Playa Porto Marie

November 20, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Thursday we tried to get to Playa Porto Marie again. Armed with the right street to turn on to, we were pretty sure we’d get it. After turning off the highway, it was a long road to the beach, but we found it! It’s a picturesque little place, with a dive shop, restaurant, and lots of umbrellas and beach lounge chairs.

There is a long wooden walkway down the middle of the hot sand, and you just grab a chair and umbrella. It costs two dollars to just use the beach, an extra three bucks if you want a lounge chair.

It’s not much different than we remember it. It’s a pretty little bay, with a double reef. However, we found the snorkeling less than stellar. It simply didn’t measure up to the other places we’ve been to in Curacao. There seems to be a lot of damage to the reef, but divers told us that further out, it’s pretty remarkable.

We never did get to the second reef, staying inside the first one. We saw lots of fish, don’t get me wrong, even some we’d never seen before! But overall, the coral was pretty mono-chromatic, and the sandy bottom made for a lack of color overall.

If you go, stay to the right side as you enter. There are a lot more things to see. On the left side, close to the cliffs, there were some interesting things, gold morays, spanish hogfish, box fish, lots of stuff, really. But the right side was more colorful, with lots more fish. There were lots of eels, lots of colorful fish.

We took a break for lunch and it started to rain. A tropical rain, warm, but tons of rain! Most people packed up and got the heck outta Dodge. We had a leisurely lunch under the umbrellas, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to clear! So we just packed up and headed home.

I’m adding a movie of a spotted eel. I know I put one in yesterday’s post, but this one is a little longer, and little better quality. It will also show you what I mean about the place being very monochromatic. The white sand, white coral, and white rocks – lets the fish stand out though!

This part of Curacao is famous for the salt plains that has a colony of pink flamingos. They are certainly are a strange bird. They stick their heads in the water, and then walk forward with their heads still in the water, to feed. Their knees bend backwards, so it’s quite a strange site to see them do it. I’ve added a movie at the end of this post. It’s not a very good movie, but it will give you an idea of what I’m talking about!

We had a nice dinner at Augusto’s again. Very well prepared, very good service. Desert was fantastic – a ponche crema cake – a Curacoan traditional desert. Ponche cream is a desert liquour, kind of a cross between Bailey’s and bananas, although I don’t think there are any bananas in it. The desert was awesome. Pam had a passion fruit mousse which was also outstanding.

We have done no shopping in Curacao at all. Not even an hawaiian shirt! (I know people will be shocked to learn I have not bought one…) Pam hasn’t even bought a postcard! How weird is that??

A word about the rental car – amazing gas mileage! It’s a Toyota Yaris, and we didn’t have to fill the tank the whole week, even though we’ve driven all over this island. The fact that it is new, and in good mechanical shape obviously makes a difference. On Aruba, a much smaller island, we filled the car twice. Curacoan’s are much better drivers, and much more polite drivers than the drivers on Aruba. Think of the worst driver you’ve ever encountered, and they would rank near the top of Aruban drivers. Completely loco!

Curacao, Vacations

Cas Abao

November 18, 2010 Maurice 2 Comments

Today we decided to go to Playa Porto Marie, a beach that was Pam’s favorite last year when we were in Curacao. Naturally, we missed the turn off – it’s marked for St. Willibordrus, so I guess we can be forgiven for that! We found a great beach called Cas Abao.

They have a small fee, just like Jan Thiel – three bucks a person. We got a beach lounger like before. There was a nice busy little restaurant, a souvenir shop, a dive shop – all things you usually see on a beach here in Curacao.

The snorkeling was simply phenomenal. I never thought we’d find a place like Caracas Bay, then we found Jan Thiel. And here Cas Abao – at least on a par with Jan Thiel, but perhaps better on this day, because the water was so crystal clear.

We saw some fish we had never seen before, one which we’ve tentatively identified as a Coney. It’s a beautiful fish, black with tiny gold polka dots on it, with flowing pectoral fins. We saw one taunting a golden moray eel. I’m uploading a movie of it doing that!

