🌖 Depiction of friendship and sisterhood on the vision board I put up in June. Even though the way we were sitting yesterday at Zeelandia Beach was different and I met one of our circle of four for the first time, the energy felt like the one on this picture for me. Apart from sharing and laughing, we were manifesting and supporting our goals under the moon. How blessed we are to live on this beautiful island with such intelligent, creative, ambitious and witty women around. 🍀 Even though I opted for manifestations that were related to my creative work yesterday, my vision board shows relates to family and friends as relationships are not just the base of life but the icing on the cake at the same time. 🙏 Thank you for the lovely guidance @fidewit as well as the inspiring talk and feedback from all of you. Maybe some real photographs in future sessions, @vanessarousephotography? 🌺 Paper and picture of @flow_magazine I love flowers and floral patterns as well as the pop art style connecting the women. Yet another inspiration! #flow #manifestation #vision #envision #visionboard #devocean #devotion #floralpattern #flowmagazine #Statia #Eustatius #caribbean #islandlife #inselleben #popart #women #sisterhood #friendship #support #relationships #love #blessed #createyourlife #create #creative #Inspiration

🌍 Blog entry: "Auf, auf in die Welt hinaus: Ideen für Suchende" (link in bio) 🖊 Before writing another blog article I decided to promote one I published in June. These pictures are all from Iquique, Chile, in 2000-01 where I learnt a lot about myself, life and compassion. There are other stops around the world. 🧐 "Do you want to go out into the world? Do you want to get to know new places and not only meet people but create something together? Do you want to learn, grow and make a meaningful contribution? In addition to the attraction of the unknown and the enticing call of faraway places, these were my reasons to look for a job as a volunteer, taking my first steps into the world after graduating from high school. I'm sharing a few ideas and experiences as a volunteer, intern and traveller for anyone looking to explore. 🙏 Thank you for the pictures, Tina! Thank you for your friendship! Thank you for being you and following your path! #iquique #chile #cerrodragon #sanddune #humberstone #hitchhike #peranhalter #atacama #sand #intern #volunteer #traveller #explorer #seeker #outintotheworld #connect #protect #devotion #lookup #devocean #year2000 #blog #blogger #writer #posting #article #weltwärts #travel2022 #travel2000 #longlongtimeago

🪷 Explosion in pink! Thanks to the rain on Statia in July. 🙏🌦💚 🌸 Double Oleander, Oleander and Bougainville in our garden in St. Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands. What does August bring? #statia #devocean #devotion #july2022 #august2022 #flowers #rain #raindrops #macro #closeup #blossom #summer #summerblossum #eustatius #caribbean #dutchcaribbean #caribbeannetherlands #pink #rose #oleander #doubleoleander #bougainville

👣 Try to do something new - or try to do something differently every day - is part of my daily life. At the moment, there are lots of changes that we happily embrace. 📸 Lately, I have started to film. And I love it! I am not saying I am good at it (yet). That is the nature of being a beginner even if it feels like it is all coming naturally (which it does!). Most importantly, I am having fun as I am doing with the stories. For now, they are done with my 5 1/2 years old mobile. I am learning to shoot with Yoeri's set-up at the moment and my camera even has a selfy assist function for pictures as I just figured out ... Still work in progress to get the focus right in the future. 🐴 Yesterday I was the first time out in the field filming. I followed Yoeri in his new job. "How to catch a donkey" which by far isn't as easy as one might think is in the making! As the one group of donkeys here on Statia likes to hang out under old Tamarind trees, we collected the seeds. 🌞 Even Yoeri likes them! For me, they are a real treat. They remind me of sour wine gums - my favourite candy. This is much more Ayurvedic though! On top of that, I have a new project for the garden. 💚 Just try something new and enjoy your weekend! #tamarind #TamarindSeed #filming #garden #caribbean #karibik #julytree #filmequipment #kitchentable #trysomethingnew #newme #new #fresh #beginner #discover #try #inselleben #islandlife #statia #eustatius #dutchcaribbean #caribbeannetherlands #friday #enjoy #enjoyyourweekend #embracechange #grow #transform #panasoniclumixs5

