Category Archives: 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.

The shot of the sunset is taken through the side of our balcony. We’re on the second floor. Kind of cool I think.

Aruba, Vacations

Arachi

December 5, 2010 Maurice 5 Comments

When we returned to Aruba from our week in Curacao, we were driving to the California Lighthouse to check out the view. It’s a scenic drive, through virtual desert conditions with huge cactus and big sand dunes. They don’t even allow motorized vehicles on the dunes because they say it is part of their heritage.

As we slowly rounded a corner, we saw an obviously very hungry, very thin female dog. She looked like she hadn’t had a good meal in about a year! Aruba has lots of wild and uncared for dogs. It’s a different culture there, and dogs, for the most part, are just another animal. Many just roam the streets, and people don’t seem to care for them quite like we do in North America.

It was quite emotional for both of us, and we decided we’d try to do something. We got to the Lighthouse, and bought a ham and cheese sandwich, a hotdog, and a sausage. We tried to find her again, but we could not. Pam was in tears. We left the food by the road near where we’d seen her last, and hoped she’d find it.

That night in the grocery store, Pam bought some tins of dog food, some “crunchies” and some treats. The next morning we went back and found her! She was nervous and wary and wouldn’t let us approach. We put the tinned food into a dish, set it down, and moved away. She approached, keeping an eye on us, and proceeded to wolf it down! We gave her some crunchies, and she loved those too.

We left some food for her in a pile, and as we drove away, we saw her eating the new pile as well. The next day we were late getting there, and thought we wouldn’t find her. We parked the car just north of Arashi beach, got out and called for her, and whistled and she came out of somewhere and came to us. Her tail wagged a little, not much, but a little. We fed her just like the day before, and she devoured everything.

The next day, we arrived at the same time, and she was perched near where we had fed her the two days before! It reminded us of a movie about a dog named Hachi, who waited for his master to return every day at five o’clock. Since her home seemed to be around Arashi Beach, we started calling her Arachi, a combo of Arashi and Hachi. It just seemed fitting!

We fed her most days over the next two weeks, missing her one day I think. She came to trust us and wagged her tail all the time, and even let us pet her and scratch her ear! She was really a sweet dog. One of her favorite things was cheese flavored Pringle potato chips! It was funny to see her devour those things.

A couple of days before we left, we brought her lunch. We couldn’t find her, at first. Then we spotted her under a tree with a couple of young ladies. One claimed to be her owner! Pam talked to them, and discovered she was just a dog who lived there, for whatever reason. One of the women wanted to “adopt” her but was having trouble convincing her boyfriend. We saw her the next few days, and she said that she was going to take her home that Friday! We were delighted, needless to say!

When we first saw her, she was a total bone rack. But our feeding her everyday had noticeably improved her look. The young lady even remarked how good she looked. She figured some kind tourist had been feeding her, since the locals really wouldn’t be doing it.

Anyway – we hope it has a happy ending. We wish Arachi a long life!

Aruba, Vacations

Last day in Aruba for 2010

December 3, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Today was our last full day in Aruba, so we decided to hit our favorite beach. Boca Catalina was busy, our regular parking spot was taken! The day was beautiful, sunny and warm. We quickly jumped in the ocean, and were greeted by an amazing visibility. The ocean was clear and we could see for miles, it seemed!

We swam up to Malmok, and while I was taking pictures of a chain moray eel Pam called me urgently! She had spotted a turtle, half hiding under a rock. It’s still very exhilarating to see these guys in the ocean. I took a few shots, and we decided not to disturb her, when suddenly she just got up on her own and started going for a leisurely swim. We followed her and we were so close, we could reach out and touch her!

We swam with her for a long time, just enjoying the company. This area is usually filled with snorkeling ships, but there were none today. Later in the day we discovered there were no cruise ships in the harbor, so we figured there were not enough customers to fill the boats.

We saw another school of the torpedo shaped fish, we’ve called gauganche. They are really fast, and move very determinedly around the area. They look very suited to hunting, sleek and powerful.

