CONCH CONCH CONCH

So last I left you, in the chronicle that is our honeymoon, John and I are proud renters of a scooter and we are investigating the island, attempting to avoid mischief, and stay on the left side of the road.


The Open Road:

One of the main things we wanted to investigate was the Conch Farm we had seen glamorized on all these websites in the "Must See" sections. 

John--Where are we?

We arrive at the Conch Farm, and I immediately find a little Buddha to happily pose with. 

How conch is farmed, a play by play. 

 A hurricane did a number on the little conch farm a few years ago...they are slowing rebuilding.

I would have assumed that conch are like hermit crabs and they move to bigger shells, just offhand.  However, the conch shell grows with the conch and the really bigs ones you see are usually over 4 or 5 years old.  We got to see the Conch in various stages.

Teeny baby conch in these little trays.  These are the cool Italians who did the tour with us (which was not a huge tour).  There were Europeans everywhere and they were all fit and skinny and on month long vacations.  I wanted to be Euro so bad.

**teeny baby conch

Then they end up in these shallow pools, then beyond, roped off in the ocean.  Raising conch is intense.

Note all the discarded shells!

The Conch Farm had mascots:  Sally and Jerry

Meet Sally and Jerry.  They were extremely outgoing and used to be handled and were all, "Look at me, I'm slimy, would you like another conch fritter?" eww, STOP it SALLY!

Here is a close up of Sally.  Those are her eyes--weird, eh?

Now...this.... this is Jerry.  Raise your hand if you think you know why this is Jerry? 


If you guessed that that weird slimy black thing is Jerry's Penis, then you are correct!  I will go ahead and say that the 12 year old boy in me came out and I lost it.  I could not quit saying "conch penis" and the Italians were tickled too.  It looked like snot.

On to Da Conch Shack, the local beach bar.

Da Conch Shack has been featured in travel magazines and on MTV.  August is part of the slow season on the island, so it was never a big rage fest there, but it was so pretty and righth on the beach.

We dined on conch fingers.  Ultimately, I would compare conch to calamari.

 Jan's Infamous Punch...aka, there is so much stuff in here ya don't wanna know.