We saw lots of eels, four different kinds, but at least ten in total. It seemed they were all over the place. Pam said to me, “let’s go in” and then another moray would show up, and we’d stick around for a picture or two. “Ok time to go in…” Another moray!

We were the last people out of the ocean. When we left the beach, there was only one other car in the lot! We shut the joint down! It was quite an amazing sunset too. We would have stayed a while longer, but the bugs chased us away! The bugs have been the worst ever this year. I’m guessing it’s from all the rain.

We had dinner at the Wine Cellar. If you ever come to Curacao, or your cruise ship stops at Willemstad, you simply must come here. It’s a family run business, and truly impeccable in every detail. It’s strictly indoors, and air conditioned, and with all the bugs, that’s a good thing! The service is truly personable and professional. The food is amazing. I had a pumpkin and sweet potato soup with curry, and it was so good, I have no words to describe it. I told Pam that if this was a Gordon Ramsay blind taste test, I would not have been able to pick out one item, but it was truly a taste sensation. Pam started with the mushroom soup (her favorite) and it was creamy and delicious with big chunks of mushrooms.

For the entree, I had an Argentinean steak, and it was better than El Gaucho’s by a mile, which I would never have dreamed. Pam had a giant shrimp dish and it was spicy and herby and very good as well. Tiramisu for desert was not necessary, but really a special rendition done with amaretto. Truly a memorable meal.

Curacao, Vacations

Jan Thiel Bay

November 18, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Tuesday we went to a beach we had not visited the last time we were here on Curacao. Jan Thiel Bay is a large bay, with ten acres of coral reef and underwater park. It’s close to the condo, so it was a nice easy drive – only about 15 minutes or so. There is a small charge of three dollars to get in to the beach. This included supervised parking – always a good thing in the Caribbean – and it included beach loungers for both of us. There are a couple of restaurants, a dive shop, souvenir shop, showers, bathrooms, etc. In other words, everything you need out of the water…

In the water, well that was an even better story! The range of fish and coral here is truly stunning. We saw every kind of fish we have ever seen in all of our dives put together, in this one site! We saw four kinds of moray eel, more trumpetfish than you can shake a stick at, damsel fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, scorpion fish, crabs, lobsters, lionfish… the list goes on and on.

And the parrot fish! So many in so many colors – the stoplight parrotfish were so beautiful and large! We even saw a blue parrot fish! Previously, we have seen blue parrot fish at only one other location, and that was on DePalm Island on Aruba. This was a huge guy too, easily as big as the biggest we saw on Aruba. A very pretty fish indeed.

The only drawback to Curacao has been the weather. Curacao has gotten more rain this year than any other year. And there are rain showers every day. They don’t last long, but they have impacted the clarity of the water. Usually you can see for up to two hundred feet in Curacao. But the visibility is only fifty feet or so, even less close to the shore. It’s made taking pictures really hit and miss, which is too bad, because there are really some amazing things to see here.

I’m going to add another movie of blue tangs, doctorfish and surgeonfish. I know I just posted one, but this school was twice as large as the other one! Thing is, you can’t really tell, but the last half of this video shows a brilliant green stoplight parrotfish. It will give you an idea of how large they are compared to the tangs and even the juvenile parrotfish. The orangey/brown/white colored fish you also see in the video grows into the brilliant green fish.

We saw a lionfish, which is too bad! We don’t want to see this voracious predator. It is not native to the Caribbean and it has moved remarkably fast, destroying the other fish as it goes. It probably came into the Caribbean from someone in Florida dumping their aquarium fish. All the dive shops are asking you to mark the area, and report all sightings so they can go destroy them. Makes me want to get a spear gun to take ’em out! Rambo and Pambo of the ocean!

