All posts by Maurice

Playa Piskado and all those turtles

November 25, 2017 Maurice Leave a comment

This bay is one of our favorite places to snorkel. It’s known as Playa Piskado, although the sign at the entrance calls it Playa Grandi. Piskado is a Papiamentu word that means fisherman. Several times a day, the fisherman come to the dock and clean their catch. The remains are tossed into the ocean, and lots of turtles come and get a free dinner. The place is usually quite busy with lots of snorkelers looking to catch these graceful creatures having dinner.

The bay is quite well protected, so the ocean is usually quite calm. Even though it’s a major turtle spotting beach, there are plenty of other fish to see. We say a rather ginormous lobster hiding under a shelf, like usual. And there were loads of other fish, of course. The butter hamlet is one that Pam likes quite a bit. We managed to get a pretty decent shot of one today.

This picture is one I really like – it’s a neat reflection picture. I’m taking a picture of the turtle coming up for air, and Pam is taking this picture of me taking a picture! Lots of reflections going around. Pretty cool effect.

This is a video of one of the larger turtles coming up for air. We usually miss getting them in the frame, so I’ve included it in this post just to show we can get lucky!

This fish on the right is also a neat looking guy. They normally do not like to be photographed and quickly hide themselves. But today, there were quite a few of them over near the side wall away from the turtles, and they didn’t run and hide. It’s called a jackknife fish, and looks pretty lovely.

We had brunch at a restaurant called Kome, a Papiamentu word meaning “Eat.” It’s in the downtown area called Pietermaai, close to the famous Curacao sign. It was simply wonderful. Loved the layout of the restaurant with an open kitchen and local artwork on the walls. The staff were really terrific, and the food even better. The restaurant owners stopped by our table a couple of times throughout the meal to make sure we were enjoying the place. We will definitely be coming back for dinner. The only thing is, Bill Murray kept staring at us through the whole meal!

Curacao

The art of snorkeling

November 18, 2017 Maurice Leave a comment

We have been snapping photos of artwork around the island. Some have been sculptures, while others seem to be graffiti. Pam really likes the one in the header (called the featured picture) of this post, of a couple of birds. It’s quite large and very sweet.

The one on the right here is rather unusual. We are not sure what it is supposed to be, but almost seems to encouraging people to read? Not sure. It is located near Playa Daiibooi at the entrance to the Coral Estates, a lovely gated community here in Curacao. It is very tall, about 12 or 15 feet.

The photo on the left is one of the newer art installations in Blue Bay. It is on the golf course, near the club house. I really like the metal work of it, but we’re not sure what it is supposed to be. They say art is in the eye of the beholder, so do you behold a hippo, or a unicorn?

We’ve been doing some snorkeling, of course, and have seen so many fun things. We’ve explored lots of beaches, some we’ve never been to before. But it seems we see the most exciting stuff right in our backyard beach of Blue Bay. This movie of an octopus is kinda fun. If you look closely as he’s swimming, you will notice one tentacle on the left upper side is noticeably shorter. It has started to regrow, but it’s still quite a but shorter than the rest. He’s a very good size, and was being a bully to a smaller octopus.

Curacao

Playa Daaibooi again

November 1, 2017 Maurice Leave a comment

We have not been to Playa Daaibooi since 2013. It’s a nice sheltered bay with a pretty nice beach. There are lots of palapas and beach chairs, a restaurant, and a pay shower. Yup a pay shower. Stick in 25 cents and you get enough water to rinse off the salty ocean water. Very nice. There is no entrance fee, no parking fee, and no fee for using the beach chairs and loungers.

I’ve had to replace my underwater camera, and I purchased a FujiFilm XP120. It is about the worst underwater camera we’ve ever owned. The pictures taken in the water are absolutely terrible. It’s an ok camera out of the water, but if you’re thinking of getting an underwater camera do NOT buy the FujiFilm XP120. Absolute garbage.

The coral is quite bleached unfortunately. It’s a far too common problem, now. Still, there were lots and lots of fish to see. The water remains quite shallow for a long ways out. You can easily get to some lovely coral, but when you look back at the beach you’re quite surprised at how far you’ve come out. We saw the usual suspects along with turtles, flying gurnards, moray eels, and large rainbow parrot fish.

Interestingly, we were able to discover where the SS Minnow is now stored! Check out the pic to the right. We talked to the Skipper, but couldn’t find Gilligan. The weather has been fabulous lately. The summer months are very hot here, but now hover around 30 Celsius. Very very pleasant.

Curacao

Getting settled

October 24, 2017 Maurice 1 Comment

It’s been difficult getting settled into our new lifestyle. Dealing with another country’s bureaucracy is never easy. But we’re getting the hang of little things like paying bills: You have to go to the bank to do that, unlike Canada where you log onto your bank’s internet site and a couple of clicks later it’s all done. And of course, don’t forget to bring your passport when you do so! Everyone here wants to see your passport. (They must have a thing for seeing you at your worst!)

