Eating/Grazing/Food observations - Updated

If you are familiar with Bermuda you know most of its food is shipped from the US (most grocery stores especially the fruit and veg produce section looks remarkably like any produce aisle in the US) which makes everything really expensive. Like $1.89 an apple expensive (not $1.89 a pound) or $10 for the liquid hazelnut coffee mate that my parents enjoy so much (sorry parents, guess I outed you there!) which can be found often for $3 in the US. So I'm trying to be thoughtful in how and what I buy. However should I run out of money and have to survive off of foraging the island, here's how I would survive. 

1. Fish. Yes, I love looking at them under water but if push came to shove...

2. The island is teeming with wild chickens. I asked my first airbnb hosts if any local residents ever snatch a chicken out of the tree where they roost at night. It was a definite no. Guess people are not going hungry here in Bermuda.

3. Fruit of the island - prickly pear, Bay Grape (sea grape or cocoplum in other parts of the world), Surinam Cherry, Natal plum, loquats -  and of course in season you can find bananas, mangos and oranges also that people have growing in their yards. And should you need some allspice, the trees are abundant everywhere as well!

Prickly Pear, Surinam Cherry, Sea/Bay Grape

Prickly Pear

Surinam Cherry

Surinam Cherries are new to me having a citrusy taste especially when less ripe (with hints of not fully ripe mango) and as they darken up becoming quite sweet. It's not really the season for them right now but they are popular at this time of year, looking like little pumpkins! More info on the Surinam Cherry here.

Sea/Bay Grape

My Housing - updated

For those that want to see and know a little bit more about my housing situation in Bermuda...I arrived here having only booked a month at my first ever airbnb which turned out to be a gem run by hosts Karen and Danny. It was actually one of the first airbnb's to get started on the island a few years ago. And it turned out to be such a beautiful restful space for my first six weeks on the island. From the moment I entered the front gate which is an old wagon wheel (more on that in a moment), pushing open the beautiful Bermudian Cedar exterior door, walking past the pool and up  some steps onto a terrace under a frangipani tree to my studio which had peaceful music playing as I entered, I knew I had been given a gift. Angel Mews as it's AirBnB link describes, definitely provided peace and tranquility. If you ever need a place to stay here in Bermuda, try to get this place. 

Typical Bermuda water catching roof

Sunrise...every day

I loved just watching out the windows every day and seeing the light and the greenery. And I loved hearing the little tiny frogs lull me to sleep every night and watching the lizards scamper about during the day. Horseshoe Bay, the closest of the south island beaches was only a 15-20 minute walk away.

Tiny frogs - this one was a rescue from the pool!

My friends the fish

One of my goals  in coming here was to swim a lot and snorkel a lot and spend as much time in the water and under the water as possible. One of the highlights of when I was here six years ago was swimming off the dock and seeing a HUGE 3 1/2-4 foot Hogfish swim right by me - and evidently they are territorial so he/she would swim that same route every day around the same time. He/she(?) was stunningly big and beautiful with stripes of purple and red. I was a little freaked out and amazed!

I recently saw a baby hogfish (only about 8 inches) dart away from me but yet to see a big guy. Other individual highlights include almost running into a surprisingly large invasive Lion fish, several trumpet fish, a very menacing barracuda that eyed me very watchfully - and loads of little fish that surround me - a couple times the water gets dark because the school is so big! But without doubt the highlight has been the many different kinds of parrot fish (Bermuda has nine species) which seem to dominate the waters in so many different colors and hues and sizes - and making it more complex some of these ubiquitous fish change color and design over the course of their lifetime and even more complex, many start as female and change to male later on in their life! I don't have an underwater camera but here are a couple photos taken from the internet of a few of my favorite parrot fish species and a  link with more fascinating details on these amazing fish.

Princess (or Stoplight?) Parrotfish

Blue Parrotfish

Rainbow Parrotfish

And my two favorite parrot fish experiences so far:

Having a school of two dozen 1-2 foot blue parrot fish swim right underneath you and all around is truly beautiful and calming. Their vivid blue isn't captured in this picture above - I only hope you can one day experience it. 

And without a doubt my #1 piscis highlight began to materialize the very first day I made it to the water's edge and looking down from the cliff I was standing on, I saw these large objects in the water and thought what am I looking at?! Turns out that  rainbow parrot fish grow quite big (think 3-4 feet) and being vegetarian (like all parrot fish) they come right to the edge of the water to graze on the greenery and algae growing on the rocks. Whether it is their size or what I don't know but these large ones consistently can be found around the edge of the coast nibbling away, sometimes by themselves, sometimes with what I imagine is their family. And let me tell you,  every time I am swimming and come around a corner and one of these gentle giants is right there, it takes my breath away. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to swim with a a whale shark - these are enough! 

It's interesting that they are called rainbow parrot fish because certainly by the time they are this big they are mainly brown with some swatches of bright moss green. I do have photos of these guys taken from above them while they are nibbling. Sometimes it feels like you can reach down and just pat them on their fin!

And now you know! Everyone should have the opportunity to swim with these gentle giants and their smaller more colorful cousins!

Duncan