Category Archives: Vacations

Tuesday ramblings

November 24, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

We had two nice swims at Malmok Beach and Baby Beach in the last couple of days. But there are a couple of things that are kind of bothering me. First, I simply do not understand this predilection with feeding the fish! In fact, it drives me crazy! In Canada recently, some tourists were fined for feeding wild animals. It is possible to get up to a $100,000 fine. It’s a dangerous practice to feed wild ANYTHING. I just don’t get it.

I don’t like the way the fish act when this occurs. They get almost rabid, circling around, snapping and generally acting like animals! The problem I see is that this will encourage larger fish to see this as an opportunity to gobble up the smaller ones, and if a barracuda decided to strike, someone’s arm might get in the way. Barracuda are a nasty looking fish, but there has never been a recorded instance of them attacking humans directly. Humans have been bitten by barracuda, but only because they get in the way of them feeding. They circle near the bottom of the ocean, spying prey above them, as their eyes are in the top of their head. When they see something tasty, they can strike very, very quickly. If your arm gets between them and their prey, they’ll lay a chomp into you. So by feeding the fish, you’re covering yourself with barracuda dinner. And you could wind up the appetizer.

The other thing is the way people seem to think that coral is a chair in the ocean for them to stand on! Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve seen people standing on the coral. This will kill the coral. The more tour operators bring boat loads of people to great snorkel locations, the more beat up it gets. I’ve been on only one boat snorkel adventure, and that was on Grand Cayman. The operator was very clear that we should never stand on, or touch the coral. There is also a possibility that if you stand on the wrong coral, you’re going to get some nasty reaction. Fire coral for instance, will give you a nasty rash, and drive you crazy with itching. Some people even have allergic reactions, which can cause anaphylactic shock. So I don’t know if people are not being told by these operators, or if they are just ignoring what they’ve been told.

What ever the reason, just stop! Stop feeding the fish. Stop standing on coral. Stop being a bad tourist! respect the world around you, and it will last longer.

Aruba, Vacations

Swimming with turtles

November 23, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Monday we headed out to Boca Catalina beach. The weather was amazing, sunny and calm. As we approached the beach, we noticed a lot of snorkelers in the water. And with good reason! The water clarity was the best we’ve had so far. Near the shore, it is quite sandy so it was a little cloudy, but once out about 15-20 feet you could see for miles! We got some really amazing shots. It was hard to pick just a few for the blog!

Here is a movie of what we think is a green turtle. I’m including both movies I took, Just Because it is so awesome to swim with these dudes! The Red Sail snorkelers had gone right over the top of him and missed him. I saw the guy, took a few pictures, then dove down hoping he’d some up for a swim. Well, he didn’t disappoint us! One of the girls from the Red Sail group couldn’t stop giggling with glee when she saw him. Lucky for them, Pam called them back for the view!

We also saw so many Queen Triggerfish I can’t believe it! It’s a fish I just love! It’s so elegant in the water, with such amazing colors and patterns. I’m posting pictures of two in particular, an adult one, and a juvenile one. The juvenile one has a more delicate color, almost lavender, and she was about eight inches. The larger one is a deeper blue, with darker colors on her facial features. She was well over a foot, maybe eighteen inches. They are usually tough to get a picture of, because they swim away from you, but the little one in particular let me take a lot of pictures of her.

I was busy taking pictures of a French Angel, when Pam said to me, “Are you taking pictures of the Angel, or the scorpionfish?” I hadn’t even seen the scorpionfish! And this brief movie will show you why it’s so hard to see them! He’s laying right on the shelf and looks like the rocks and coral he’s around!

The picture of the French Angel is kind of remarkable too. Usually they swim away from you too. They just don’t like you pointing a camera at them. This particular Angel kept coming right up to us, approaching within three or four inches! The sun hit her at a remarkable angle, and made her gleam and glint with amazing sparkles. I really like this picture!