Curacao, Vacations

Monday at Caracasbaii

November 16, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

Monday started with a one hour cruise from our condo up to the capital of Curacao called Willemsted. It is a UNESCO protected World Heritage Site. It has centuries old architecture, with uniquely painted buildings. The story goes that the wife of the governor suffered from migraines, and the stark white homes, with the glaring sun reflecting off of them triggered her migraines. So the governor decreed that all the homes must be painted. So the people took it to heart, and created a dynamic, vibrant palette. The result is that, the islanders were forced to develop quality paint, given the harsh sunlight, tropical rain storms, and high humidity. Consequently, their expertise in manufacturing paint has made them a world leader in paint technology, even to this day.

It was a nice cruise and we went right into the harbor, up to within a few feet of the swinging bridge. The island is also a center for many nations to practice their search and rescue operations. The US Navy, the British, Canadians, Dutch and Russians all train their teams on Curacao. It’s another source of income for Curacao, so they are not as dependent on tourism as other Caribbean islands.

After the cruise, we headed to Caracasbaii – or Caracas Bay – and we had intended to head out to the tugboat wreck. But the road was full of potholes, and we were worried about taking our rental on it. (Did I mention we got a NEW car from the rental place? It’s a brand new Yaris, so new it still has that new car smell! It only has 260 kms on the odometer!) So we stayed at the main beach, and boy are we glad we did!

This was definitely the best snorkeling we’ve had this year. There was abundant coral, and just tons and tons of fish. There were lots of fish we had never seen before, and lots of fish we’d seen of course. We saw a type of moray eel we’d never seen before, a golden moray. We saw some damselfish with unique coloring we had not seen. We saw a new fish called a blackbar soldierfish, which was bright red, with a black bar down it’s head, that hung in big schools.

There were a number of schools of glassy sweepers, an unusual copper colored fish, with a prominent belly. There were tons of trumpetfish, a long thin fish, that often swims with his head pointing down. He can change color at will, and tries to hide among long stemmed coral.

There were many types of damselfish, from little bitty ones no bigger than the nail on your little finger, up to a couple of inches long. Colors ranged from a brilliant blue, with bright blue polka dots, to half black, half white, to yellow with blue, yellow with purple – you name it, it was there.

We will definitely be back there, that’s for sure!

There are too many pictures to post here in the messages, so do check out the Curacao 2010 gallery for more pictures. (You can get to the gallery by clicking on the Galleries link at the top of the page.)

Curacao, Vacations

Arriving in Curacao

November 14, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

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.

Aruba, Vacations

Saturday is school day!

November 14, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Friday was our last day in Aruba, before we head to Curacao for a week, so we decided to hit two beaches we are familiar with. We started at Arashi Beach, which had huge waves the first few days we were here. It was nice and calm today, and it’s a great beach to come and swim at. It has a long sandy entry, and it’s very popular with locals and tourists alike.

We picked a spot and simply walked in. The bottom was quite littered with debris, from the effects of Hurricane Tomas. Still there were lots of fish to see, but most of the usual suspects. I took a short movie of a flounder, who was much more active than the peacock flounder we saw yesterday.

After floating around for ninety minutes or so we decided to try one more time to find the Alto Vista chapel. Of course, it is a truly simple route to find and it’s unreal we never found it before. Boy did we feel silly!

Anyway, it’s a quaint little church, with a ring of outdoor seats. It’s still very much in use, with tons of flower arrangements and several people praying. It is atop a small hill with good views of the east coast of Aruba.

We were glad to have finally found it, but honestly it was a bit of a let down! It is not particularly ornate, not does it have a particularly attractive exterior. It is just a basic church, in a rugged setting, with nice views. I guess we shouldn’t have expected more.

We then headed back to the beach, and jumped in the water at Hadacuari Beach. It is near the place where they have all wind surfing lessons and competitions. We had noticed this beach because it has a ring of stone, like a very short cliff. Perched on this cliff were up to a dozen pelicans, and lots of seagulls.

The reason for this was apparent the moment we entered the water.

The area was chock full of fish and I mean chock full. To say there millions of fish here, would be an understatement. There were so many fish here, you could not see the cliffs on the other side of them! Schools of palamettos were herding the fish, then attacking them at their leisure. Barracuda hung around, as did schools of ballyhoo, striking down at the bait fish whenever they felt like it.

