Anchored off the beach in crystal clear water, there are many turtles swimming around and bopping their heads up for a breath. But we've decided that they must be shy, as when we tried to see them or swim with them when we snorkeled, they disappeared fast. But it was entertaining to just sit on the boat and watch them all around.
We had heard that Princess Diana used to come here often and had a favorite beach named after her. Well one day going ashore we came across this sign that signified that this was her beach:
So we just had to take a selfie here on her beach:
One is to go and have grilled lobster at Uncle Roddy's Lobster Shack. So we called Uncle Roddy and he came and met us on the beach and drove us to his little restaurant. He told us how much he had liked Princess Diana and how when he served her she always reminded him that she only wanted to be treated like any one else.
We were the only ones at the restaurant (as seems to be typical around here--they only open if someone wants to come) and really had the best time as they grilled the lobster to perfection. We also had grilled plantains:
I (Willow) had never had lobster before, let alone a whole one and i ate the whole thing...
The second thing they say not to miss is the Frigate Bird Colony which is the largest one in the world. So once again we struggled with our dingy going ashore where we met our guide Clifford, and he took us in his little boat across the lagoon to the colony. The first thing we saw was thousands of frigates flying in the air above the mangrove trees, but then.....
Thousands of frigate birds nesting in the mangrove trees for as far as you could see.
Frigates are big birds with wing spans sometimes 8 feet wide and are great at snatching fish from the surface of the water or from other birds. But they don't land in the water due to their wing span and inability to fly once wet.
The males sit in the trees during mating season and expand the big orange pouch making a clacking sound saying "Pick me, pick me" to the females. Of course, in all of nature (humans included), the females are the choosers and so it is that the males are the more colorful as they need to attract the attention of the ladies. And man oh man do these male birds strut their stuff:
This guy is really going all out as he lies on his back for all of the flying females to see:
It's a long mating season with males and females mating only once during that time, with the females laying only 1 egg. Once mated, the male and female take turns guarding the egg or chick while the other fishes and brings food back to the nest.
It was an amazing experience and of a magnitude that we cannot even describe. We were able to be right in the midst of thousands of frigates....colorful, noisy males, females and so many chicks!!!
We were so thankful and definitely agree that it is not to be missed.
We have never seen as many rainbows as we see here in the Caribbean, and you might think that they could become ho-hum. But they are still magical to us and we really were in awe of this complete rainbow off of the coast of Barbuda. It was ocean to ocean and so big that i couldn't even get it completely in the picture.
What would happen if we sailed right over to the end of it? A pot of gold?
It's our love, our life, and EcstaSea!!!
