The Blue Lagoon is between Comino and Cominotto. It features limestone cliffs and caves such as the Santa Marija caves. There are clear blue skies, as well. Many visitors come to see the waters of the lagoon because of how blue, and clear they are. They are used to snorkel, and dive in as well. Not many people live there. There was only a recorded number of three people who lived on the island of Camino.
The caves serve a basic function for divers of all kind. Many visitors want to see the clear, blue waters and explore the caves to take photographs of the caves.
For a very long time the island that the Blue Lagoon surrounded (Comino and Cominotto) was uninhabited. It was used by pirates as a means for rest, and agriculture. It was seized by knights in the seventeenth century, and before long there was a tower constructed on the island and the knights dedicated it to Santa Marija. The island also served as a place for exile and for prisoners for some time. Also when the cholera outbreak happened; the affected were separated and put on Comino island.
Now the island is home to only three people, and is a nature preserve and a conservation.
The pictures do not show the animals that may inhabit the area. There are a lot of wildlife that live in the Blue Lagoon, and the caves. For example, lobsters and stingrays live in abundance in the area. It also does not show any evidence of human inhabitance. Pirates used to inhabit the lands and waters of the area, but this photo does not show any evidence of that. People used to inhabit the areas around these waters, but it does not capture these memories. The only thing that are captured in these pictures are the ideas of bringing in people to see the land. Essentially a tourist trap. Before the photograph was taken there would have been more boats around – especially if there were boats docked on the shore of the island.
Narrative (Place History)
The water is clear and flows back and forth before his eyes. It is meditating to watch, and it keeps his mind off the tasks he’s been putting off. The lagoon has always been a beautiful blue. Any time they have had a chance to rest at the islands he makes sure he can soak in the water. It relaxes him. There is something about the environment that puts him at ease. There are fish swimming around his ankles, and one darts past his thigh, narrowly brushing by him. He knows if he reached down, he could touch their scales, pick them up out of the water, and let them flop in his hand until they ran out of breath.
The urge passes.
He slips back on his back and floats.
The sky is a bright blue spotted with clouds. His crewmates are back at shore, some are on the ship. But he knows he does not have to worry about any incoming attacks. Not here. It is safe here. More than safe. It is almost like home. If he had a home it would be something like this – blue skies, and blue water.
Something brushes against the arch of his foot and he startles instinctively. He lashes out, grabbing onto his belt, before realizing he left his weapons on shore. His mouth twitches into a scowl before he looks to see what accosted him. What greets his eyes is a wide creature. It has a long tail, but a very flat body. It has backed away from him, but once he settles down it inches forward again. He puts a hand in front of him, as if letting it sniff his hand, and sure enough it comes forward and lets him glide his hand on top of its body.
It does a little shimmy in the water, and he watches, bemused. He has never seen anything like this creature. It does look something like a fish – but bigger. He has half a mind to catch it and see if he could make a meal out of it, but he has no clue what kind of defense the creature has. It would be best if he left it alone for now. He does trail he hand across the back of it, feeling across the smoothness of its body. It feels slippery and wet.
The creature slips away, gingerly, and swims towards the cliffs. He watches for a few seconds before following, paddling towards the rocky cliffs. He had enough time for a swim, and he could explore for a bit before coming back. The creature does a few more twirls in the water, seemingly unconcerned that he is following it. He is remarkably slower than the creature, swimming behind him in a lax pace. Sometimes it will stop and peak behind itself, as if to check if he is still there. In the distance he sees a dolphin.
As they approach the cliffs, he notices more fish that have gathered around the base of the cliffs. As they get closer, they scatter going this way and that. The creature heads closer to the cliffs, and then hangs a left and urges him to follow. He has never been this far out into the water but he’s curious about where the thing is taking him. He is unsure as if it is even taking him somewhere, or if he’s just following the creature to its home. Nevertheless, he heads onwards diligently. The ship in the background becomes a small dot as he gets farther and farther away. And then suddenly he sees caves before him. He’s never seen them before in his entire time being on the isle. They’ve never taken the time to properly explore the whole island, of course, but the island isn’t that big. They had assumed there wasn’t much to it. But there were caves, and here they are.
