30 January Crocodiles and lobsters galore at Cayo Rosario

The reef pass into Cayo Rosario is as charted although the one remaining green and red don't seem to be just where Navionics indicate. Still we saw no less than 6m going in, no coral heads and no anxious moments. To reach the anchorage we did have to pass over a bank of 2.7m which looked like small rocks and this sand to reach a wide swathe of deeper water with sand bottom closer to the shore of Cayo Rosario.

We found good holding in 6.8m, sand at 21.37.53N 81.56.36W. This is close to Cayo Rosario and the mangroves. We didn't see a beach or a reason to take the dinghy here, but a mile across the channel is the ranger station at Cayo Cantiles.

lobsters galore

Within an hour of anchoring a fishing boat approached offering lobsters. What would they like in return? The answer came back “coffee, tomatoes, garlic and condiments please”. One of the dozen men on board spoke good English and he was the negotiator. “How many lobster do you want?” “Can you spare 8 or 10?” “No problem.” I gave them a packet of Columbian coffee, a small jar of mayonnaise and a couple of tins of tomatoes. Our supplies of fresh tomatoes and garlic had long gone and in return we were given twelve tails and a large read snapper for supper. We were very happy and from their smiles they were too. All three ate a hearty seafood supper that night. How many cats get lobster for dinner?

On our second day here we took the dink across the way to say hello to the park ranger on Cayo Cantiles. There were three men on duty when we arrived. They had been on the island for 15 days and had another 15 days before swapping with the next crew.

feeding the crocodile

hand reared fish eagle

Cantiles is a breeding habitat for Vietnamese monkeys. They 52 of them, but they are elusive and all we saw were tails disappearing into the trees. I'm not sure why Cayo Cantiles was chosen, or when the monkeys were brought here. The rangers keep an eye on them and the other wildlife on the island like a young jutias (a large native rodent) which was in an enclosure while she recovered from an injury to her front paw. We also met a sea eagle that had been hand reared and the ranger took us to see a resident crocodile living in a muddy pond behind the station. With calling and the offer of a dead fish it came out of the mangroves to be hand fed. This was a young one too, about 1.2m long.

with the rangers at Cayo Cantiles

With all these animals the most dangerous bit of our visit was walking over the razor sharp uplifted coral. Hard soled walking boots would have been a better option than sandals.