Getting around without a car is not easy. The bus service is not like Vancouver, with buses and trains running every which way dozens of times an hour. When we had to take the car in for routine servicing, we had to first find a garage that would even touch our Buick. We’ve found only one on the island that can do that. The local Chev dealer simply wouldn’t touch our car. Unfortunately the garage is a $40 cab ride away!

Still, there are lots of perks to living here as well. The weather for one. It’s the end of October and it’s a very warm 28 degrees. And it’s sunny and rarely rains, unlike Vancouver where it will be gray and rainy from now until February. It sure is nice to be able to go and swim in either the ocean or our swimming pool at any time of the day or night. Our car insurance is about half what it was in BC. Gas is 20% cheaper. Booze is cheaper, although I do miss all the craft beers available in Vancouver.

All in all, it’s been a bumpy transition, but getting easier and easier as we get used to things.

About Bailey

Home and back again

October 19, 2017 Maurice Leave a comment

Pam and I have been to Canada and back! We returned home to Vancouver for a visit in early October. We rented a car and drove through the mountains to Calgary to visit family as well. We had a couple days in Calgary but a snow storm threatened to strand us in Calgary past our return flight out of Vancouver so we left Calgary a little earlier than we wanted.

The rental car was just amazing. A Ford Taurus if you can believe that. We got a free upgrade from the car we rented, and wow, what a beast that car is. It’s roomy and luxurious with every conceivable upgrade you can imagine. The stereo was one of the best I’ve ever heard, never mind best car stereo! The navigation package was stellar with a really cool feature that told you what the speed limit is… very cool for when you are in the middle of the mountains and it’s been miles since you’ve seen a sign.

We stopped off in 100 Mile House to visit with a couple of our oldest friends, Maggie and Tim. They’ve retired to a lovely home on the banks of Horse Lake, which was the scene of terrible wild fires this summer. Their home was spared, but they had to evacuate a couple of times. The devastation was quite shocking. Miles and miles of burned forest, and lost homes. Quite a sobering experience.

Back in Vancouver, on our last day there, we went for a stroll through John Hendry Park, more commonly referred to as Trout Lake. Buck and I used to run around the outer track 4 or 5 times a week. It’s a beautiful little park. Sure brought back a lot of memories of our first dog.

It’s nice to be back in Curacao. After the long flight, we were delighted to come home to a completely pristine apartment, freshly painted and all new tile work. We’re going to be able to relax a little easier here now, with all the stress of renovations complete. We’re interested to see how they handle Halloween here, as well. Should be fun.

Curacao

Internet finally!

September 23, 2017 Maurice 4 Comments

Well it took longer than some pregnancies, but we finally have internet in our apartment. And it’s quicker than the internet we had from Shaw in our apartment in Vancouver! We’re thrilled to death about finally getting it. If I actually explained to you the process of getting it, you’d be reading til next Tuesday.

Our renovations are complete as well. The final piece in the puzzle was getting a second air conditioning unit installed, and that is done and done. The apartment looks much more spacious and we’re delighted with the extension. We have all our furniture as well. Most of our stuff arrived unscathed, but one mirror broke, and one pane of glass in our display cabinet broke. Not that big of a deal.

We did some deep sea fishing here in Curacao, just off the Spanish Waters. It was a heck of a good time, with the Y-Knot Fishing Charters. We hooked and released a couple barracudas almost as soon as we got the lines in the water. The doradus we caught were darn tasty! I tell you, nothing like fresh fish. The water was so calm, it was a real delight to be on the ocean. Steve, the boat’s skipper, told us that where we caught the doradu the swells were usually in the 10-12 foot range! But they were less than a foot on our day on the boat – and I was glad for it.

Pam asked me to talk a bit about comments on the blog since a couple of people have emailed us, wondering about the process. There is a “Leave a comment” link just under the headline of a post. If you click that, you can leave a comment. The first time you do, it requests your email address. The email address is NEVER displayed publicly, and we don’t sell or give it away. Pam or I have to approve your first comment. Then any time you leave an additional comment using the same email address, the blog will immediately display it. We do the “first approval” in order to prevent spam type comments appearing.

Curacao

Hurricane Irma

September 6, 2017 Maurice Leave a comment

Hey everyone… just wanted to tell you all that we are NOT in the path of Hurricane Irma. Barbuda, the first island impacted by Irma is about 1000 kilometers away. (In Canadian terms, that’s about the distance from Calgary to Vancouver.) Hurricane Harvey was even further away.

So please don’t worry about us! We are fine. One of the reasons we picked Curacao is that it is considered to be out of the hurricane zone.

Here is a picture of the new tile work in our apartment. Bailey has discovered she loves the new extension. The patio doors used to be behind the grey tile back of Bailey’s butt. Just some painting remains to be done on the extension. There is a little electrical work left to do as well (installing a ceiling fan and some lights for the new patio). Might be done by Friday, but Monday at the latest.