Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 222

Need to know The Centro Ecológico Sian Ka'an
is 17km south of Tulum. For details of activities,
accommodation prices and reservations at the
visitor centre see W www.cesiak.org; T +52 984
104 0522. Kayaking tours with Ecocolors begin
at Cancún airport, from where you are collected.
For prices, trip dates and reservations see W www.
ecotravelmexico.com; T [phone].

Harbour Island and Governers Harbour.
Bahamas Ferries also offers a slower passenger-
vehicle ferry service to Eleuthera, Exuma,
Andros and Abaco. Additionally the Bahamas
government operates about twenty mailboats,
which carry cargo and passengers from Nassau
to all the Out Islands - trips can vary from a few
hours to several days (for up-to-date details and
schedules T [phone]).
Other excellent inter-island ferry services
include two high-speed services between St
Lucia, Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe
( W www.express-des-iles.com and W www.brudey-
freres.fr [both French only]); two services
between St Barts, Saba and St Maarten (The
Edge: T [phone] and The Voyager: W www.
voyager-st-barths.com); between Grenada,
Carriacou and Petite Martinique ( W www.
ospreylines.com); and between Trinidad and
Tobago (see W www.patnt.com/ferry_schedule.
shtml).

289 Island-hoppIng In the
CarIbbean

Flying is the quickest way to travel between
the Caribbean islands, but travelling by boat
is usually much cheaper, is certainly better in
terms of your carbon footprint and enables you to
make the most of the warm waters and sunshine.
If you don't have the luxury of your own sailing
boat, you can hire a yacht from any number of
chartering companies (eg W www.sunsail.co.uk or
W www.caribbeansail.com) - either with a crew or
by yourself (“bareboat”). If you're on a budget but
have plenty of time, you can work on a yacht for
free passage (see p.376 for a list of resources). For
some of the smaller uninhabited islands, yacht
charters are the only way to reach them.
Alternatively, there are plenty of ways to
travel by ferry, water taxi or mailboat between
the islands. While there is not one single
ferry service that covers the entire
Caribbean, there are lots of inter-
island ferry services - particularly
around the Virgin Islands (see
W www.vinow.com/general_usvi/
interisland_ferry), St Vincent and
the Grenadines (see W www.scubasvg.
com/travel/ferryschedules.html) and
the Bahamas. Discovery Cruise Line
( W www.discoverycruiseline.com) sails
every day from Fort Lauderdale in
Florida to Freeport on Grand Bahama
Island (5hr 15min); and Bahamas
Ferries ( W www.bahamasferries.com)
operates a daily high-speed service
from Nassau to North Eleuthera,

One of the many inter-island
ferry services; Grenadines
coastline

Need to know For
more information on
ferry connections
throughout the
Caribbean see W www.
travellerspoint.com/
guide/Caribbean_
ferries.