Sunday is always a very relaxed day in the Caribbean, even more so than most days. It’s a time for families to head to the beach and play in the water. So we did too! It was a beautifully calm, warm, slightly overcast day. We went to a beach very close to the resort called Caracasbaii. It’s a beach we really like, and it’s even more beautiful! There seemed to be even more fish, and the coral seemed larger and more prolific.
One of the things we saw was amazing amounts of tiny fish – there were huge schools of blue tangs, nothing unusual about that, except the whole school would easily fit in your cereal bowl! They were no bigger than a dime! There were little tiny puffer fish, the size of the fingernail on your smallest finger.
I have to say though, that I simply don’t remember so much coral being in such amazing shape at this bay. It was simply remarkable. It was really great to see. So often we are thinking the opposite – that over use has hurt the coral, but for some reason, it was really lush and wonderful.
We came back to the Royal Sea Aquarium to re-charge our batteries, grab a bit of lunch and then swim over to the southern point of the Sea Aquarium’s island. It was a perfectly flat day, and wonderful day to see that section of the island. You don’t want rough water when you’re out there, and wow, was it calm. The proliferation of small fish continued. As we were coasting up the channel, a huge ball of fish came swimming rapidly right at us. I opened my arms to get in the middle of them, they moved to the left as one, and a half dozen BIG barjacks were chasing them!
We saw the biggest queen angelfish we’ve ever seen. It had to have been twice the size of any we’ve seen in the past. It was truly a Queen Sized Fish! Unfortunately, my photography in the afternoon was absolutely abysmal. Hardly one shot is worth posting! Which is too bad, because we had an absolutely amazing day out there. We saw a huge octopus too. He was much much larger than any we’ve seen in the wild before!
It was certainly a remarkable swim. Near the end, as we approached the beach, Pam spotted this little bird, crouched between two big slabs of rock. There is a tiny little crevice, and it seems he’s set up his home there! Too cute.
And how about this fellow crouched above the hot tub? I thought he might have had to much too drink and the world was spinning for him and he had to hold on for dear life! I got a big laugh out of that…
We had a nice dinner at Il forno’s, and then headed over to the Zuckertown mall for a nice gelato. We sat out on the patio and just enjoyed the lovely evening. It was a nice warm ending to a great day of swimming.
