Bright blue in color, it was perched in the coconut tree.

Reminded us of India streets at every step. You walk around as you will on the road and the traffic is expected to work around you. There are shirtless young kids, dogs and roosters darting across the road all the while!! Lots of shops and restaurants trying to get you to step in…

We had some great food at Happy Harry’s Hideaway!

Our hotel is filled with germaniums (Rongon for my Bengali friends). Saw a couple of hummingbirds merrily feeding off their nectar.

These reminded me of the mangroves we explored in Marco Island. One unique experience this time was that Captain Diaz drove into the mangroves (you can see a couple of openings like tunnels in the picture). Learnt a lot of about mangroves. I did not realize that mangroves is used to make wooden furniture.

You can see all those dead coral reefs off the water in the picture. My strong impression of dead coral reefs is that they are very lifeless, arid places. In fact, I remember the southern shores of Aruba that had flat desert-like dead coral reefs for miles and miles!!

So, I was very surprised – and confused – to see so much greenery growing out of the reefs. More interestingly, big houses have been built on it too. Going by the structures, they had to drill some solid foundations.

Perhaps, I was confusing the otherwise desert environment of Aruba with presence of coral reefs. Meaning they were independent things.

Any one of you seen this kind of development on dead coral reefs?