Today we explored our local area a bit more. We didn't travel more than 20 minutes from the condo. After breakfast and a morning swim we headed off to the only Conch farm in the area (maybe even the world, we forget that bit of trivia!) Those of you who have no idea what a conch is (pronounced konk) it is a mollusk, you know those big white snails that you see in pictures from here in the Caribbean. We paid our fee and had a nice tour of the farm. It looks a lot like a salmon farm in NB only with little shelled creatures. It takes about 3 years to grow one to the size where they harvest the meat. However a lucky one in the wild can grow pretty big and live for about 20 years. The meat from the farmed ones is the better stuff and goes for $20.00/lb. NOT CHEAP. The farm was hit by two hurricanes in September 2008 and it almost wiped them out. At one time they were supplying the meat to all the restaurants on the Islands. Now they are only supplying to one. They are in the plans to rebuild but it takes time and dollars.
After our visit to the farm we were told by the tour guide that Long Beach (which is near) was one of the best places to find the conch shells on the beach and not have to pay for them. So we got in the car looked at the map and headed off. We found an entrance that we know many tourist have not found. The pictures will show you... We were not on the beach for more than 2 minutes when we found our first shell. What a find too! It was whole, no broken parts. Most times when you find one, some farmer or local has broke or bore a hole in the shell to extract the meat. We went for a nice hour long walk up this beach and enjoyed the place pretty much to ourselves. We did manage to find another pretty decent shell.
After a quick 7 minute drive back to the condo we had lunch then we gathered up the masks, snorkels and fins and headed to Grace Bay beach. This area is the main tourist beach with tons of hotels, resorts and restaurants. But it also has some of the nicest beaches in the world. It also has some pretty great spots to see some pretty cool fish too.
We parked the car and took a short walk through the bush on a sandy trail to the beach. We were not disappointed. The water had that, what we have grown to love, turquoise colour to it, along with some dark reef (great for fish). We got in the water and Greg stayed to the shallows and I headed out. There was lots of fish for sure. To bad those afternoon thunder clouds blocked the sun for 30 minutes or so. But like normal it just looked bad but didn't amount to anything. After about an hour I headed back into the shallow waters where I saw just as much different kinds of fish as I had in the deeper parts. In about 1 metre of water I came pretty much arms length from I have no idea what kind of fish... it could be a barracuda. I just know it was about a metre long (or more) with nice teeth and a pretty thick body. See the picture. When I took its picture I think it liked it or thought the camera was a pretty nice looking lure. Since it started to swim towards me. I quickly stayed my ground but put my hands (and camera) behind my back so it wouldn't come looking for a bite. Never try to lure this big fish with teeth towards your fingers... my Mother and Father didn't raise no fool ;)
After the swim we enjoyed an hour at a beach front bar having some mojitos and nachos. Then we headed back to the condo for our late afternoon swim... oh not before checking out one of the local bakeries.
This is where they keep the 1+ year old conch
Here is the vats for the tiny ones
This is a close up of a 100 or so.
A bit gross but tasty :)
The beginning of Long Beach where the shells are.
Just cleaning the shell we just found
This is a blue crab
As you can see no a soul on the beach
Some kind of puffer fish
A Parrot fish. Named because of its colours
This is that "big"fish with the large teeth
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