February 1, 2008

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Last year on this date we were on a tiny island in the Atlantic Ocean.











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January 31, 2008

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Last year on this date we were in Nassau in the Bahamas.













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cruise, Feb. 1, tiny island, part 5

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Nature trail ends at the beach. This is a different side of the island, less protected by reefy stuff and other nearby islands. The sea bottom right by the shore was much less steep than the tiny beaches we looked at earlier. When the tide went out, there was a large flat area exposed.





Hmmm. What is with these lines?





They are being drawn by little bitty pointy black snaily things. I wonder where they are going, and why.





Aw, look, another itty bitty critter. Crab, in what used to be someone else's shell.

I accumulate shells, but I am careful to not keep any that are inhabited. This one went back in the water.





A birdy version of cuneiform?





More lines in the sand -- lots of itty bitty pointy black snaily things, all going somewhere.





Of course people are making marks on the sand, too.





Time to head back to the ship. More palm fruit.







Walking from the little boat to the big one.





Another good sunset.





A nice raspberry panna cotta.



We found the food to be disappointing. After Holland America's Ryndam, the food was ... ok. It was good, but not ... special. Not adventurous, and not delicious. Ah well.

One thing we did like was that the crew came from all over, rather than from just one nationality, and that there were women as well as men. The staff sang to us on our last night in the dining room, and we were told they would sing in 25 different accents, representing their 25 different nations. That was nice.

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cruise, Feb. 1, tiny island, part 4

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Nature trail.





Palms.





Spiky shadows.





Palms.





Vine.





I dunno what this is, but I bet is was what was growing along the beach in St. Martin, when we were there in 1998.





I pointed the camera at this little baby palm, and then I noticed the itty bitty lizard on the root of the tree. See it? Just to the right of the "trunk" of the baby palm?







I saw exactly two (2) signs describing what we were seeing. Each preceded here by the tree being described.













Uh oh. To quote one of our favorite lines from Whose Line is it Anyway? ... "That can't be good." (Note that the quote isn't in this episode, but Colbert does a creditable job with his rhyming-on-the-fly!)

Of all the critters we import to various places, this has to be one of the most devastating to wildlife.....................

It was a very friendly soul, lying in the middle of the path until I approached, and then eager for pets. It hung around as long as I stood still petting it.





Ok, walking away from the kitteh.





Yet another sort of palm fruit.





Another interesting trunk.



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cruise, Feb. 1, tiny island, part 3

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Time for lunch. There were tables in the middle of the island, and stations where we could pick up different kinds of food. I had lots of pineapple and salad and a pretty-good barbeque-sauced rib.





Locals ready to help us with our leftovers. I'd never seen such small doves. Love that it was caught in mid-stride.





Note size, compared to footprint!





Gull, regular size. (Again, note size relative to footprints.)





Back on the beach. These guys were scavenging from Mama Nature's offerings, not ours.





Still life under pine(?) tree, arranged by Mama N.





Here's what the bottom of the tree looked like.





Same tree, about a yard up from the ground.





I decided to go see if the tacky shops had anything interesting. Whoa. No.

Then I saw a sign that said "Nature Trail." Ok, that sounds good..... Let's head in that direction.





Nature? As with most of this island, "nature," seriously heavily colored by human intervention. Every time I heard something rustling in the trees, it turned out to be one of these........





I saw a sign that said Iguana Cove, and immediately saw this. I presume it is a smallish iguana, perched on top of this tiny (6-8'?) ridge. It is 3-4' long, including tail.





Almost immediately a much larger iguana (body between two and three feet long) came over the ridge and headed right toward me. I'm sure it's because they are used to being fed, but.....

I showed my empty hands, and backed up, and then this honcho came over the ridge.

Goodness.

This one isn't a whole lot longer than the second one I saw, but is MUCH bulkier, and has a lot more show-off stuff -- spikes, throat bag, and whatever you call those round/oval thingies on his(?) cheeks....





The big boy(?) displayed no interest in me, but promptly chased the middle-size one over the ridge. Leaving that first one where it was the first time I saw it, perched on top of the ridge......





All righty then.

Moving right along.

The smallest bird I saw on this trip.





The top of the tree which dropped the pine(?) needles in the prev.



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