Yesterday was the one year anniversary of our move to Curacao. It’s been a busy year! Our first months here were taken up with renovations to the apartment, and getting our residency permits in order. Discovering how big the island was was a surprise. It seems very tiny on a map, but there are a lot of hidden gems we hadn’t been aware of, even after ten years of coming here!

There have been some other surprises for sure. Food is a lot cheaper than I figured. Some foods are much pricier, including certain fruits. Cherries are through the roof expensive. But a huge pineapple is cheap cheap cheap compared to Vancouver. Boneless skinless chicken breasts are under 3 dollars a pound. I miss the diversity of Canadian craft beer, but the beer that is available is cheaper than in Canada.

On the negative side, the drivers here are absolutely the worst you can imagine. Six percent of the vehicles here are right hand drive, accounting for 25 percent of the accidents. But fully 100 percent of the drivers of those vehicles are incompetent! About 80 percent of the population do not know how to use their signal lights. Even turning left they do not use their signals. If you thought people using their phones was a problem where you drive, then spend ten minutes on the road here in Curacao. Most people are talking, texting or watching videos on their phones while they drive.

And parking? Forget about it. The cars here are all quite small, with a vehicle called the Kia Picanto being a very popular model. It is a very tiny car. Most three year olds could park it between the lines with their eyes blindfolded. But not the drivers here on Curacao. Yesterday this woman parked so poorly, I said to her, “You must be ashamed of that parking job.” She looked at me like I was drunk.

The wildlife here is really amazing. Over 5000 different breeds of birds come through Curacao over the course of a year, and it’s amazing to see. From predators to song birds, we see them all.

It’s been a real treat to have nice warm weather all the time, but I do miss running through the rain forests of Vancouver.

Bailey has made a bunch of new friends too, one in particular, a whippet named Ollie. We normally see him in the evening, and she starts looking for him as soon as we near the 13th hole. It’s very cute.