👀 Look at me! I am the sexy shrimp. 📸 Thor amboinensis isn't an attention seeker, just very confident with its arse up in the water to swing that thing. Other names are squat shrimp, anemone shrimp or dancing shrimp. 🦐 Though it is named after Ambon, or Amboyna Island, one of the Maluku Islands in Indonesia, Thor amboinensis has a pan-tropical distribution and can be found in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and even at the Atlantic islands of Madeira and the Canaries. They prefer to live in a symbiotic relationship with anemones, but when none are around, can also be found in certain species of corals. 🎶 As the carnival on Statia is building up to the parade and party next weekend, we work on our fresh look and moves. After all, swinging and singing lift the mood. Enjoy your day! 🧐 Find more information on this little critter on our YouTube channel where you can see this sexy thing in action "Take a Minute XVII" (link in bio). Photographed in the bay of Amed, Bali, Indonesia, in 2020. #sexy #sexyshrimp #squatshrimp #dancingshrimp #anemoneshrim #carnival #statia #eustatius #dancing #shrimp #uwphotography #uwpics #underwaterphotography #marineinfo #bali #amed #indonesia #diving #islandlife #inselleben #devocean #devotion #dance #underwaterlife #tauchen @tauchen.magazin @scubadivingmag @natgeo

🎶 Beatles: "Free as a bird It's the next best thing to be Free as a bird Home, home and dry Like a homing bird I'll fly As a bird on wings 🎵 Whatever happened to The life that we once knew? Can we really live without each other? Where did we lose the touch That seemed to mean so much? It always made me feel so ..." 🧐 Even though this song was originally written and recorded by John Lennon in 1977 and released after his death in 1980 as a single by the rest of the band (1995), it still seems very much up to date. Maybe even more than ever! ❓ When and where did we lose the touch? The touch to nature, the touch to each other ... 👣 Luckily, Statia offers a lot of opportunities to listen to our inner voice, to reach out to others and to connect to history as well as nature, like here at the crumbling ruins of Crook's Castle (St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean). 🦅 These pictures are taken in May, at the end of the nesting season of the Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus). The parents search for food over the sea and fly back to their nest in the cliffs around the island asap. Apparently, nesting pairs are getting less successful with raising their offspring as they have to stay out at sea longer and longer in search of food. Sounds familiar somehow ... #devocean #ocean #devotion #sea #caribbean #cliff #bird #nesting #tropicbird #crookscastle #statia #eustatius #caribbean #gostatia #visitstatia #travel2022 #islandlife #inselleben #karibik #dutchcaribbean #caribbeannetherlands #redbilled #connecttonature #reachout #connect #protect #innervoice #beatles #freeasabird #johnlennon

"Lola" L-O-L-A Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola This old lady decided to live by the animal shelter one day. There Lola keeps the other dogs company and gets cuddles from all the volunteers as well as fresh food and water every day. Not a bad retirement plan! Lola isn't up for adoption as she is perfectly fine with where she is and all that life has to offer. Same as Lola, we come down to the animal shelter to hang out and to give and receive love. Come by to help us or to take a look at all the other lovely animals ready for their forever homes. To get there, we use the car in the background - my first car ever. I named her Lola already before I met this friendly soul at St. Eustatius Animal Welfare Foundation that is barking at all the other cars driving by when we go for a walk. She is special, independent and inspiring! Have a great weekend! #devocean #devotion #animalshalter #adoption #adopt #adoptadog #animalwelfare #dog #pet #adoptapet #lola #volunteer #volunteering #love #statia #eustatius #caribbean #dutchcaribbean #caribbeannetherlands #caribischnederland #karibik #inselleben #islandlife #portrait

🌺 Flower Power: July in flames 💗 🍂 While June felt like Autumn, July is in full swing and spring. Grass turns green, leaves grow back on the trees in record time and flowers are popping up everywhere. 🌿 🏵 The first photo is a close-up of Delonix regia, known as the Flamboyant, Flame or July Tree. Apart from Bougainvillea which is originally from South America. 💚 🗯️ please, contact me if you can identify any other ones, especially N° 2. Such an impressive piece of art growing out of a sort of palm. 🌴 🌄 We thought July isn't a good month to visit, but this massive outbreak of flower power is changing our minds. 🙏 #flowerpower #flower #blossom #bloom #spring #summer #springinsummer #Statia #Eustatius #caribbean #July #julytree #flametree #bougainvillea #devotion #devocean #Karibik #inselleben #islandlife #caribbeannetherlands #dutchcaribbean #caribischnederland #macro #closeup