Another shot I managed to get was of a barjack. These fish are tremendously fast swimmers, and come shooting across the reef, usually in small schools, but sometimes they are alone. The other fish scatter in their path, because they are predators, using their speed to snatch the unwary. This jack was very large, and paused right beneath us, allowing me to snap this shot.

We saw a large school of Caribbean Reef Squid, maybe the largest we’ve seen. Usually these fish will move away when you get too close, but again, they just hung around. Not sure what it was about today, maybe all the great sunny weather made them lazy! Anyway, here’s a brief movie of them just hanging around. Interesting colors on them in this movie.

Aruba, Curacao, Vacations

Back in Aruba

November 22, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

We flew back to Aruba on Saturday. We were sad to leave Curacao. It was a nice week. We saw several new beaches, lots of new fish, a wild boar and her babies, and we had a spectacular swim on the Friday through the coral forest. That swim is a memory that will stick with us forever. We’re already making plans to come back next year, so we can explore it even more!

The flight out of Curacao was on time, and arrived ahead of schedule. It’s a great little flight using Insel Air. The only real drawback is the “departure tax” the government charges. It was $32.00 each, and that was about one quarter the cost of the flight! Too funny… but like Jorge says, “Everybody’s gotta have a job!”

We arrived in Aruba at 1:30 in the afternoon, grabbed our car and checked into our new timeshare, the Paradise Beach Villas. This is a new condo for us and it’s quite nice. It’s right across the street from Eagle Beach, a fabulous swimming beach. We got our room right away, and went and lay in the sun for a while, sampling the hot tub and the two free form swimming pools. Of course, happy hour starts at three, so that’s a great bonus!

Here is a brief movie of the plane we flew over on… we were in the BACK seat! ALL the passengers were in front of us, so you can see it was a packed flight! haha

=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnrkiHyXx10

Curacao, Vacations

Friday at the Sea Aquarium Reef

November 22, 2010 Maurice 1 Comment

Snorkeling on Friday was the MOST AMAZING thing I have ever seen… I am still in shock about how magnificent it was. I’m still trying to find words to describe it – simply amazing. In all the times we’ve been in the water, in all the islands we’ve been to, I’ve NEVER seen anything like it, or even close to it.

I tell you – the snorkeling in Curacao is so much better than Aruba – Pam and I have already decided if we do the 4 week thing again, we’ll do more time in Curacao — it is more expensive there – the car rental was more, food is more, but the ocean is totally superior. We stayed at a place called the Royal Sea Aquarium, and they’ve talked about their private reef and how wonderful it is, and we’ve snorkeled around 4 or 5 times there, and never really saw what they were bragging about – I mean it’s nice but…

Well on Friday we actually found the “coral forest” – coral 30 feet high, 20 feet wide, and it goes on for acres – thousands and thousands of fish – think of the most crowded area we saw, and multiply it by about 500 per cent, and you’re starting to get the idea…. even when we went out to the Cayman Islands and took a boat out to a coral forest, it was NOTHING compared to this… and THIS was within 10 minutes swimming of our condo!

This movie is kind of a compilation of lots of things we saw. From the towering coral, to the black durgons, to the smaller fish – it was really a great swim today!

We were so in awe of what we saw, we really didn’t take enough pictures to give you a clear idea of what we saw. I feel bad about that, because it really was something amazing. I honestly never dreamed there was something like this to see in the ocean. I thought we’d seen it all – and then this – I tell you – I wish I had the words to tell you what we saw.

We even had an awesome sunset to complete the day! What a treat this day was.

Here is another brief movie of the coral forest. It’s like nothing we have ever seen. I do hope these movies have given you a sense of what we saw… I wish we’d done better, but we were really in awe. We kept saying to each other, “Do you believe what we just saw??” then we’d swim another hundred feet and then we’d say “Do you believe what we just saw??”

