A Virtual Vacation in Curacao With My Daughter

My daughter took a brief vacation in Curacao recently and brought me along, virtually. I'll never go to Curacao physically, so she shared her photos and experiences throughout the day. She snapped a slew of pictures specifically for me to post on Hive. Finally I'm finding time to do that today.

On her first evening in Curacao she captured images of a dramatic sunset:

She caught the scene from a slightly different angle here. In both pictures you can see a cruise ship on the horizon.

Curacao is a volcanic island: most of the island is of volcanic origin. All around the island one can see rocks (i.e., they are rocks to me--this term may not be geologically accurate) that are called pillow lava. These are formed by expanding and cooling lava. A few of my daughter's pictures seem to have pillow lava in them.

Here's one underwater shot where it seems pillow lava are present:

And here is another shot, on land, in front of a hotel. There it appears pillow lava are used as ornaments.

The Iguana
It is apparently impossible to walk on the beach in Curacao without seeing an iguana. My daughter took many pictures of iguanas. My favorite is this one.

Green Iguana

Although this is called a green iguana, it is not necessarily green. It is a beautiful animal, and looks like a prehistoric creature. However, it is not a descendant of the dinosaur. Both dinosaur and iguana did have a common reptilian ancestor, but that dates back hundreds of millions of years.

The iguana is an egg-laying herbivore. According to one website, this very large lizard (can grow to more than 6 feet) does a lot of lounging because it doesn't have to hunt for its food.

Here is a picture of an iguana lounging, right in front of the hotel. These animals spend a lot of time taking in the sun :)

And here is an iguana walking on the beach. Whose beach is it anyway? :))

Apparently, iguanas in Curacao, at least the ones in the resort areas, are habituated to people.

Here is a (brave? foolish?) tourist petting an iguana.

Little does this person know that an iguana can deliver a nasty bite, one that likely will require medical attention because of the bacteria the iguana harbors in its mouth.

Saffron Finch

My daughter snapped a couple of pictures of a small bird with a yellow breast, and a reddish head. She had never seen this kind of bird before. I looked it up and it seems to be a saffron finch (Sicalis flaveola).

My daughter's picture, below

And a saffron finch from Wikimedia Commons:

Credit: Greg Hume. Used under CC Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

The bird is apparently found in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Another picture of the two saffron finches. It is hard to see them.

Crab

I don't know what kind of crab this is, but it certainly is impressive. The closest picture I could find of a crab that resembled this one was a ghost crab, but the ghost crab doesn't exactly look like the crabs in my daughter's pictures.

Here is a handsome crab walking on the beach.

Picture of a ghost crab from wikimedia commons:

Credit: Leoadec. Used under CC 3.0 license

Here is a shot of another crab. My daughter caught this photo as the crab was climbing up from the water onto the steps.

And here's a crab that is further along on the journey up the steps. Is it me, or is this crab smiling? It certainly has personality. I can't use an appropriately-gendered pronoun because there's no way to tell: male, female or hermaphrodite. Yes, crabs have three genders. I'd have to flip the animal over and look at the shape of its carapace (underbelly) to determine its gender.

The crab in the picture below was nestled in the rocks when my daughter saw it. This one looks different from the others.

In this picture, the crab seems to be looking straight at my daughter. This crab has personality and I almost want to name it.

Crabs seems to be ubiquitous on the Curacao beach, although not as ubiquitous as iguanas. There seem to be more iguanas than crabs.

Mollusks
In the second shot of a crab climbing the stairs (above) there is evident what seems to be a snail on the lowest stair. My daughter captured a great shot of what looks like snails to me, as they cling to rocks underwater.

I'm not sure, but these could be cerith snails (Cerithium caeruleum). These snails are scavengers and good reef cleaners. They are found throughout the Caribbean.

Fish

My daughter tried to get underwater shots. She is dissatisfied with the outcome, but I can clearly see fish in her pictures, and the shot of the snails (above) came out very well. The fish featured in the picture below, I believe, is a Sergeant Major (Abudefduf saxatilis). This fish is distinguished by five stripes...count them. There they are. And a bit of yellow.

Fish in the picture my daughter took:

Sergeant major fish, from Wikimedia Commons

Credit EgorovaSvetlana. Used under CC license 4.0.

My daughter captured a picture of a school of fish. This may be a school of sergeant majors. According to the Florida Museum, when feeding the sergeant majors can school in groups of hundreds.

She sent me a picture of another type of fish, which I can't identify. This shot was taken in a different area of the island. In this picture I see one sergeant major in the background. It is possible that the darker fish is also a sergeant major, because this fish changes color when in crevices or caves. It becomes dark grey and blends in with the environment.

Finally....

Cats
While these may not be native to the island, they are very present and it seems kind hotel staff feeds them. Here's a group my daughter photographed. (See the pillow lava behind them?)

Here is another quite comfortable, apparently well-fed cat:

Thank you for sharing this virtual vacation with me. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.