As I am sitting on our balcony writing this entry, a hummingbird keeps coming to visit. On our balcony, we have a hammock that has some white cotton tassels hanging from it. Two hummingbirds, one male and one female come regularly to collect little bits of cotton off the tassels. They must be building a nest. I also noted a large piece of cotton batten hanging from the eaves of a little bar on the beach that we visit. They confirmed they had hung it there to attract hummingbirds.
We snorkeled just off the beach yesterday afternoon. It had rained a lot during the night and was windy, so the water was murky near the shore. Kate and I swan out a little further along the side of the protective bay that forms our Half Moon Bay beach area. We came across a really good area to snorkel. We spent about five minutes watching a 2 ½ foot long, 1 ½ inch diameter green speckled eel slither along the bottom looking for food. Kate proved you can scream with a snorkel in your mouth, as it looked pretty creepy. In addition to all the fish and eel, we also saw a few squid floating a couple feet under the surface. They look a lot more graceful in the water than they do when you see them as a white gelatin like mass at the fish counter section of the grocery store.
Last night we went out to the “Lobster Pot” for dinner. It is a place right on the beach. I never asked, but the owners must have originally been from Jamaica. They had that wonderful musical accent that hangs on all their o’s. I had the lobster (figured should try it given they named their restaurant after it) with rice and beans with some vegetables. Chris had home-made fried chicken (like Aunt Edna’s), Tom had the shrimp linguine, while Kate was overjoyed that they would make her a plain cheese quesadilla. She also had a few bites of Chris’s chicken. We had drinks with dinner, warm homemade coconut bread and they sent home some Key Lime Pie they made for dessert. Too much food, but it was really good.
When we were coming up our condo walkway, Kate noticed something on the sidewalk. It was a long procession of leaf-cutter ants, each hauling a piece of leaf larger than themselves on their back (the leaves were all cut perfectly round, a little smaller than a dime). We followed their path from the hedge, down the sidewalk and into another garden area. Their path must have been at least thirty feet long and we weren’t at the end of it. There were ants every two or three inches along the trail all carrying their oversized load. Ants not carrying anything were running back along the path. Tom informed us that they don’t eat the leaves. They let them get moldy and then eat the fungus that the mold produces.
Today is a rainy day, and in fact the weather forecast calls for heavy rain for the remainder of the week. We will need to buy a few groceries today, and I heard of a wine store that has some good Argentinean wine. I do miss my wine, but the rum punches aren’t so bad either.
Until another day.. Ian
Below are some pictures of the local wildlife
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| Roatan Wildlife Photos |
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