Curacao, Vacations

Playa Porto Marie

November 20, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Thursday we tried to get to Playa Porto Marie again. Armed with the right street to turn on to, we were pretty sure we’d get it. After turning off the highway, it was a long road to the beach, but we found it! It’s a picturesque little place, with a dive shop, restaurant, and lots of umbrellas and beach lounge chairs.

There is a long wooden walkway down the middle of the hot sand, and you just grab a chair and umbrella. It costs two dollars to just use the beach, an extra three bucks if you want a lounge chair.

It’s not much different than we remember it. It’s a pretty little bay, with a double reef. However, we found the snorkeling less than stellar. It simply didn’t measure up to the other places we’ve been to in Curacao. There seems to be a lot of damage to the reef, but divers told us that further out, it’s pretty remarkable.

We never did get to the second reef, staying inside the first one. We saw lots of fish, don’t get me wrong, even some we’d never seen before! But overall, the coral was pretty mono-chromatic, and the sandy bottom made for a lack of color overall.

If you go, stay to the right side as you enter. There are a lot more things to see. On the left side, close to the cliffs, there were some interesting things, gold morays, spanish hogfish, box fish, lots of stuff, really. But the right side was more colorful, with lots more fish. There were lots of eels, lots of colorful fish.

We took a break for lunch and it started to rain. A tropical rain, warm, but tons of rain! Most people packed up and got the heck outta Dodge. We had a leisurely lunch under the umbrellas, but it was clear that it wasn’t going to clear! So we just packed up and headed home.

I’m adding a movie of a spotted eel. I know I put one in yesterday’s post, but this one is a little longer, and little better quality. It will also show you what I mean about the place being very monochromatic. The white sand, white coral, and white rocks – lets the fish stand out though!

This part of Curacao is famous for the salt plains that has a colony of pink flamingos. They are certainly are a strange bird. They stick their heads in the water, and then walk forward with their heads still in the water, to feed. Their knees bend backwards, so it’s quite a strange site to see them do it. I’ve added a movie at the end of this post. It’s not a very good movie, but it will give you an idea of what I’m talking about!

We had a nice dinner at Augusto’s again. Very well prepared, very good service. Desert was fantastic – a ponche crema cake – a Curacoan traditional desert. Ponche cream is a desert liquour, kind of a cross between Bailey’s and bananas, although I don’t think there are any bananas in it. The desert was awesome. Pam had a passion fruit mousse which was also outstanding.

We have done no shopping in Curacao at all. Not even an hawaiian shirt! (I know people will be shocked to learn I have not bought one…) Pam hasn’t even bought a postcard! How weird is that??

A word about the rental car – amazing gas mileage! It’s a Toyota Yaris, and we didn’t have to fill the tank the whole week, even though we’ve driven all over this island. The fact that it is new, and in good mechanical shape obviously makes a difference. On Aruba, a much smaller island, we filled the car twice. Curacoan’s are much better drivers, and much more polite drivers than the drivers on Aruba. Think of the worst driver you’ve ever encountered, and they would rank near the top of Aruban drivers. Completely loco!

Curacao, Vacations

Cas Abao

November 18, 2010 Maurice 2 Comments

Today we decided to go to Playa Porto Marie, a beach that was Pam’s favorite last year when we were in Curacao. Naturally, we missed the turn off – it’s marked for St. Willibordrus, so I guess we can be forgiven for that! We found a great beach called Cas Abao.

They have a small fee, just like Jan Thiel – three bucks a person. We got a beach lounger like before. There was a nice busy little restaurant, a souvenir shop, a dive shop – all things you usually see on a beach here in Curacao.

The snorkeling was simply phenomenal. I never thought we’d find a place like Caracas Bay, then we found Jan Thiel. And here Cas Abao – at least on a par with Jan Thiel, but perhaps better on this day, because the water was so crystal clear.

