Category Archives: Curacao

Visits to the island of Curacao

World Turtle Day

May 23, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

Today is World Turtle Day, a day to highlight the plight of turtles worldwide. Pretty much every species is endangered. Some of the videos I’ve seen of turtles engulfed in plastic, discarded fishing nets, and other rubbish are just heartbreaking.

Here on Curacao we have a special place to see turtles. If you want to swim with turtles, and want to absolutely guarantee you see some, the the place to be is Playa Grandi. There are always, always, always turtles in the bay.

You can see dozens of them most days. The fisherman clean their catch on the dock, and toss the remains into the water. Dozens of turtles hang around waiting for their chance at a free meal!

Curacao

Eagle!

May 6, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

There are lots of birds here on Curacao. Full stop. The island is on the migratory route of over 5000 birds, so we see lots of wonderful looking birds, often for just a short time.

We have an indigenous hawk called the cara cara which is a pretty big predator around here. We’ve seen it take out some of the local cats even!

But my bird news is getting an eagle on the par 5 hole number 17 at our Blue Bay golf course. It’s one of the longest holes on the course so a good drive is important. I hit a nice ball, right in the center of the fairway, and it rolled nicely to within 175 yards.

I took my hybrid 4 wood and put it nicely on the green. The putt was 14ish feet or so? But I put it straight down the middle. Pretty thrilled with that!

Curacao

In for a swim

April 23, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we’ve hopped in the ocean. We’ve spent more time on the golf course than cruising the ocean. But today, we jumped in the ocean here at Blue Bay.

It was a bit cool, but we quickly adjusted to the temperature. One thing about the ocean, there are pockets that feel much warmer, so you want to spend a few extra minutes there!

The visibility was quite good, excellent in fact. We saw what we’ve come to call the “usual suspects.” One thing that was kind of interesting was seeing two octopuses. Not often we see two here in our little protected bay.

It was nice to get back in the ocean, and I can bet we’ll be back in much sooner than the last time!

Curacao

In praise of golfing

April 18, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

We have had a lot of fun playing the golf course here at Blue Bay. Lots of afternoons you will find Pam and I on the course, me losing the balls, Pam trying to find them!

We met a couple from North Carolina basically the first week we moved in the building, and Jeff and I have played a lot of rounds together. They don’t live here full time, but when they come to the island we definitely fit in several rounds.

There are a lot of beautiful vistas on the course, none more spectacular than the par three, sixth hole. (That’s the featured picture of this post.) It plays at about 170 yards and your tees is up on a cliff. You drive over the ocean, and hope your ball catches the green. The green is quite a bit lower than the tee box, but still up on another cliff. You don’t have a lot of margin for error!

Jeff and I both really like the par four, fourteenth hole though. It’s a dog leg right, with beautifully landscaped fairways, and a terrific undulating green. You don’t have a lot of margin for error on this hole either as there is heavy rough with cactus to the right. To the left is heavy brush with lots of prickly bushes.

Curacao

St. Patrick’s Day, 2019

March 17, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

For St. Patrick’s day here at Blue Bay, Katherine, who was our real estate agent, organized a party on the beach. There was lots of green beer, potato races, wild green costumes, and of course lots of Guinness!

Lots of people came for the fun and games, and stayed for the beer and camaraderie. It was a good time. On the left you see Alan and Neil. Alan is from Calgary, but lives here full time. Neil is from Toronto but he and his family live here full time as well.

I’m pretty sure I had the best hat though! Not often you see such a large leprechaun.

Curacao

Just a couple things

February 12, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

We were wandering around downtown Willemsted the other day, and there is a lot of cool wall art all over some of the buildings. I’ve posted some in the past, but I think these are a couple of shots that are new. The shot used in the featured pic of this post is a close up of the building in the picture to the right here.

This next one is kind of simple, but really elegant. It’s down a back alley, so would probably not be seen by the vast majority of tourists. Kind of cool I think.

We’ve been woken up a couple of times by Bailey growling and sometimes barking. She’s in protect mode, and this is what she’s protecting us from! Pretty funny stuff.

Curacao

The return of the flamingo

January 1, 2019 Maurice Leave a comment

We have lots of water features around our property, mostly associated with the golf course. There has been a large community of flamingos that spend their days at the water feature that separates the first and eighteenth fairways.

But, they all left. We have not seen any for a long time. There is a salt flat just a short distance away, towards Kokomo Beach, where lots of flamingos can be seen virtually any day.

Well, today we saw one back on Blue Bay! It’s been a while, so it’s good to see them start to come back. Hopefully it won’t be just the one, and more will come back.

Oh, and Happy New Year! The fireworks were crazy here again this year. Went on pretty much all night. The whole island lights up, and it’s crazy noisy. Poor Bailey. She pretty much spends the night in the shower – it’s farthest she can get from the noise!