It’s been a busy couple of days here in Curacao. We arrived late on Saturday – we were supposed to be here at 1:20 pm, but the flight was delayed and didn’t take off til nearly 3:30. Ah well – stuff happens. It was a fun flight, quite short, about 25 minutes. It was funny to see the reaction of a couple of Dutch women to the size of the plane! Since we’d flown this route last year, we knew what to expect. But they were getting restless in the terminal, and when I saw the plane land, I pointed it out to them and said “Shouldn’t be long now, they’ll refuel and we’ll be off.” She looked at the plane, her fave visibly paled and she said, “You’re kidding?? That’s soooo small!” She turned to her friends and they gave me this sick little look… Priceless!

We didn’t get in the ocean, but we took a nice swim in the pool and spent some time in the hot tub. We had dinner at Augusto’s, even though we had not particularly enjoyed eating there last year. But this year was very good. I had the chicken parmigiana and Pam had the seafood pasta, and both were very good. Service was excellent, and it was a nice ending to the day.

Saturday we snorkeled out front of the Sea Aquarium but it was a little cloudy. There has been a lot of rain here this year, more than Aruba. There were a lot of fish, of course, but we didn’t get many good photos. We did see a spotted drum, and some interesting fish, including a couple of barracuda. The shoreline opposite us, which is a five minute swim across the water, had some of the largest surgeonfish and tangs I have ever seen, anywhere. HUGE! Shockingly big…

In the afternoon we toured the Sea Aquarium. They have added some new attractions, and some new fish tanks. Pam got to feed some sharks, and actually petted a few nurse sharks. There were some lobsters that we soooo big, they must have been seventy years old or more. Just humongous.

We had a nice relaxing dinner at El Gauchos, and Argentine steak house. We’d had dinner there last year, and they had the same impeccable food. Really glorious. They are in a lovely elevated location, so we had a nice view of some of the island. The service was not as good as we remembered, but it didn’t detract from the quality of the food. A recommended place to eat, for sure.

Tomorrow we have scheduled a cruise up the coast to the main town of Willemsted, which is a World Heritage sight. Curacao is not as dependent on tourism as Aruba is… they say 90% of the economy of Aruba is dependent on tourism, but Curacao has only a 25% reliance. They are big in communications, housing a lot of the sports betting websites on the internet. They are also a world leader in supplying paint! When you see how boldly the homes are painted, it’s not much of stretch to believe it!

Here is a small movie Pam took in the Sea Aquarium of a Cubera snapper.