Category Archives: Vacations

Ascension Day

May 10, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Well who knew? Today we had decided we’d tour around downtown, maybe do a little shopping. Imagine our surprise when NOTHING was open – not even bars and restaurants! It was an official holiday called Ascension Day, and everyone was at the beach! Except us of course, we were looking for a store to go into! How about this picture of a boat on Santa Barbara bay? Not a great parking job!

So, we went with plan B and jumped in the ocean at Caracasbaii again. It was fun, lots to see, good visibility. One of the highlights for me was this porcupine fish – they are pretty shy fish, and this guy, he’s “hiding” behind this little piece of coral, keeping one eye on us! Made me laugh.

Sometimes when you dive down to see a fish, you get a surprise, seeing something you had not seen from the surface. This lobster was a surprise sighting. He was under the wreck, looking good enough for some butter!
With no restaurants open, it’s a good thing we had bought some stuff for dinner yesterday. Naturally, all the grocery stores were closed too. One of the cool things about Curacao (well most Caribbean islands) is the mixture of European, African and Asian cuisine. So we had a nice “Dutch-African” meal of chicken, red cabbage, snow peas, and a spicy dahl. We’ve also discovered a place quite near us that serves Keshi Yena, so we’re going to give them a try on Friday, our last full day here in Curacao.

We’ve had a nice time here, but it’s not been the balm I hoped it would be… still thinking a lot of Max. There are a lot of stray dogs here, and Pam always buys a box of dog biscuits. As we’re driving along, if we see a dog on the side of the road we pull over and feed them a few biscuits.

About Bailey, Curacao, Vacations

Ascension Day

May 10, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

About Bailey, Curacao, Vacations

Ascension Day

May 10, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Curacao, Vacations

Playa Daaibooi

May 9, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Today was a windy day, so we know that usually means the visibility for snorkeling is not very good, so we decided to check out one of the seven museums on Curacao. On the way we passed the famous floating market in the downtown area. They are actually boats, floating right on the water!

We settled on the Museum of Curacao, the oldest one on the island, housed in a former hospital for patients with yellow fever. We got bit by so many mosquitoes while touring this museum, I wondered if we got yellow fever! Wow – did we ever get bit!

There was a $5.50 charge to get in the museum, which consists of the large former hospital, a couple of out buildings, one housing the former mail plane, one showing a former store, and one a slave quarters, as well as some nicely appointed grounds with many outdoor sculptures.

In the main building, there were a lot of paintings and sculptures, almost like an art gallery, rather than a museum. Some of the artwork was fairly modern, some 19th century. I was particularly struck by this self portrait of an artist named Edgar Fernhout, (died: 1974). The hands are so large and prominent.

There were several rooms set up like mid 19th century plantation owners – one called the Mahogany room, pictured here. Mahogany is a popular wood in the tropics since it is termite resistant, a common pest here.

We then decided to head up to Daaibooi Beach, which we had never been to before. It had a smaller snack bar, dive shop, some facilities, some palapas, and lounge chairs. There was no charge to use the chairs or palapas.

It’s a fairly small bay, quite protected from the ocean. There wasn’t a lot to see; the coral was pretty badly damaged. Further out, we saw more coral, but it was no where near as nice as Blue Bay. Still it was nice to get in the ocean for a swim.

For dinner we ate a nice meal at an Indonesian restaurant called Sambal, in the Zuckertuin Mall. The food was very nice, tasty and flavourful without being over-spiced. The young servers were very pleasant and helpful with our selections.

We started with an Indonesian egg roll, and a Suriname egg roll. They were ok, but I wouldn’t order them again, as it turned out the mains were very substantial.

I ordered a Nasi Goreng Rames which was served with two kinds of beef – a satay (skewer) with peanut sauce and a stewed beef – as well as a spiced chicken. There was a spicy chayote that was really good, half of a boiled egg with a spicy chutney, and some plantains and rice. It was certainly a very big plate of food!

Pam’s dish was similar, except that noodles replaced the rice. With two diet cokes and two beers, the bill was $60. Not bad really. We both agreed we’d go there again.

Curacao, Vacations

Varsenbaii, or Kokomo Beach

May 8, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Tuesday saw us head back up to the area around Blue Bay. We found a couple nice beaches, but the one we selected to get in at was Kokomo Beach at Varsenabaii. There are lots of facilities here: a big restaurant, a dive shop, and a massage tent. There are plenty of beach lounge chairs and a raft in the middle of the bay completes the picture. There is a nice little dock with a stair ladder to get you into the water quickly and easily.

Like Blue Bay, there is plenty of coral, and lots of fish. It is not as spectacular as Blue Bay, but then, this one is free! The conditions were not great, as the water was slightly murky, due to a big rainstorm Monday night, and early Tuesday morning. Still, there was plenty to see. I would definitely like to come back here when the conditions were a bit better.

We stayed in the water for a couple hours, then drove back to the hotel. We can watch the dolphin shows from our balcony, and we’ve been seen at least one show per day. I’ll have to get some video and pictures up… it’s great fun to watch. The hot tub here has been fantastic – it’s strange to hear Pam say that the hot tub does NOT need to be hotter! It’s a great big tub, and usually we’re the only ones in there! Nice!

