Island Paradise Day 51

Today Stephane and I went beach combing. We realized that we are leaving in two days and had not really spent any time looking down. We are always so mesmerized by the water, that we had neglected to see the myriad of shells, coral, seeds, glass, and other things (beside plastic) that line the shores.

I found some cool seeds called “hamburger seeds.” They float over from the mainland, and would make amazing bracelets as they have the look and feel of beautiful round balls of wood. We also discovered a whole colony of snails living on the underside of some lava rock. Some of them were of serious supper size! Tonight I did some research on if they are edible. Apparently, any sea snail that is edible is called a whelk. And there are various different whelks that live in the waters of the Caribbean. Conch, is the largest, and used to be a main food source here, but because of over fishing, you do not see a lot of them.

When I first came to the Bay Islands years ago, one of my favorite memories was of the amazing conch I had in the restaurants. Conche ceviche in particular was amazing. Now, I have not seen any conch on menus. Other edible whelks include smaller snails, like some of the ones we found today. The problem is there are 80,000 species of gastropods, and only a couple dozen are edible, so I think I will not try to guess which ones.

Stephane and I also did some snorkeling today, and although the visibility was not great, the water was calm and we saw an eagle ray. Probably the last one we will see for a long time, so we were grateful for the encounter. They really are very majestic, only this one seemed to be missing his tail. We also saw a big Permit fish about two feet long.

After snorkeling I took over to Susan some sweet potato sprouts I started for her. I think they will grow here, and will provide her with much needed fresh greens – maybe even year round. She showed me her Moringa trees. One of them has grown about 30 feet in two years. It produces many seed pods. I told her I paid $30 for 10 seeds a few years ago, so she is sitting on a gold mine…if only there was mail service out of Utila. Moringa is a super food, and worthy of trying to grow. Apparently I have one that has grown successfully in my absence. On a whim I stuck a seed in one of my plant pots before I left in October, and last I heard it was about 7 feet tall! I hope it survives until I get home.