Back to Caracasbaii

October 28, 2011 Maurice 3 Comments

It’s getting to be old hat, but we jumped back into Caracasbaii again today. The ocean was too rough to head out to the Royal Sea Aquarium, so this has kind of been our “go-to” beach. The water was not that choppy, but definitely gave us some motion. We checked out the wreck, and spotted our first lion fish, hiding under a chunk of metal. Try as we might, we could not get a decent shot of him! All of them turned out blurry, or “white.” If you move the camera too quickly after pressing the button, you get this white streak. And since we had to dive down to get the pic, we just didn’t get one.

We swam toward the fort, a considerable distance and discovered a whole different look. There are a number of large pylons, 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet and towering at least a hundred feet. There were tons of fish around them, and we saw triggerfish (our first on this vacation) a large barracuda, French angels, flounders, and eels. There was a long swim across beautiful white sand, and we spotted this rather unusual fish. I’d never seen him before. Not sure what he is. They were situated around the the open sand, about six to eight feet from others of their kind. It was a tad strange.

We stayed in the water a long, long time… probably too long. But it was going to be our last long snorkel, if not our last period, so we just didn’t want to get out.

For dinner we decided to go to the Argentinean steakhouse El Gauchos which is on a hilltop overlooking the city. They have a shuttle from the hotel, so it was nice to just hop in and let them do the driving. The road up to the restaurant is not great, and I’m glad it wasn’t me driving! Prices are about you’d expect for a steakhouse, but include a salad bar, and a fresh daily soup.

Pam and I have had dinner here before and totally enjoyed it. This time, not so much. My steak was not good. I order their “Famous El Gaucho” and it was rather pedestrian. They do not serve it with a potato or vegetable, so we ordered the “grilled vegetables” which turned out to be steamed, in some kind of sauce. Not very good.

Our first waiter was a nice fellow, but difficult to understand. Half way through the meal, he was replaced by a woman, who for some reason had a chip on her shoulder. I said to Mike, what did we say that offended her?? It made the rest of the meal very uncomfortable. Desert was something called Pyramide, a cake of some sort, served with ice cream and whip cream. It was nice. Mike had the tiramisu, but it was merely ok, and he said he’d had better on this vacation. I would not return to El Gauchos based on this experience. From the poor food, to the horrific service, it was simply too much money, too much effort.
This movie is of a flounder, that I saw as I was about to get out of the water. It was in about 8 inches of water, and I think it gives a pretty cool view of his eyes swiveling, and his cool color, and how it changes as he moves across the bottom.

Curacao, Vacations

Playa Porto Mari

October 27, 2011 Maurice Leave a comment

Thursday we went to Playa Porto Mari. This is a beach Pam and I have been to a couple of times in previous vacations, and it’s one of Pam’s favorites. It’s a very nice beach. As Mike said, it’s what he thinks of when he thinks of the Caribbean – a long white sandy beach with lots of girls in bikinis! It is definitely the busiest beach, by far, that we’ve seen. Lots of people, but not so many you feel crowded.

There is a large parking lot, and you walk down a road into the beach, past the restaurant and dive shop. There is a board walk running the length of the beach, so you don’t burn you toes on the hot sand. There are lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas on either side of the boardwalk. Just drop your stuff on the chair you want and hop in the water. A lady walks up and down the beach, and eventually she finds you and charges you 2.50 for the car park, and 4.50 for the chair and umbrella.

Snorkeling was interesting. There were lots of places to snorkel, and lots of fish to see.Whether you go to the right, or the left, you’ll see some fun stuff. The coral is not as good as it has been, apparently because, according to our hotel concierge, there was a “localized storm” that really battered Porto Mari. You can see the damage, but there is still some coral hanging on, and they’ve put in a number of reef balls in an attempt to encourage regrowth.

We stayed in the water a long time, sliding from one side of the bay to the other and back again! We had lunch in the restaurant, and it was, well, it was lunch! Just what you needed after a long swim. Service is fine, but it’s tough to get them to bring you the bill. They are very attentive taking your order, bringing the food, refreshing your drinks, but as soon as you ask for the bill, you wonder what happened! Overall, it was a nice day. Not the best snorkeling on the island, but certainly fun. You can’t go wrong checking out Porto Mari.
We had dinner at the Rose Garden Chinese Restaurant. Very expensive. VERY expensive. Service was good, but we were the only people in the restaurant so that’s understandable. The reason there were so few people, I’m sure, is because of the prices! Some dishes were over 30 US dollars! For Chinese food! The food was ok, nothing special, but not offensive. The portions were not large, and certainly not worth the type of money they charged. Don’t get me wrong, the food was fine, just that 20 US dollars for a garlic chicken dish, with a few vegetables (a few slices of pepper, a few slices of onion) was a bit much. The dish was not big enough for four people, and barely enough for two servings. The restaurant had some fine green jade carvings that were really lovely.