Another turtle took our attention for a time. By this time a Pelican ship full of snorkelers had come on the scene. We called out to them that we’d sighted a turtle, and they all came swimming over. It’s always a big treat to see turtles, and you could see the grins and smiles on people’s faces right through their mouthpieces. We left them to enjoy her, and it was funny to look back and see thirty snorkelers all trailing off in the direction the turtle was headed!

We lazily swam around Malmok beach checking out some great fish. The visibility was clear as a bell, and we could see the tiniest little guys hanging around. We agreed it was time to head back, when we spotted another turtle! We followed her for a time, but by now we’d been in the water for nearly three hours, so broke it off and headed back to Boca beach.

We swam over the minor reef near Boca, and spotted a cornetfish. This was the first one we’d seen this trip! They are long fish, around five feet, but you can wrap your hands around their width. They are much like a trumpetfish, but have a long whip-like tail, so they are easy to distinguish. I’m posting two pictures of the same cornetfish.

Note the difference in the color. In the first picture you can see dark colored bands alternating with light blue bands. In the other, taken mere seconds later, (note the rocks beneath the fish – you can see both pictures were taken by the same rocks) you can clearly see blue streaks running down his length, with no dark banding.

Aruba, Vacations

Swimming the wreck

December 3, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

I’ve been wanting to swim out to the wreck, that is clearly visible from the main beach road, since we arrived. Last year it was a great snorkel, with tons of fish. The waves looked bigger than previous years, so I’ve bided my time until the day was calm. Well, today was the day.

The wreck has collapsed somewhat over the course of just one year. Large sections at the back of the ship have broken off and fallen away from the wreck. Some of the pieces have quite sharp and dangerous chunks sticking out of them. So you need to be careful you don’t get too close and risk being impaled when a big wave crashes through.

It was very neat to see all the fish making the wreck their home. Huge schools of blue grunts, snapper and other fish just drift along with the waves, hiding among the decaying ribs of the ship. There are large schoolmasters trying to remain hidden among the big schools, but their size really makes them stick out!

The wreck is mostly filled with the usual fish we see, and there were a couple barracuda hanging around. It’s tough to get into the wreck, the entry point is very rocky, and you have to walk out quite a ways before it’s deep enough to get into the water to swim. So all in all, I’d say there are better spots to snorkel. If you are here for just one week, definitely check out the other spots first. Save the wreck for when you’ve got lots of time.

We got back in the ocean at Boca Catalina, and swam up to Malmok reef. The big surprise today was two of the largest porcupinefish we’ve seen anywhere! While we were in St Maarten, we saw some large ones out at Turtle Reef, but these two were bigger! Pam said, “look at these porcupinefish!” I couldn’t believe they were porcupinefish, I was just shocked at how big they were.

We saw another big school of sleek hunting fish. These were different than the school the day before. We’re pretty sure these were called cero. They are fast moving fish too, and seem to be stalking the smaller guys.

I finally got a decent picture of a clown wrasse. They are colorful fish, and dart and weave all over the reef, seldom coming to a stop. We also saw a new fish, which we haven’t identified. It seems to be some kind of a blenny, but it has very pronounced scales on it. He was quite shy, and hid under a rock as soon as I pointed the camera at him. I tried for a second shot, but he quickly moved under another rock, making it impossible.

It was a fun day of snorkeling. The water was clear and visibility was very good. We’d love to say that we got back to the hotel and took a nice long rest in the hot tub, but if you can believe it, the Renaissance hotel – a Marriott hotel! – does not have a hot tub! Can you imagine? This is the first place in the Caribbean we’ve stayed that didn’t have a hot tub! We’re in shock!

We went to dinner at a place called the Casa Tua Mediterranee. “Casa Tua” means “your house” and they have four or five different ones on the island. Barcelona, Mediterranee, and a couple pizzerias… We had lunch at a Casa Tua pizza place and really enjoyed their food (and the big beers!). This Casa was in the new Palm Beach mall and their food is Moroccan and Greek inspired. We both ordered meals in the “tajine” a Morocca cooking vessel that looks similar to a stove.

