Escaped Turtle Stew


This is the turtle that ambled in front of me as I started a tour of  historic American Beach on Amelia Island.



He crossed Ocean Blvd casually and confidently, as if he wanted to be part of the tour too.



But he got spooked when I moved close to snap his photo. Or maybe he heard my tour guide, Marsha Phelts explain that the only reason he was so big was that the women who live on Ocean Blvd are too old to catch him and make turtle stew!

Comments

A Cuban In London said…
Well, that little guy would not have lasted very long in Cuba! One of my favourite dishes when I was little was 'caguama' steak. The 'caguama' is a type of turtle similar to this specimen from American Beach and its meat is ever so tender. I love it.

Many thanks for such a great post.

Greetings from London.
May 26, 2010 at 1:39 AM
Catherine said…
glad he escaped - how is the trip shaping up??
May 26, 2010 at 8:56 PM
Fly Girl said…
Cubano, I believe you, this poor turtle would never survive in Cuba and probably not very long on American Beach when the owners were younger!

Catherine, I'm glad he did too. I'm back now, more posts of my adventures to come.
May 26, 2010 at 10:10 PM
eden said…
What a great find! I wonder if he caused a traffic jam while crossing the road:)
Glad to see you're back. I can't wait to see more posts of your adventures.
May 27, 2010 at 5:38 AM
Fly Girl said…
Eden, there's not much traffic on American Beach, the turtle would be in trouble if there was!
May 27, 2010 at 8:48 AM
Jean-Luc Picard said…
Not many turtles manage to escape by running away!
May 27, 2010 at 12:33 PM
Fly Girl said…
Jean-Luc, he was fast for a turtle!
May 27, 2010 at 1:45 PM
Beauty Is Diverse said…
"are too old to catch him and make turtle stew!"

That's too funny lol
May 27, 2010 at 3:55 PM
Fly Girl said…
Tiffany, it's even funnier because she was totally serious!
May 27, 2010 at 4:38 PM
Rachel Cotterill said…
I would love to see turtles - not to eat them, though!
May 29, 2010 at 3:58 AM
Hotels in Berlin said…
I can't have it.. i just love them on beaches.. and in deep blue water..lol.
May 31, 2010 at 2:08 AM
Fly Girl said…
Rachel, I'm with you!
Berlin, turtles swimming in the water is a fun sight. Thanks for dropping by.
May 31, 2010 at 7:39 AM
Unknown said…
One brave turtle. Couldn't do turtle soup, it's the principle I guess.
June 2, 2010 at 9:07 AM
Fly Girl said…
Cate, exactly it's the principle, plus, eating reptiles just can't possibly be good.
June 2, 2010 at 2:38 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more