A Day in the Life on the Farm: Under the sea....the past 2 days

Yesterday, after diving, we went up to town for lunch at a Chinese Restaurant. There is a large Chinese population here on the Island. Well, large is a relative term. There are 4000 residents. There is one grocery store and 4 Chinese markets, there are 8 or 9 restaurants, 3 of them are Chinese. Lunch was delicious. After lunch we went to the Historical Museum where we learned that no matter which country you visit, history is the same. We all were tyrants that got rich by enslaving others and treating them like animals. What a shameful past we share.

When we got back to our room I edited photos and shared Day 2 of Diving with you before heading out for dinner. After dinner I was too pooped to post the photos of our morning dives so I saved them for today.

This morning we also did two dives, however we only have photos of the first dive. The second dive Frank did not bring his camera because the dive site, called Blue Bead Hole, is a legendary site. Legend has it that the slaves, who were paid with blue glass beads, wore these beads around their necks and used them for trade amongst each other and the warehouses on the oceanfront. When the slaves were given their freedom they went to a cliff and tossed all of the beads into the ocean to celebrate their freedom. The true story is probably that a ship carrying these beads went down and the beads (which were given to the slaves as pay) scattered along the ocean floor. To find one of these beads is to bring good luck to the person in possession of it. So we spent our time, on this dive, searching for blue beads....hence no camera.

Of course, since there was no camera, we saw a spiny puffer all blown up and acting tough, a scorpion fish, a sea urchin that was spawning and flying genards. None of which we can prove since we had no camera so you will just have to take my word for it!!

Diving Day 3- Triple Wreck. There were, of course, tons of lobsters but I won't bore you with any more lobster photos. There were turtles too but I have posted those each day and would like to give you some variety. I am posting a spotted eel, but only because he was free swimming and all I have share with you thus far are eel heads.

First we found this Angel, having a little snack.

That is a piece of coral in her mouth.

Then we found this little guy playing hide and seek with us.

This is a much better shot of a Flamingo Tongue.

And here is the eel swimming out to say hello.

And, most exciting of all, is this octopus who was hanging out.

He was busy eating so he did not duck away and hide from us but stuck around and let us get some photos.

Here is another shot with a different angle.

You can see his dinner underneath him.

Last, I would like to share a photo of this cleaner shrimp.

Day 3- Hangover. Not us....the reef has a lot of overhangs where fish like to hang out.

Frank got this great shot of a conch.

If you look very closely you can see it's eye on the right side of the shell's curve.

This little girl is a juvenile damsel fish.

They are hard to get a photo of because they dart around so quickly.

And this is a trigger fish.

Day 4- Stenapa Reef. This is a man made reef that was developed to help the fisherman in the area. They sank several different items, including parts of a barge, a tug boat, a large pipe and pieces of different wrecks. It has brought in a lot of sealife to this part of the harbor.