These are the mountain shrimp to be found in Dominica. The guy we met would dive under and bring them up to Mary at the edge of the pool. Mary’s job was to open his Louis Vitton purse and stuff them inside while making sure none of the other prisoners escaped. She only screamed once.

The waterfall over the pool is pretty spectacular. I would have enjoyed swimming under it a bit more if I wasn’t worried the whole time about having my toes nipped off.

I went diving in Dominica the day before we left. Most diverse coral life that I’ve seen in one spot. There were barrel sponges big enough for me to swim into. I didn’t, of course, because that would be bad. It seems that coral around the world is dying quickly as the oceans are warming up, being polluted, etc. (hippie story at: http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/041106EA.shtml) The coral in Dominica was generally in great shape with brilliant colors, but there were a few fields of lifeless white coral. Very sad if we won’t have much living coral in another 100 years. Here’s a couple big (10-12″) trunkfish I caught snuggling:
Right after diving, Mary, her brother John and I jumped another boat to whalewatch. Turns out that Dominica is home year-round to female sperm and humpback whales. We saw 6 female and calf sperm whales, including one grouping of three that we followed for a good half hour. They get crazy wrinkles on their back with age. We got close enough to one to have the guide prove to Mary it was a 40-50 year old whale, not a giant wrinkled pickle. Here’s another taking a dive:

We jumped over here to St. Lucia on Monday and spent our first day sleeping on a beach at Rodney Bay. The beach has a few resorts on it with jetskis to rent and parasailing boats coming in now and then. But it was reasonably quiet. Until the Fruit Man came calling. You can’t make stuff like this up. It starts with the blowing of the conche. Then you notice a ratty dinghy with all kinds of tattered flags coming right at you. Which is fine, except you’re on a floatie trying to nap and he’s got an outboard and a machette. Anyway, John picked up some mangos just to be funny and they turned out to be some of the best we’ve had.

More of a chicken of the sea than monster of the deep…