🍁 Leaf scorpionfish (Taenianotus triacanthus), also called paperfish, are the most elegant of all the ambush predators. Not only are they dressed in classical colours, such as black, red, yellow and white, but they also show up in tints of pink, green, brown or ochre. All of them work with dark or light mottling to match their surroundings or perfect their elegant and timeless disguise of an ambush predator (link in bio). 👉 Ambush predators, also called sit-and-wait predators, are carnivorous animals that get to their meals by stealth or by strategy rather than by speed or by strength. Ambush predators sit and wait for prey, often from a concealed position and, in the case of our marine candidates here, concealing themselves by different methods of camouflage. Blending in has created some remarkable features, giving these creatures quite unique looks. 💋 As one would expect from animals specialised to suck their prey in, their heads and in particular their mouths are quite large in comparison to their overall body size. By opening their mouth quickly, they create a sucking motion strong enough to catch and swallow their prey in one bite. 🍽 Some ambush predators, like the frogfish, even lure their prey closer which is called aggressive mimicry. Others, like scorpionfishes, add short and rapid movements to broaden their striking distance. All of these fashion monsters have one attitude in common: Whenever their prey comes close enough, they just suck it up. This leaf scorpionfish was photographed at @wakatobi_resort (Indonesia) in 2019. Unfortunately, these elegant beauties are not living in the Caribbean. #devotion #devocean #paperfish #leaffish #leafscorpionfish #scorpionfish #predator #ambushpredator #marineinfo #marinelife #marinefacts #wakatobi #indonesia #diving #scuba #underwater #uwpic #uwphoto #underwaterphoto #elegant

Happy Shark Awareness Day! We'd like to introduce you to a group of Whitetip Reef sharks at Castle Rock, Komodo Nationalpark, Indonesia. In the morning they were cruising along the reef until a school of mackerels came into sight. Then they focussed on the school, circled around it and suddenly swam quick attacks to catch the slowest and weakest of the group. After two failed attempts, they seemed a little on edge. Yoeri was happily filming away while I kept an eye in the other direction. Some of the sharks started to take notice of us. In my understanding, they were looking for somebody to blame for their failure. We as divers were definitely the odd ones out. Maybe our camera equipment distracted them. In any case, they started circling around us now. I always tell my dive students and guests: Not to worry we are not on the menu of sharks (while they are on ours) and they'll let you know when they have a problem with you. But I had never experienced this before. So I tried to get Yoeri close to the ground as the most likely way for a shark to attack is from underneath. If the bottom is too deep, get to a wall or corner. The more directions are covered to better for you. By now all the sharks were circling around us and coming in closer. When the first one started with jerky movements, hunching its back, I had enough of this and signalled Yoeri to stop filming. He took his sweet time while I already turned my back on him and positioned myself vertically in the water. Back to back, it is easier to see all sharks and the vertical person confuses them as there is nothing in the ocean swimming like that (apart from tiny seahorses ...). Nothing more was needed. They actually lost interest when we slowly moved away. If one of the sharks would have come even closer, I would have used my octopus the second air source to blow air out of the tank at him. Sharks don't like the bubbles and the noise (also metal noises btw). The last resort is to punch the shark. Yes, correctly, don't flee but stand your ground. Hit them hard on the nose, eyes or gills and they will lose all interest instantly. All this and more in a blog article on "Abgetaucht" soon (link in bio).

❤️ We love Indonesia 🤍 💻 While working on the website to keep up with new developments, I noticed how deeply we are connected to Indonesia. 👉 Most of our blog posts have a link to the country. Browse through lots of free content - from Take a Minute to stories and postcards - to get a better understanding of the biggest island nation in the world. Links in Bio: English & Deutsch 🏖 I took this photograph on White Beach, Padang Bai, after arriving in 2015. From Bali, we hopped over to Labuan Bajo, Flores, to explore the Komodo Nationalpark. Diving and working were best with @uberscubakomodo 🐠 In spring 2016, we arrived on our promised island. Even after three years as Dive Experience Managers, it was hard to say goodbye. Now my heart sings to see former colleagues and diving guests return to the reefs of @wakatobi_resort 🍀 In the meantime, we are not only reviving all the work we started so full of energy on Bali in 2020 but expanding into even more activities with Devocean Pictures. #indonesia #weloveindonesia #devocean #devotion #blog #blogging #beachlife #bali #padangbai #whitebeach #pasirputih #wakatobi #komodo #explore #dive #islandlife #inselleben #love #postcard #postkarte

