Beach Creatures

Flamenco Beach
Culebra, PR
Jan. 15. 2009


The sea-side here certainly does not lack for interesting creatures, in the water and out, of the two-legged, four-legged and no-legged (!) varieties. We spent the afternoon today playing in the big waves that crash up a little further down the shore from our campsite. After I while I moved to the shallow water and simply sat there, pooped, as the warm waves splashed over me and Caelan repeatedly rode his boogie-board right into the shore -- and over me as well!

An older woman was walking by and commented on his wonderful energy. As she was talking I looked at her more closely and got a bit of a start; she must have been battling or afraid of skin cancer, because she had thick white cream spread liberally around her mouth so it looked like a handle-bar moustache. It was a bit of a challenge to chatter unconcernedly back to her without gawking! As she moved off -- a sturdy woman who between her 'moustache' and strange hat could have passed as a man -- she was joined by an incredibly frail, stick-thin even older man who could barely put one foot in front of the other, especially in the deep sand. He was so terribly thin that his shorts flapped around his legs like a skirt, and I couldn't help thinking of the nursery rhyme of Jack Sprat who "could eat no fat and his wife could eat no lean..."!

Later, as the couple came back down the beach, it took me some time to convince Mitch who was the man and woman in the couple. As we were discretely watching and chatting, Mr. Sprat made his painful way down to the water. To my surprise, he waded in. As wave after wave broke and just about knocked him over, Mitch and I were driven to our feet, convinced that at any moment he was going to be washed over and drown. Then, just as we were starting towards him, he made it past where the waves were cresting and he seemed less unstable. With complete disregard for the box we had so prejudicially put him in, he suddenly executed a perfect leap and neatly body-surfed to shore. What exhilaration those few seconds must have given him, to feel the power and freedom of the sea and to be master of it, all earthly problems set aside for a glorious time...


The four-legged critters here have given us no end of fun to watch as well. There is a little inland pond just at the tip of the point where the beach becomes rock; we discovered, to Cachell's ever-lasting fascination and delight, that it is home to at least a dozen turtles. They swim through the pond with just their noses exposed, and if she sits still enough, they will crawl out and go right up to her toes.

And while she was delighting in the turtles on the day of discovery, the boys found their own exciting creature: a three foot iguana. He was just like watching a dinosaur in miniature, and he was quite unconcerned by our proximity. Eventually he abandoned the tree he'd been up when they first noticed him, and made his ponderous way down the bank and past Cachell (who was quick to get out of the way) before plunging into the turtle pond and swimming gracefully away.


Since then, we have had a few iguana encounters: one day as they boys were at the (open-air!) showers, one went crashing by with another -- a tough-looking and battle-scarred big guy -- in hot pursuit. There was also a big commotion on the other side of our tent one day and I ran out to the clearing to find the kids stalking an absolutley beautiful lime-green iguana with a pink head! (He's my favourite so far!) And Cachell and I went back to "Turtle Beach" this afternoon and found the original iguana munching loudly on the broad-leaved plants on the bank... thereby answering one of the questions that have perplexed us about these fierce looking creatures!




And then there were the geese... they just showed up one day, an older couple clearly wanting to stroll up and down the beach and enjoy the scenery. They stayed the weekend and then left, just like hundreds of other couples before them...

Meanwhile, I continue my love affair with the beasts in the deep -- as long as it's not too deep! And it doesn't have to be deep to yield all sorts of interesting things! I was swimming to the shore yesterday after snorkelling out to the "drop off" with the boys. I was seeing how far I could swim into shore before scraping the bottom, and enjoying the crystal clear beauty and turquoise colour you can see even under-water, when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. It was another swordfish, swimming through the 18-inch depths with complete nonchalance. Of course, once he realised there was a strange creature lumbering along in his wake, he pretty rapidly hightailed it out to sea... he was so beautiful. (I have since learned that the two fish we have seen and mistakenly called "swordfish" are actually "ballyhos"! What a great name!)