On The Home Beach

Yesterday I went out the back door of Mom’s new-to-me house and went over to the beach; she moved two blocks closer so it was about a five minute walk, through a little grape-tree shaded path.

Bare feet, sun dress, hot day. The tropical foliage makes me feel at home like nothing else does; in my heart’s garden there are lush broad-leafed trees, hanging vines, bright bursts of extravagant flowers.

After I read the rules (we didn’t use to have all these rules!) the first thing I saw was a sea turtle nest.

That first one didn’t have any signage but as I walked down the beach to the park things got a bit more official.

I wonder if there are any turtle-disturbers doing time in Florida jails.

The seawater is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s around 26, any New Zealanders or other Celsius-users reading this) so it was like slogging through a bath, making sure to do the stingray shuffle. I have never forgot one time when I was a kid, walking through the water with my little sister piggyback, looking down at the sand below my feet and seeing a pair of eyes looking back up at me. It was only a horseshoe crab, true, but that’s the kind of image that makes an impression on a young girl. Anyway I remembered how the sand is always really ridged here, for reasons I don’t quite understand, because there are no waves at all. One of those funny things that used to seem normal when you saw it every day but now serves to remind you how far away you’ve been.

I kept my eyes out for interesting creatures, thinking fondly of the hermit crabs in Rarotonga and all the awesome invertebrates (and birds!) in Golden Bay. I saw a very sandy-colored crab dig a hole in the shallows, and then I started seeing lots of little silvery minnowy fish, right where the water met the shore. And then I saw a bigger silvery fish, out a little deeper, chase and catch and eat one of those little fish, right in front of me.

You can barely see that guy; his shadow is easier to discern than he is. I guess that’s the whole evolutionary point. Not shown: the bloody half-fish dangling out of his mouth, like a cat with a lizard.

And then I saw this dead pufferfish on the shore–I know that’s why you read this blog, for the dead fish pictures, right? I wasn’t completely convinced it was dead at first, actually…because in Raro there was this dog that would catch them and then just haul them out to shore, all flapping their fins and generally dying slowly and horribly, which obviously was traumatic for everyone involved. I actually saw the dog do it once, and then this dude saw him and started yelling at the dog and then brought the fish back to the water and trying to turn it over and submerge it, and meanwhile all the backpackers are staring openmouthed and horrified, wondering what’s going on and trying to tamp down their feelings of Western squeamishness, and THEN all of a sudden the pufferfish revived and de-puffed and just swam off back to the reefs as good as new. So I had hope for this poor pufferfish and I wanted it to have a long and happy life, neurotoxic though it may be, but no go. I tried to hold it underwater just like the guy did but nothing happened so I just had to take a picture and accept the harsh cruelties of nature and keep walking down the beach to see the lighthouse.

I wanted to get a little closer and get some better pictures but it was almost noon by the time I got there and I was worried about sunscreen so I turned around and scanned the water for more silver fish.

I first saw what looked to my amateur eyes like juvenile gars and that was pretty exciting…I had waded out a little bit and seen the edge of the turtle grass beds, which made me really really really wish I had my own snorkel and mask…but then I saw, completely out of nowhere, this big blue guy, just swimming along and doing his own thing, a complete gift on a gorgeous day.

I made it back to the house before my sunscreen wore off and give my mom a hug and a kiss before it was time to see Key Girls and Key Girl kids and to be an auntie for a while. Marah and I had dinner over at Manya’s last night and I’ve spent the day hanging out with her kids and with my mom, talking with D., eating Cuban beans and rice and sweating profusely. As soon as I finish this entry I am going to study for my Advanced Open Water certificate dives that I’m doing tomorrow at Pennekamp State Park down in Key Largo and then going to bed–thinking all the time of the smooth sand, the soft water, the damp air: outside the walls of this house but inside the walls of my heart.