🔭 Looking into another dimension! 👀 Mantis shrimps, like this Golden Spearing Mantis Shrimp (Lysiosquillina mapia) photgraphed next to a giant carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea) diving of Amed, Bali, Indonesia, have the most complex eyes and visual system so far discovered in the animal kingdom. 👉 The eyes on long stalks can be moved individually resulting in almost 360°view. Each eye can gauge depth and distance on its own by focusing on objects with three separate regions (trinocular vision). While human eyes have three types of photoreceptor cells, they have between 12 and 16 types. Mantis shrimp can perceive wavelengths of light ranging from deep ultraviolet (UVB) to far-red (300 to 720 nm), including fluorescent and polarized light. 😎 This creature does not only amaze divers and photographers alike, but also scientists and engineers as they are learning more about the way these eyes function: “Six species of mantis shrimp have been reported to be able to detect circularly polarized light, which has not been documented in any other animal, and whether it is present across all species is unknown. Some of their biological quarter-waveplates perform more uniformly over the visual spectrum than any current man-made polarising optics, and this could inspire new types of optical media that would outperform the current generation of Blu-ray Disc technology.” - Wikipedia: Mantis shrimp #mantis #mantisshrimp #spearingmantis #devotion #devocean #amed #bali #indonesia #diving #underwater #uwphotography #anemone #uwpics #complexeyes #marineinfo #anotherdimension #LysiosquillinaMapia #carpetanemone #Stichodactylagigantea #360vision #vision #trinocularvision #polarizedlight

🌈 #ThrowBackThursday As I am rebuilding our website to catch up with the latest developments, I came across an article I had completely forgotten about. I like the little story. I love the place. I cherish my memories. I wish I could hang out at Laliji Beach (Andaman Islands, India) right now. I hope you can experience the magic one day yourself. 🌴 Here you go: A walk down memory lane: Out of India (link in bio). ✌ I go back to restructuring all our content, before adding even more. Tips and user feedback regarding our website are highly welcome! #tbt #meetatthebeach #beachlife #devocean #devotion #india #longisland #middleandamans #andamanislands #andamans #islandlife #inselleben #oceanview #jungle #bluesky #memorylane #outofindia #realstory #blog #travel #writing #postcard #postkarten #warmregards #explore #connect #beach #blueplanet #blueplanetandamans

💚 Why we love Statia? 🍀 Nature at our doorstep! Actually, nature on our veranda in this case. The Green Tree Lizard (Anolis bimaculatis) is a frequent visitor. 🐝 This morning he eyed the bees drinking at their water bowl. Not sure, that is the best snack available ... Though this lizard is strict insectivore and maybe developed a technique to eat bees without getting hurt. ✌ Wikipeadia doesn't specify its food source any further but throws in some more common names: "Anolis bimaculatus, the panther anole, also known as the St. Eustatius anole or Statia Bank tree anole, is a species of anole lizard that is endemic to the Caribbean Lesser Antilles. It is found on the St. Kitts Bank of islands, which comprise Saint Kitts, Nevis, and Sint Eustatius." I didn't know Statia is part of the St. Kitts Bank of islands but it has a nice ring to it. 👉 Clearly, common names vary a lot. That's why it is best to also include a scientific name. Even though a lot of the names derive from Latin, it is not the only source for scientific names. However, the endings of the words are put into Latin, even if the word originates in Greek. Confusing? That’s science for you! 😘 🧐 We keep on eye out for our green friend in order to capture its hunting activity one of these days. #natureatyourdoorstep #lizard #green #dewlap #Anolisbimaculatus #statia #statiabank #visitstatia #discoverstatia #eustatius #dutchcaribbbean #caribbeannetherlands #caribischnederland #garden #statializard #classification #scientific #species #islandlife #inselleben #exploreyourbackyard #lovestatia #love #travel #explore #savenature #observe #devocean #devotion #insectivore

🍁 When summer feels like autumn! Flower petals of Delonix regia, known as the Flamboyant, Flame or July Tree created a red carpet in our garden on Statia already in June. 🌧 After the rain of this week, the grass is slowly turning green again. Today the heavy wind pushed the clouds away. Though more rain would have been highly welcome on St. Eustatius. 🌳 Even though this tree is commonly found throughout the Caribbean, it originates from Madagascar. Thanks for the information @naturefoundationsxm ✌ Happy Sunday! #flowers #pedals #leaves #autumn #summer #sun #wind #rain #drought #statia #sinteustatius #eustatius #steustatius #devotion #devocean #flamboyanttree #julytree #flametree #Delonixregia #sunday #naturefoundation #garden #eveninglight #warmcolours #tropics #caribbeannetherlands #dutchcaribbean #caribischnederland #islandlife #inselleben