The Grotto!

After working up a super sweat climbing back up and out of Bird Island Beach area we went right next door to the Grotto. This is a mostly enclosed cave area where you can swim and snorkle... it's kind of odd, swimming in a cave!! The water was cool and relaxing but there was no sun shining on us, no sunburn! And floating on our backs there we looked up to the cave roof with stalactites hanging down. It was also neat to snorkle, and see the interesting fishes (plain colored ones with zebra tails) and see the sunlight coming through underwater cave openings from the open sea. We didn't bring the camera down this time but we snapped these photos in the parking area after we got done with the swim.

Bird Island - Beach

It was a beautiful beach in a protected cove sort of area... just amazing!! The tide was too high though so not much sand. We swam around some and the water was warm but still refreshing after the long hike.

Bird Island - Cave

The hermit found himself a cave to go dwell in... :) The tide was getting high and I made him evacuate before it was too late!! (Not that it could've gotten too high...) The cave was pretty much a dead end inside, but still cool to check out. And shady.

Bird Island - There it is!

We made it out of the jungle and onto the beach! And we can finally see Bird Island! It's that huge chunk of rock out there that is a sanctuary to many birds. It was very pretty!

Bird Island - Hermit Crabs

We saw several types of hermit crabs on the hike down to Bird Island Beach. The first kind were those that lived in the forest, in snail shells! They were more earth toned and scuttled around under the trees in the dirt. The second kind were the large beach crabs, that were bright red-orange and lived in sea shells. They were in the forest but right near the beach, in the shady dirt and sand mixed areas. The third kind were the tiny little guys on the beach itself, much like the ones I've shown in past posts.

Bird Island - Hikers!

Here's more of us making our way down to the Bird Island Beach on Saturday!

Bird Island - Hike Begins

After finding the spot and parking on the roadside, the hike began. It was an easy pathway through a thick jungle to start, with little pink flags leading the way (plastic strips tied on branches). After a ways we connected with a muddy road that led us to the signs notifying us we were entering the bird island nature preserve area. And that's when the trail started to get harder!