The bait ball went on for easily a couple of kilometers. It was unreal how many fish there were there.

We also saw a chain moray, the same place we had seen a chain moray last year. Probably the same one, as they hang around the same area for years.

It was a remarkable swim. I’ve taken several movies of the area, and I’ll post at least one. It was something to see these huge schools of fish, hugging the cliffs, while the palamettos ran shotgun, herding them into tight groups.

There were loads of other coral eaters like the parrot fish and trunkfish and all the usual suspects, but the bait ball was something to see. Sure glad we decided to jump in the ocean here! Tomorrow we have a 1:30 pm flight to Curacao. It’s a short flight, we took last year in a small puddle jumper, about 15 seats. It’s a neat flight and we’re looking forward to it.

Aruba, Vacations

All is well again!

November 12, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

The ocean is back to being it’s lovely calm self here in Aruba… and we’re glad! The crazy high waves we’ve seen has made snorkeling less than stellar. But today (Thursday) all I can say is wow! We tried Boca Catalina first, it’s north of the visible wreck, but south of Arashi. It has lots of palapas to give you shade, and to store your gear while you head in. It has a nice sandy entrance, so it’s easy to get in the ocean.

The first ten feet or so there are lots of fish, but there is some “junk” that has been stirred up by the storms. If you look at the doctorfish picture you can see what I mean. But once you got out past that, it was the old clear Caribbean sea we’ve been missing! The water was warm, and everywhere we looked there were tons of fish.

We saw a pair of scrawled filefish here, that were quite big, the larger was close to two feet long. They were not afraid of me, and I dove quite close to them, without them scampering off. So I turned on the movie and dove down to catch a closer look, and try to get them to move, so we could see what they look like swimming. I’ve converted the movie, but for some reason, the conversion is rather poor compared to other movies we’ve done so far. Not sure why that is. Anyway, it’s interesting, but I apologize for the grainy quality (the original is not!).

Pam got hooked on the French Angelfish and took about 350 pictures of them! haha I only took about 150 of them… too funny. They are such a cool fish – quite large compared to lots of fish there, and they kind of stick out with their slow moving ways, and bright colors.

We saw a couple of triggerfish, but they are so shy, as soon as you point the camera at them, they take off. It’s tough to get a decent shot of them, but I managed to get a couple of ok ones.

We saw a couple of moray eels, a spotted moray and a green moray. Again, a shy type of fish, and they would quickly scamper under the nearest rock. We managed to get a couple good shots of the spotted moray.

Here is a short movie of the ubiquitous Sgt Major! These guys are probably the most curious, friendly fish in the Caribbean. They hang out with you in schools, and it seems everywhere you turn, there are a bunch of them! This one is especially for Mike!

In the afternoon, we took a drive to the Casibari rock formations. We were looking for the Alto Vista chapel, but found these instead! They are strange rock formations, that dot the island, and were somehow important to the Arawok Indians, the original inhabitants of Aruba.

You can see that the island is quite lush this year. In years past, the island has been somewhat dried out. But with Hurricane Tomas passing so close to the island, it has given them a lot more rain than usual. There are tons of flowering plants in the gardens around people’s homes, so you can tell it’s been an unusual year.

Then we headed over to Malmok Beach. It’s north of Boca Catalina, but still south of Arashi, surrounded by million dollar homes. All the beaches in Aruba are public, so this is usually a great snorkeling spot. The entrance to the water is a little tough, quite rocky, with only a very little sandy space. But once you get in! wow – the water was great, clear, and lots of fish. There were a number of snorkeling boats out, so you could tell people were happy to have the ocean back to normal!

We saw a bunch of French Angels, another triggerfish, and another moray. We drifted for quite a ways, and only came out as the sun was starting to set. On the way back in to shore, we spotted a peacock flounder, stuck on the side of a rock, very well camouflaged. All in all, a great swim.