We went out snorkeling today at a good location, though the sea was a little rough. We spotted a sea turtle in the distance. It went up for air… … then swam down… … and tried to sit in a big tube-shaped coral head. Then there was a strange transparent penis shaped thing. Paula thinks it’s a pyrosome, in which case it’s a glow-in-the-dark penis shaped thing. Apparently they are colonies of hundreds of thousands of zooids, which along with…
There are many things that are better here than in the Bahamas, but one thing that the Bahamas is way ahead on is fishing limits. Everything bigger than a grunt here appear to have been eaten. No grouper, no big rays, no sharks, no big barracuda, no tarpon, and the only big parrot fish we have seen were in the Cousteau reserve. Today we went out on a boat trip. Martinique looks lovely from the ocean, too. First stop was…
Yesterday was my birthday, so we went out to dinner, and I did not get the blog written. Today, however, I got hold of the latest book in the Rivers of London series so there is nothing to write about unless you like book reviews. Anyhow, here are some of yesterday’s pictures from the Jardin de Balata, a botanic garden. They have a great collection of bromeliads, palm trees, and bamboo. I’m not sure what the flower below is… ……
You may have noticed that the trip so far has been somewhat lacking in skulls, but we found one today (or at least a statue of one) in the Eglise Notre Dame de la Bonne Délivrance in Les Trois-Îlets, a nearby town. It’s quite a pretty church… … with big chandeliers and decorative stenciled paintwork inside. They are proud of the fact that this was the parish church of the young Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, who went…
Ontogeny, as they say, recapitulates phylogeny, one of those delightful theories like the luminiferous aether and phlogiston that seem to explain things neatly but are in fact completely wrong. Be that as it may, it was time for us to follow in the handprints of our hominid ancestors and descend from the treetops. I have to say, evolution would have gone a lot faster if our arboreal ancestors had had access to a freight elevator. Here’s some more pictures of…
Welcome to today’s thrilling installment of SPOT THE OCTOPUS. No, I haven’t gone crazy and started giving names to the octopuses as well as the squid. Octopuses are masters of camouflage and disguise. Imagine a cross between a chameleon and silly putty. They can change shape and color faster than Italy changes governments. So, the game is to find the octopus in this picture. Don’t worry if you can’t spot him, there’s a video later to help. Today we mostly…
I mentioned in the last post that I was writing it twenty feet up a tree. This is not as precarious as it sounds. We are staying in a well appointed tree house. At least fairly well appointed. It doesn’t have air conditioning, or even glass in the windows, but there is electricity and plumbing, and a large four poster bed draped in mosquito netting. Carib grackles and lesser Antillean bullfinches come and perch on the kitchen window ledge. There…
It’s been a busy couple of days, so I haven’t had much time to blog. However, now I am safely ensconced in a hammock about twenty feet up a tree in Martinique, I have time to write. Unfortunately, the quality of arboreal WiFi in Martinique is not that good, so I may get bored waiting for pictures to upload and cut the soles off my shoes and learn to play the flute instead. Friday was our last full day in…
The waterfalls we have visited so far have been pretty but not that tall. Today we set out to visit something higher. This is Les chutes du Carbet in Guadaloupe National Park. The picture shows the top two of three waterfalls. The top and the bottom ones are a difficult hike to get to, but the middle one has a well paved trail. It’s a bit crowded… … and gets a bit steep in places… … but there is a…
The day started out with some heavy rain showers, so we waited around the apartment until things were clearing up, and then went up to the Honoré Police Station. Both the inside and outside are used in the TV show, but when they are not filming you can go inside and explore. Yes, they have cells there, too, scene of many a misleading confession. You can sit at the desk and read the paperwork. I don’t remember Honoré beach being…