Here is a brief movie, taken by Mike. It’s of a parrotfish, crunching away on some coral. They are a fairly large fish, but they are quite skittish, and take off very easily. If you have your sound turned up, you can hear the crunch as his teeth hit the coral.

Curacao, Vacations

Grote Knip, Playa Lagun, Caracasbaii

October 26, 2011 Maurice 2 Comments

Today, Wednesday, we headed up to Westpunt, and tried out Grote Knip. It’s a lovely beach, apparently used quite often for postcards of Curacao. It is a long beach, with beautiful white sand. There are palapas and tables and it’s very popular with locals. There is a large parking lot, so you know it gets busy on the weekends! There were not many people when we were there, only about ten.

It looked like there would be very good snorkeling along the sides, although in the middle we knew there would little to see, since most fish don’t hang around the white sand. The water looked very inviting indeed! It’s easy to get in, as the sand slopes gently down in the water. The water was a bit “cloudy” from the sandy bottom. Heading to the left, I saw a rather large barracuda riding shotgun on a school of fish. The visibility was not great, and the snorkeling was mediocre.

This is a great beach for swimming.

I’ve had a couple of people wonder how you say “Curacao” so I’ll try to explain it phonetically. Most Europeans say it “Cure-A-Sow” and that’s acceptable. Far better than the women at the New Jersey airport who announced our flight to “Crack-Cow”. The second “c” is never hard, always like an “s’. However, the locals spell their island Korsou and they say the name of their island Cur-sew. It’s done quickly with no rolling of the “r”. So there you go. If you want to appear like an in-the-know local, go with the two syllable version Cur-sew, but if you want to be spotted as a tourist, or a European, say it in the three syllable version “Cure-A-Sow”. (Note the local way is Cur – like a dog…. the Euro way is Cure like in medicine.)

We headed back towards Willemstad, the capital city, and stopped at Playa Lagun. It’s a small cove, with an easy entrance to the water. We saw some neat fish, but most of the best fish viewing is down too far for snorkelers. The visibility was fine, just that the fish were 20-30 feet down for the most part. When we entered the water, we headed to the right and saw some fun things – the usual suspects.

We had a brief lunch then headed to Caracasbaii, where we’ve been before and can expect lots of fun things. It didn’t disappoint. The wreck is so easy to swim to, and there is always plenty of action to see.

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We had dinner at the Rib Factory. It’s a small eatery, that is full of locals, for lunch and dinner. It does a booming take out service as well. They have a small deck that has ten tables or so, and a few more inside, with air conditioning. We sat out on the deck in warm evening air. I had the chicken fajitas – not a big rib fan – and they were excellent. Mike had the ribs and he said they were very good. Fall off the bone tender, with a great sauce – you could choose from three different kinds. Service was fun and good. Prices were reasonable. Would definitely eat here again.

This is a brief movie of Grote Knip, the first beach we visited today.

Curacao, Vacations

Caracasbaii and Royal Sea Aquarium

October 25, 2011 Maurice 6 Comments

Today we headed just south of our hotel and snorkeled at Caracasbaii. Pam and I have snorkeled here before, and it’s kind of cool. There is a submerged tugboat, and it’s a very close to shore. You can park within five feet of the beach, and just walk right into the water. It’s a nice sandy entry, very level. The ocean was calm and warm, and really clear – the visibility was astonishing! As soon as our faces hit the water, we saw a flying gurnard, only the second one I’ve ever seen in the wild. Quite a cool sight!

The wreck is not very deep and it is covered with coral, Christmas tree worms, and fish! We saw a couple of moray eels hiding near the top, close enough you could reach down and touch him. The Hull is filled with lots of schooling fish.

We saw all the usual suspects, parrot fish, chubbs, sergeant majors, trumpetfish, filefish, wrasses, morays… And being so shallow you can can really see everything up close! It’s really a great place to snorkel. I’d say it is on a par with the Royal Sea Aquarium, but for different reasons.

The bluehead wrasse is a quick, darting fish, that is difficult to photograph. Seems every time you point the camera at him he darts quickly away. I’ve included this photo because somehow I managed to nail him! Shocking!

We saw several morays, but this gold colored fellow was only about 3 feet from the surface of the water. He kept his eye on us, and would retreat into his little cave if we got too close with the camera.

Another fish we have trouble getting a picture of is this red colored guy. I’m not sure what is name is, but he’s very shy, and usually hides under rock, shelves or pieces of wreck. He only came out into “the light” because he was chasing another fish and I happened to be there with the camera turned on.