Pam had the lemon chicken and I had the Casa Tua Couscous. Trust me when I say, they were FABULOUS. They bring you these absolutely beautiful dishes to eat from. You layer your couscous in the bottom, them add food from the tajine – mine had chicken, beef, carrots, potatos, pumpkin, chickpeas, and other vegetables, then you pour a broth that the whole thing is simmered in over the lot. Absolutely wonderful!

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PS: I posted this from our airplane at 33,500 feet! Yep free wifi from Google Chrome and Delta Airlines as a holiday present! We’ve not posted the last few days in Aruba since we were simply too busy to do it! I have another post ready to go, but won’t post it til later. It’s a little cramped on the plane! lol

Aruba, Commentary, Vacations

Last Monday in Aruba

November 30, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Today we took it easy, just one swim at Boca Catalina. Whenever we go in at Boca, we swim up to Malmok, because that’s where most of the reef is located. It was a pretty clear day, and nice clear water, for the most part. Sometimes close to shore it gets a bit churned up from the sand and waves.

Today we saw some nifty stuff, including several new fish. There was a quillfin blenny, which we had not see before. It’s kind of a large blenny, and rather strange looking. It’s a shy fish, and quick to take cover, so we’ve never been able to photograph it before. There was another blenny, a two-toned blenny that we managed to get a shot of too… it’s another fish that won’t sit still for a shot, so we were lucky to nail her.

We saw a queen angelfish, which have been very few and far between. I think we’ve only seen her once before, and Pam was the only one who saw her. It’s a really colorful fish, bright blue and bright yellow/orange.

There was a yellowtail jack – in a school of four or five. The look and act just like a barjack. The other fish get nervous when they cruise by. They come out of nowhere and blow by you in a hurry. You have to have your camera on and ready to take a pic in order to get a shot. We got lucky today!

I managed to get a shot of a queen triggerfish with her front trigger raised. The first time we’ve managed to do that I think. They use the trigger to lock themselves between rocks, when they feel threatened (I know this because I read it in our fish book!)

We saw another turtle today, a hawksbill. She was quite a bit smaller than the one we saw yesterday, so that means there are least three turtles in this area! It’s been a treat each time we get to swim with them. They only use their front paddles to move, unless you startle them, then they kick with all four legs.

We followed the turtle out quite a ways from shore. Then we saw this large school of fish we’d never seen before. They were quite large, about two and half feet up to about four feet. They moved quickly, darted around in a huge circle. We think it might be a rainbow runner, or a guaguanche, which are related to the barracuda class of fish. They are long and thin, and amazing swimmers.

There was a Spanish hogfish that I managed to get a pretty cool shot of… I dove down, and as I was coasting along the bottom, he popped up from behind a rock and I had my camera ready. I think it’s one of the best shots I’ve taken the whole trip!

This is one of Pam’s favorite fish, so I was glad to get this shot! I guess it’s the color of them… they do stick out in the ocean! But I still can’t figure why this fish is called a hogfish. Maybe it has strange eating habits!

I also got another pic today that I’m pretty happy with as well. I was diving down to get a shot of a scorpionfish, a fish we’ve taken enough shots of! I saw this great photoscape and just took it. It came out better than I dreamed! Really happy with this shot.

On the way back, we saw a balloonfish. They are cute little guys, with weird psychedelic eyes. They have a green pattern, like some pattern you’d see on a disco light show! Usually they are under a rock, peering shyly out at you, but this guy was laying in a depression of the ocean floor. Maybe he thought he was hidden! Quite a cute little fish.

I’m going to add a second one, just because he’s cool. He’s about ten to twelve inches long. He has these little quills that he will stand on end, and he’ll puff up to be about two or three times his size, if he feels threatened.