The caves are full of water, and he swims slowly behind the creature as he looks around them. He doesn’t understand why the creature has brought him to the caves, and is only disappointed when the creature disappears underwater. It was fun while it lasted, he supposes.
He looks around the parts of the cave he can reach, touching the walls with his hands and vows to come back with his crew so that they can see more of the cave the next day. He longs to make an adventure out of it – but he isn’t dumb enough to go ahead alone. Many a sailor and pirate has lost their life from going into a situation with backup.
Once he’s done exploring, he’s about to leave the cavern when he hears something: he turns and sees the creature again. Its dancing in the water and he reaches out to pet it again. The creature seems to like that, dipping back and forth in the water. He thinks it wants his attention, but he isn’t sure. He does not know entirely what the creature really wants, truly. It’s entirely foreign to him.
That is when he realizes there is another creature alongside the one he’s met. A smaller one in size, further away from him, but there. He doesn’t acknowledge it, and lets it watch him for the time being. Had the creature gone and gotten the other one? He has no clue. He’s out of his depths. He feels lucky to even be able to be in the caves, to even be able to have found them so he shelves his idea of making lunch out of the creature.
The creature lets him continually smooth his hand over it body as he watches the other, smaller creature. The first one is delighted in his attention and allows him to touch it as much as he wants and he thinks of a dog – he used to have one when he was a boy – and the smaller one is a bit more tentative. As if it needed more reassurance that he was not going to hurt it. He is patient and lets the smaller one come to him. It takes it a while but finally it does and he slowly puts his other hand out to the other creature.
And it’s…nice. The feel of both of the creatures is strange, but seem happy to be handled, he thinks. They aren’t moving away, and they weren’t attacking him so he was assuming they were happy with the handling. And the quick bobbing up and down he also assumed were indication of happiness. It was tricky to understand how much he was succeeding in translating the creatures body language, but he hoped he was doing so correctly. He wasn’t angering it, it seemed, and that was a win in his books.
After awhile he peered out towards the entrance of the cave an dauntedly realized that the sun was beginning to set. He had been there much too long. Giving the creatures a few pats, he extracted himself and began working himself towards the entrance so he could start his arduous journey towards the shore again. He hoped he could see the two creatures again. They had been fascinating and while bewildering he had liked the experiences he had while in the caves with them.
He is out of the cave. The sun pierces his eyes. Shielding his eyes from the sun he swims through the water towards the island, towards the speck on the horizon that he knows that is his ship. He is exhausted from treading water, but he can’t stop now. It would be death to stop now. He has to keep going. So, he pushes himself to keep swimming, to keep pushing his legs and arm to keep going until he hits the sands of the beach.
It’s farther than he remembers. When he followed the creature it had taken him a bit longer because he was following it slowly – but now he was exerting himself to get back to the island. His lung burned, and his body ached. He was out of his depth. He doesn’t know how long he can keep up swimming and he fears that an unfriendly animal may decide to pursue him in the water instead of the creatures that met him in the water. He can’t be sure, so he swims faster.
All that gets him is a pain in his leg, and anxiety starts pulling at his heart. His heart starts beating faster and faster and when he thinks he is about to give in he finally finds the beach and collapses upon it.
It is mercilessly quiet when he finds himself on the beach, all his crew mates probably in bed by now. Or at least tucked away in their own corners. He didn’t expect them to come looking for him, not now. He had only been gone for a few hours, and he was more than capable of taking care of himself. He finds himself grateful that he doesn’t have to explain his absence, and instead spends his time resting on the sands on the beach recovering.
When he gains his wind back, he sets up and head back towards the ship, intent on telling the Captain about his discovery of the caves and the creatures that he found. He’s be most curious about them both, he thinks. The Captain had always had a fascination with the island, and though it was small any time they have found anything new about it wanted to be the first one to look around. There was a curiosity about him that had always served him well. It what made him such a great Captain: he was always looking out for the next great adventure, the next big curiosity he could discover.
But first he needed to a change of clothes.
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