I have purchased an underwater housing for the camera this year and I’m quite disappointed with it. It bulky, cumbersome and heavy. It’s awkward to use the zoom button, and every operation requires both hands. It’s impossible to dive down, and use one hand to take a picture, so I’m not getting the shots I want. I would not recommend you get this housing if you’re a snorkeler. It’s also impossible to use any of the special feature buttons, like macro mode. And turning on the film mode, is hit or miss at best.

For the afternoon swim we headed back to the Royal Sea Aquarium. It was just terrific again. The highlight was seeing the largest green moray eel I’ve ever seen! Mike said he was big as a house, but I think he exaggerated, he was as big as a small apartment! The pictures we took of him do not do him justice, but I’ve added a movie at the end of the post… pretty impressive beasty.

We saw another queen angel, and she was very large too! We’ve seen some impressive examples of this fish so far, but this beauty is the best so far.

We spotted a porcupine fish, another shy fish. They hide in small caves, under ledges, or wherever they think you can’t see them. It’s difficult to get a good shot, because you always have to dive down to get the shot, and as I mentioned, this housing has made those shots even more problematic for me. But here is a funny one of him – it looks like we’ve photoshopped some white teeth on to him, but no, this is really the shot!

Enjoy the movie!

Curacao, Vacations

Curacao in 2011

October 24, 2011 Maurice 6 Comments

Well, here I am in Curacao again, but this time Mike is with me. Pam has stayed home recuperating, while I cavort with the fishes. The flight down was in three stages, first to San Francisco, then to Newark, New Jersey, then into Curacao. The flight to San Francisco was on a Airbus, and it was a terrific flight. Nice wide seats, lots of leg room. Going into Newark was not fun. We paid extra to get more legroom, but the seats were narrower, and the trade off is that you don’t get to recline the seats! It was a rough flight. The flight into Curacao was almost empty, so we had a row to ourselves! We managed to get in some sleep time.

Unfortunately, our luggage only made it to New Jersey! Can you imagine? The woman at YVR gave us all our boarding passes to Curacao, then tagged our bags to New Jersey! Sigh… Not a great start. 90 degree weather, long pants, wool shirt, sneakers – not the way to dress! We had to buy a pair of shorts each. They said it was possible we’d get our luggage on Sunday, but maybe Wednesday. When we got to the resort to check in, they told us that Continental had called and our luggage would be in by 1 pm on Sunday. At 5 pm, the office called and said our luggage was in, but did we want them to deliver it (as they had promised) or did we “want” to go pick it up. I figured, if we didn’t go get it, we wouldn’t see it for a couple more days.
We drove to the airport, and tried to get the luggage, but they told us the offices were closed. I asked a security guard to call and got voice mail, that was full. He said go ask the security guard down at arrivals. We do. He says, go ask the security guard down at departures! Another fellow says, call this number – we do – voice mail full. The guy says, well the office is closed what do you expect? I said, they just called us to come get it! He says, ok just wait here, and maybe she’ll bring it out! haha Anyway, I found the Continental cell phone number, not the local mail box that was full, and he called. She came out in two minutes!

We spent Sunday just checking out Curacao. We drove down to Caracasbaii, a place we snorkeled last year, and had a great time. We climbed up to an old fort, and checked out the view. They have built into the ocean, and built some apartment buildings on the land they have built.

We had dinner at Il Forno’s, a brick oven pizzeria. You eat outside, under the stars, and it’s very good. The pizza has a thin crust, and it was cooked perfectly. We had desert of profiteroles and tiramisu, and both were very good. The service was good, but a little slow after dinner was over, and we just wanted our bill! We didn’t get to snorkel, but it was an ok first day.

We snorkeled this morning, Monday, at the Royal Sea Aquarium, and it was spectacular! The ocean was flat as a pancake, no waves, and the water was super clear. We saw just tons of fish, and moray eels, and all sorts of things. I’ve posted three movies on youtube, and I’ve attached them to the end of this post.

This first one is mainly of black durgons, a type of triggerfish. Note the size of the coral around them! This site by the Royal Sea Aquarium is one of the best snorkeling sites on the island!

This next video is of doctor and surgeon fish. They hang around together in a big school, and several kinds of fish try to hide out with them. Note the big trumpetfish, the long skinny fish, trying to pretend he’s one of the crowd!

This final video is of a bunch of fish. Near the end of the video is a scrawled file fish. He’s kind of yellowish with blue/green spots and the odd shape.

The unit we’re in has a great view of the ocean, and the sunset each night. Last night there was even TWO rainbows! We saw a pair of rays swimming out on the ocean too. The water was glassy smooth, and we could see them cavorting about 100 meters off shore.