Bahamas.

♪♪♪ For over an hour, I sat with Basil and listened to these old Bohemian tales.

And that night, the ghost of the skeleton came into the town and started roaming around town moaning and calling, "Whoever took my head, I want it back."

Do you think there was a feeling of, like, there being some kind of mystical energy here?

Yes, yes, yes, definitely.

This is part of what we call obeah, this here.

Things like this that happen.

Yeah.

And these are things that, you know, that would go around, people would actually believe some of it.

As I left Basil's house, I chatted with my driver, James, and mentioned the stories I'd just heard.

And this is when James revealed to me he knew one of the men in Basil's stories.

This was your grandfather?

James: My grandfather.

And he found the skull and he took it home.

Uh-huh.

And what did he do with it?

Well, he -- he couldn't keep it.

Why not?

Because the person came back and he had to -- Which person?

The dead person.

Whoever the skull belonged to.

Really?

Yeah.

And he had to take the skull back where he got it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wow.

That is wild.

That is wild.

After a bombshell like that, a small idea to search for this legendary blue hole began to grow.

♪ Come back home, girl ♪ ♪ Come back home ♪ ♪ Come back home, girl ♪ ♪ I miss your love ♪ Neff: Perhaps Audley Dames, a musician who grew up in Exuma, would know something.

♪ Come back home... ♪ We have underwater caves that we call blue holes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Do you know about those?

Have you heard anything about a mermaid protecting some treasure down there?

Well, when you say there's a mermaid, the first thing came to my mind was... is it real?

[ Both laugh ] How old were you?

I was about 15.

Okay.

Yeah.

And surely I'm convinced that there is none.

You're not a believer.

No, because by this time, I should have seen one of them, if there really is one.

What is it about the Bahamas and mermaids?

Maybe because of the beauty of the water.

The water is beautiful.

Yeah.

And it's a beautiful place for mermaids to hang.

If I were a mermaid, I would want to hang out here for sure.

He takes me to Santanna's Bar & Grill.

It's owned by one of the best chefs on the island, Miss Dee.

Her husband catches and cleans the fish and she cooks and serves it.

It's a division of labor with delicious results, but Audley didn't bring me here for the million-dollar view.

I brought you here because this place has the best lobster on the island.

Best lobster on the island.

Better believe it.

Lightly breaded and fried, her famous lobster is served with homemade corn and coleslaw.

Thank you.

Wow.

Santanna's really known for the seafood, especially the lobster.

And I do a caramel onion sauce for it.

So and once I touch it, it just pops.

Thank you.

Yeah, I've never seen lobster prepared like this before.

First bite at Miss Dee's.

Famous lobster.

Oh, my God.

That's amazing.

It's a little sweet.

It's, like, got a little spice, but... See, what's special about it is that her husband, who's a fisherman and a great diver, he goes and he gets his own seafood.

Oh, wow.

And that's why they can have it fresh daily.

Yeah.

And something that is fresh always tastes better than something that is refrigerated for a while.

Neff: Audley tells me that around sundown he'll be jamming on the beach with some friends from the Tropical Breeze Band.

So I head up the island to join them.

♪ Watching the tide roll away ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ This is not the bay ♪ ♪ Watching the tide roll away ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Wait all week ♪ ♪ Get your pay ♪ ♪ Now we sitting at the bay ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Exuma ♪ ♪♪♪ Dimitri, I've been hearing a lot of these myths and legends related to the island.

Do you -- Have you heard any of these stories in your life?

Well, growing up in Exuma over 37 years, I've heard a lot of myths, you know, and being around the older folks, you hear them tell stories and a lot of old folk stuff.

Neff: This is Dimitri Smith.

Since he was born in Exuma, I wondered if he knew any of the stories that Basil had told me.

I was born like in the '78, you know.

So basically I came up in the '80s and by then all those old -- you know, they were a thing of the past.

But you hear the stories, you know.

What do you know about the mystery cave?

