Slippery As An Eel

It’s been another perfect day in this neighborhood of Paradise. We started the day with Kathy’s homebrewed cup of “Grand Mere” French coffee, a brand we’ve relied on in France. It certainly beats instant. We then took a dip in the water, showered, and headed over for our continental breakfast.

It was then time for some serious snorkeling and we stayed in the water long enough to feel the effects of the current on our inner ears. In other words, time to get out of the "waves" and lie down for awhile until everything stops moving.

We spent an hour at the pool later, sitting in the shade of a lovely tree that leans out over the pool. It must keep the pool cleaners busy but it’s a great feature. The pool itself is shallow and warm. Later we lunched on peanut butter and Wasa crackers in our bungalow. Yes, we stocked up on food on the island of Tahiti before coming here. We ate crepes a couple of nights ago at the little bar about four bungalows down the walkway from our place, but we’ve also enjoyed a couple of nights of the cups of noodle soup that we picked up. Saves some money and we’re snug in our own little place.

This afternoon we returned to the water. It was much calmer and we spent a fair amount of time hanging around various coral columns, watching the action. There are schools of little yellow fish that actually get aggressive. Maybe people feed them or maybe they’re more curious than the other fish, but they’ve nipped us more than once.






Oh, and that eel? A nice young couple from Virginia gazing into the water a couple of bungalows down showed us where to look. The eel showed us his teeth as he displayed about half of his body out of his coral lair, and Kathy snapped a couple of photos, insisting that Brian move his leg closer to the eel to provide “perspective.” Fortunately he wasn’t as curious as those cute little yellow devils.

Incidentally, this is the best place we’ve ever seen (including the Great Barrier Reef, Mexico, and Hawaii) for viewing fish and coral in colors from above the water. That’s probably because the water itself, along with being crystal clear, is quite shallow, and the sand on the bottom is pure white. That’s what enabled the couple to spot the eel from 20 feet away and 10-12 feet up.

Our Internet connection is fine for some things, even including Skype phone calls, but we didn’t have success trying to upload a photo so those will have to come later. Rest assured there will be lots.