Tag Archives: angelfish

West Bay, Roatan

November 18, 2014 Maurice 3 Comments

Roatan is a lush island, covered in tropical rain forest, with flowers blooming everywhere. The ocean water is very warm, which surprised us. Kinda thought it would be a little cooler The outside air temperature is a little milder than the south Caribbean, but still a nice 80-85 ish. Definitely lovely weather.

Our deck is so nice! It’s got a great set of comfy chairs and a cafe table to sit at, have our coffee, browse the internet and watch the ocean.

We got in our pool – a VERY big pool – and there were only two couples in it. BOTH from Canada! One couple from Ontario and one from Kelowna.

We decided to head to West Bay on the far west side of the island. We went with the couple from Kelowna and they knew their way around the joint. We had a nice snorkel and saw some great fish, several of which we’ve rarely seen.

Pam saw only her second ocean triggerfish, a large-ish fish that is quite majestic in the water. He was swimming with a school of tangs and surgeonfish, and we didn’t even spot him right away! We also saw a hogfish that we’ve never seen before.

Driving around the island is lots of fun. Lots of sights and smells and action. People walk on the road, as do animals and pets. Dogs and children play in the streets, too. Lots of people have bbqs going and you can stop for a quick, inexpensive bite to eat.

Here is a movie of a couple of big beautiful grey angelfish. They came around us, and just drifted majestically.

Aruba, Vacations

Final Friday in Aruba

December 21, 2012 Maurice Leave a comment

Well, it’s the last day, and we’re feeling a little melancholy. The last few nights, we’ve been playing in the Glitz Casino, here at La Cabana. It’s a fun casino, giving us lots of play for our money. In fact, we have won most nights, although one night we lost a little. With all the free drinks they serve, it’s been a pretty amazing deal! It has meant we get up a little later than usual, mind you. Overall, we’ve enjoyed La Cabana, but the one really big negative has been the doors to the rooms. They are very heavy, and slam quite loudly. With the hallways being all tile, and the bedrooms right by the hall, it’s created some loud noisy echoing BANGS!

We spent a lazy day snorkeling around our favorite places, taking a last long look around, saying good bye to our fishy friends. There is a longish rocky shelf, under which a large porcupine fish resides. I’ve posted pictures of him hiding before. Today I dove down and grabbed onto the shelf, holding myself under for a long look around. Imagine my surprise when I found there were TWO big green moray eels under that shelf! If you take a close look at the picture I have posted here of the porcupine fish, you can seen the mouth of one of the green morays peeking out from in front of the porcupine’s head.

We saw something rather unique. This is a sea creature of some sort, we’re not sure what. He was crawling along the sand, rather slowly. It could be a small conch, but it’s an awfully dark color for a conch, so I don’t think so. I’ve done some little bit of poking around the internet, and it seems to be like a murex shell, but again – not really sure that’s what it is.

The Queen Angelfish is not that big, maybe ten inches would be a good sized one. They are a bright yellow and blue, and are active swimmers.

It’s always fun chasing them around trying to get a shot. Here are a couple of ones we took today that I thought showed them in a neat light.

We’ve decided to try a restaurant called The Queen’s for our last dinner here. It’s got really great reviews on Tripadvisor, and they serve Keshi Yena, a dish I really love that is a local Aruban specialty. Should be a fun night.

Aruba, Vacations

Sunday in Aruba

December 1, 2008 Maurice Leave a comment

Today – Sunday – we spent some time in the water, and some time doing a little exploring. We headed north to the California Lighthouse, but stopped for a swim at Malmok beach. The water was good and clear today, and we saw a number of fish we had not seen in the Caymans.

The water seems a tad cooler to me, than last year in the Caymans – not that it is difficult to get in or anything – it’s still warm enough to walk right in, but I do think it’s cooler. Some of the fish seem bigger too. The ubiquitous Sergeant Major seems to be fatter here! Maybe more tourists feed them! hah

After about 90 minutes in the water, we headed to the California Lighthouse for a beer and a rest. The view from here is pretty good. Aruba is not as flat as the Caymans, but it’s not like it has towering peaks, either!

After our rest, we headed back into the ocean at Arashi beach. It was a little rocky getting in, but man, was it worth it! We saw some Carribbean reef squid – very cool looking beasties that travel in schools of 20 or more. Big eyes and kinda alien looking. We also saw what we initially thought was a sea snake of some sort, but turned out to be a type of eel.

The coolest thing tho, was seeing some French Angelfish! In the Caymans, we bought a photo by a local favorite diver/photographer of the French Angelfish, but we never actually saw it in the water. Here in Aruba, we’ve seen at least a half dozen already.

For dinner, we headed to the Amazonia Churrascaria (steakhouse). It was quite an experience. There are no menus – they start you off with a big salad bar, and some pumpkin soup. Then they give you a little wooden peg, painted red and green. Put the green side up, and you’re going to get meat! They bring around meat, meat and more meat skewered on swords – if you want some, he cuts you off some. There was steak, and porterhouse, and filet, beef roasts, pork roasts, chicken, sausages, lamb…. you name it, it was there! Quite an experience!

Then we came home and lounged in the swimming pool and hot tub for a while. We ended the evening listening to some karaoke in the pool bar. It was lots of fun, with some real talent there… Simon Cowell better get his butt down to Aruba!