Well, there is a cave.

Actually, there is a blue hole which runs into a cave.

And the myth nobody have never reached the end of that cave.

Well, I heard that there's some treasure that a mermaid is protecting down there.

Yeah, well, you know, back in the day, this area, The Exumas, right, was protected by Blackbeard, the famous pirate.

So, you know, there was a lot of treasure, silvers and golds and stuff like that, you know, around.

So there's a lot of stories around that.

Dimitri reinforced my disbelief about these stories until... Have you ever tried to go find some?

Yeah.

You have?

On Farmer's Cay -- There's Big Farmer's and Little Farmer's in Exuma Cay.

Exuma is surrounded by 365 cays, one for every day.

Yeah.

So you have, like, Black Point, Staniel Cay, Farmer's Cay.

They are the three major cays.

Mm-hmm.

And on Big Farmer's, there is a cave there.

A lot of people go there still trying to see if they can find some silver or some gold or something like that.

Yeah, and you've tried that, too.

Yeah, I've tried that.

But, you know, I'm here, so it's obvious I didn't find any.

[ Both laugh ] Hanging on the beach.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Where would you be if you had found it?

Well, if I had found some silver or gold, I still would have been here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

♪♪♪ Sitting by the campfire and listening to the music, I was reminded of being a kid and hearing ghost stories that covered me in goosebumps.

My thoughts returned to the mystery cave, to the blue hole.

I'm a skeptic, but there's a reason why these stories have been passed down through generations of Exumans, and I want to find out more.

♪♪♪ If I was going to get to this blue hole, I would need a boat.

No, no.

It's not possible.

I admit, this is a crazy proposal.

It's Mirissa.

And I need help from someone who'll look past that...

I need a favor.

...and join me on an adventure.

♪♪♪ Captain Ray tells me to meet him at a nearby dock.

♪♪♪ You need to go to Mystery Cave, eh?

Yeah.

All right, let's go for it.

♪♪♪ Ray picks me up in his other boat named 007 Thunderball.

♪♪♪ We head north through the Exuma Cays.

Now I know what it feels like to be a Bond girl.

♪♪♪ So how come you want to check out the mystery hole?

Well, it seems like in Exuma, there's more to explore in the water.

That's what I'm discovering.

So I have to check it out for myself.

Okay.

I hope you got the nerve for it.

It's 400 feet deep.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Under the waves, there's a whole other world to Exuma.

I'm reminded of how beautiful and wondrous our planet really is.

So what is a blue hole?

What a blue hole is, it's -- First of all, it's blue.

[ Both chuckle ] But it's usually a very deep hole.

In the Bahamas, we probably have about 20 or so and a few are undiscovered.

We have the deepest blue hole in the whole world.

It's 660 feet, and that's where they do all the free diving.

You go as deep as you can, no fins, nothing.

Right.

Yeah, they have the world championships there.

Okay, so we're here at the mystery cave and gonna go down and check it out, see what's down there.

♪♪♪ I swim to the mouth of the blue hole.

Ray told me that the cave is carved deep into the underside of this island.

If I were a pirate, this would seem like a pretty good place to hide some treasure.

The Bahamas is some of the oldest islands.

Like, these are all mountaintops.

They're not volcanic or anything, but we actually get a couple scientists every once in a while, and they've been telling us these blue holes are probably pockets of ice from the Ice Age.

Ray jumps in to join me in exploring the blue hole.

♪♪♪ But unlike me, he decides to swim deep into the cave.

Unfortunately, he doesn't resurface with any pirate's booty.

I'm wet, tired.

But the mermaid led me here.

And even though I didn't get to see the treasure, the hidden treasure, I feel like I got to experience something that is off the beaten path and really special.

There's treasure to be found all over Exuma.

I found it in the food and the music, the people, and the stories.

♪♪♪ These islands are a beautiful blend of land and sea.

But the real treasure to be found is Exuma itself.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