Suction Cups, Tentacles and Speared Octopus for Breakfast?
I woke up this morning and took my daily dip in the Caribbean – always
a treat. A few minutes after jumping into the water, Adelina (the cook
and housekeeper for CocoVivo) came toward me with a big smile on her
face, holding the wooden handle of a fishing spear with a long, slimy
creature on the end of it. Now Adelina’s English is understandable
most of the time. She speaks Wadiwadi, also known as island English,
which includes a lot of “hey man’s” and “don’t be touch dat der’s” and
seems to have Jamaican influence. This morning, however, she couldn’t
remember the word for octopus so she told me she had speared a snake.
A bit confused since it certainly didn’t look like a snake, I climbed
out of the water to study it closer. That’s when I saw the tentacles.
She had speared an octopus! I put my finger to the one of the suction
cups. Surprisingly strong! Adelina told me every now and then she sees
an octopus in the water near Ricardo’s house, and uses the fishing
spear to kill it. I asked if she planned to cook and eat the octopus
(expecting it to be a popular delicacy like in the United States) to
which she replied with a grossed out face, “No, no– I don’t eat dis! I
use it for da fish bait. It brings in da big ones.”
