Follow that turtle!

[Samuel]Today we spent on a nearby beach in a secluded cove with a reef across most of the mouth so it was fairly calm. Here there is some slightly degraded coral going quite close to the water's edge, with fan corals and nice formations in the deeper areas plus quite a few fish.
The high spot was seeing a turtle (I think only one but we cannot be sure). Both Cathy and I saw it, and it was possible to get quite close. However the turtle soon decided that it did not want any company, and headed off at a rate I could not match even with fins. It was quite small and therefore presumably a young one. Its shell was very striking. Turtles breed (lay their eggs) on beaches here and there is a program to protect them, as the eggs are vulnerable to damage (and to lizards and iguanas).
[Cathy] It was only the second time I have ever snorkelled (the first time ws on Sunday at Buccoo reef) and I was quite nervous, as there was no-one to keep an eye on me, as Samuel had done last time. But in fact it was so absorbing watching the fish and all the strange coral formations that I hardly noticed time passing. i particularly enjoyed swimminf for some time above a shoal of grey-blue and fluorescent blue fish, which someone later told me were called Blue Tans. They appeared to be browsing on the coral and were a tight knit family group.
Back at our lovely Adventure Eco Farm I spent the evening wandering through the dense trees in the valley below our cabin, and saw several Blue creested motmots perched on lowish branches, unbothered by my proximity. This morning we saw a great flock of orange-winge Amazon parrots in the trees above us as we breakfasted outside - so a little bit of paradise here, I feel!
Tomorrow we are going on a trip through the rain-forest, further north.









Tomorrow we go on a rain forest bird watching trip.