This movie is just a view of some of the coral you can see at Kokomo Beach. This was up the left hand side of the bay, quite close in. Out near the drop off, there is a whole ton of stuff too, but the conditions made it difficult to get good shots. When it’s a bit murky, it seems the camera focuses on the bits of stuff floating in the water, rather than what you want it to take the picture of!

Curacao, Vacations

Blue Bay Beach

May 7, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Monday we hit Blue Bay Beach, somewhere we’d never been to before. It’s in a large private complex, and you go through a security gate, down a long road, and finally reach the bay. It’s a smallish cove, with a dive shop, restaurant, bar, a small beach wear shop, even a massage tent! There were lots of lounge chairs, so we knew there would a charge. It was a pricey eight bucks each. But my oh my, was it worth it! This snorkel was the nicest, most amazing we’ve ever had on Curacao.

The coral was lush, rich, healthy and magnificent. I’m not sure we’ve seen this variety of coral in one spot. Just simply amazing fan coral, fire coral, tube coral in towering purple brilliance, brain coral, huge elkhorn coral – it just went on and on. We got in the water, went to the “right” side and couldn’t stop swimming – we kept saying, we’ll go just a little bit more, then we’d see even more amazing formations ahead and we just kept swimming. We saw absolutely everything the ocean has to offer, short of a turtle. We saw a big green moray eel, a rainbow parrotfish with her crazy orange and blue face, there were Spanish hogfish like crazy, a porcupine fish hiding in a big elkhorn coral, even an octopus got in the act today.

There were filefish – scrawled, dotted, you name it they were there! What a place. There was very little current, and the water was amazingly clear. There is a wide shelf close to the cliffs rising from the water, then a long sloping drop off filled with coral and fish. This is a beach that will be on our must have list any time we come back here to Curacao!

After we’d been in the ocean for close to three hours, we had lunch in the restaurant there. Not your standard beach fare of burgers and fries either! I had a chicken satay served with a wonderful coleslaw and shrimp chips, with a really tasty peanut sauce. Pam had a chicken stirfry with two kinds of bell peppers, bean sprouts and a tangy sauce. And the service was really lovely by a nice Dutch lady. When Pam asked her to bring a bowl filled with water so she could soak her camera, the waitress didn’t bat an eye. She brought the bowl, and watched as Pam plunged the camera in. She said to Pam, “first time ever I saw someone do that to their camera!” (You do it to get the salt off the housing before changing batteries, or taking out the memory card.)

Here is a two minute movie of various coral formations and some of the fish we saw. But do take a second and hit the gallery for Curacao 2013 to see all the other pictures we uploaded that are not referenced in the post.

If you ever come to Curacao, and snorkel at Blue Bay Beach (well ANY BEACH for that matter) do be respectful of the coral and don’t stand on it, or touch it, or break off pieces to take as a souvenir. Avoid any contact with it whatsoever – it is very fragile, and easily destroyed. And certain kinds of coral can cause considerable irritation to your skin. So just take your pictures, and leave it for the next snorkeler or diver to enjoy!

Curacao, Vacations

Sunday relaxing

May 6, 2013 Maurice Leave a comment

Sunday is always a very relaxed day in the Caribbean, even more so than most days. It’s a time for families to head to the beach and play in the water. So we did too! It was a beautifully calm, warm, slightly overcast day. We went to a beach very close to the resort called Caracasbaii. It’s a beach we really like, and it’s even more beautiful! There seemed to be even more fish, and the coral seemed larger and more prolific.
One of the things we saw was amazing amounts of tiny fish – there were huge schools of blue tangs, nothing unusual about that, except the whole school would easily fit in your cereal bowl! They were no bigger than a dime! There were little tiny puffer fish, the size of the fingernail on your smallest finger.

I have to say though, that I simply don’t remember so much coral being in such amazing shape at this bay. It was simply remarkable. It was really great to see. So often we are thinking the opposite – that over use has hurt the coral, but for some reason, it was really lush and wonderful.

We came back to the Royal Sea Aquarium to re-charge our batteries, grab a bit of lunch and then swim over to the southern point of the Sea Aquarium’s island. It was a perfectly flat day, and wonderful day to see that section of the island. You don’t want rough water when you’re out there, and wow, was it calm. The proliferation of small fish continued. As we were coasting up the channel, a huge ball of fish came swimming rapidly right at us. I opened my arms to get in the middle of them, they moved to the left as one, and a half dozen BIG barjacks were chasing them!

We saw the biggest queen angelfish we’ve ever seen. It had to have been twice the size of any we’ve seen in the past. It was truly a Queen Sized Fish! Unfortunately, my photography in the afternoon was absolutely abysmal. Hardly one shot is worth posting! Which is too bad, because we had an absolutely amazing day out there. We saw a huge octopus too. He was much much larger than any we’ve seen in the wild before!

It was certainly a remarkable swim. Near the end, as we approached the beach, Pam spotted this little bird, crouched between two big slabs of rock. There is a tiny little crevice, and it seems he’s set up his home there! Too cute.

And how about this fellow crouched above the hot tub? I thought he might have had to much too drink and the world was spinning for him and he had to hold on for dear life! I got a big laugh out of that…

We had a nice dinner at Il forno’s, and then headed over to the Zuckertown mall for a nice gelato. We sat out on the patio and just enjoyed the lovely evening. It was a nice warm ending to a great day of swimming.