We saw some fish we had never seen before, one which we’ve tentatively identified as a Coney. It’s a beautiful fish, black with tiny gold polka dots on it, with flowing pectoral fins. We saw one taunting a golden moray eel. I’m uploading a movie of it doing that!

We saw lots of eels, four different kinds, but at least ten in total. It seemed they were all over the place. Pam said to me, “let’s go in” and then another moray would show up, and we’d stick around for a picture or two. “Ok time to go in…” Another moray!

We were the last people out of the ocean. When we left the beach, there was only one other car in the lot! We shut the joint down! It was quite an amazing sunset too. We would have stayed a while longer, but the bugs chased us away! The bugs have been the worst ever this year. I’m guessing it’s from all the rain.

We had dinner at the Wine Cellar. If you ever come to Curacao, or your cruise ship stops at Willemstad, you simply must come here. It’s a family run business, and truly impeccable in every detail. It’s strictly indoors, and air conditioned, and with all the bugs, that’s a good thing! The service is truly personable and professional. The food is amazing. I had a pumpkin and sweet potato soup with curry, and it was so good, I have no words to describe it. I told Pam that if this was a Gordon Ramsay blind taste test, I would not have been able to pick out one item, but it was truly a taste sensation. Pam started with the mushroom soup (her favorite) and it was creamy and delicious with big chunks of mushrooms.

For the entree, I had an Argentinean steak, and it was better than El Gaucho’s by a mile, which I would never have dreamed. Pam had a giant shrimp dish and it was spicy and herby and very good as well. Tiramisu for desert was not necessary, but really a special rendition done with amaretto. Truly a memorable meal.

Curacao, Vacations

Jan Thiel Bay

November 18, 2010 Maurice Leave a comment

Tuesday we went to a beach we had not visited the last time we were here on Curacao. Jan Thiel Bay is a large bay, with ten acres of coral reef and underwater park. It’s close to the condo, so it was a nice easy drive – only about 15 minutes or so. There is a small charge of three dollars to get in to the beach. This included supervised parking – always a good thing in the Caribbean – and it included beach loungers for both of us. There are a couple of restaurants, a dive shop, souvenir shop, showers, bathrooms, etc. In other words, everything you need out of the water…

In the water, well that was an even better story! The range of fish and coral here is truly stunning. We saw every kind of fish we have ever seen in all of our dives put together, in this one site! We saw four kinds of moray eel, more trumpetfish than you can shake a stick at, damsel fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, scorpion fish, crabs, lobsters, lionfish… the list goes on and on.

And the parrot fish! So many in so many colors – the stoplight parrotfish were so beautiful and large! We even saw a blue parrot fish! Previously, we have seen blue parrot fish at only one other location, and that was on DePalm Island on Aruba. This was a huge guy too, easily as big as the biggest we saw on Aruba. A very pretty fish indeed.

The only drawback to Curacao has been the weather. Curacao has gotten more rain this year than any other year. And there are rain showers every day. They don’t last long, but they have impacted the clarity of the water. Usually you can see for up to two hundred feet in Curacao. But the visibility is only fifty feet or so, even less close to the shore. It’s made taking pictures really hit and miss, which is too bad, because there are really some amazing things to see here.

I’m going to add another movie of blue tangs, doctorfish and surgeonfish. I know I just posted one, but this school was twice as large as the other one! Thing is, you can’t really tell, but the last half of this video shows a brilliant green stoplight parrotfish. It will give you an idea of how large they are compared to the tangs and even the juvenile parrotfish. The orangey/brown/white colored fish you also see in the video grows into the brilliant green fish.

We saw a lionfish, which is too bad! We don’t want to see this voracious predator. It is not native to the Caribbean and it has moved remarkably fast, destroying the other fish as it goes. It probably came into the Caribbean from someone in Florida dumping their aquarium fish. All the dive shops are asking you to mark the area, and report all sightings so they can go destroy them. Makes me want to get a spear gun to take ’em out! Rambo and Pambo of the ocean!