Coral Gardens, Providenciales

April 15, 2012 Maurice 4 Comments

Our hotel/condo, the Alexandra Resort, is right on the beach at Grace Bay. Grace bay was voted the best beach in the world this year by Conde Naste, the big travel magazine. And it certainly is lovely. Our room looks out on the beach, and we have a nice sized balcony with a table and chairs and a lounger. We can watch the sunset from our balcony!

We had our first snorkel today, a little ways up the beach from our hotel, and a place called the Coral Gardens. It was a little windy, and so the swimming was a little bit of a challenge, but we were up for it! It was really something. Lots of great coral, all in very good shape. We saw a lot of fish we hadn’t seen before. One of the special things we saw was a stingray! That was a nice start to the vacation. We saw lots of grouper, which makes Pam very happy. Some really nice sized Nassau Grouper, in lots of sizes, and a cool red one.

The parrotfish we’ve seen in the past have been very skittish, taking off as soon as we got close, but here, they don’t seem to swim away like in the past. We saw lots of really good sized ones, and several in colors we don’t often see.

There were lots of barracuda. One was really really really really big! There several big ones, and lots of medium to small ones. We saw some fish we couldn’t tell what they were. But the waves were kinda large and made it difficult to get good shots. We’ll do better next time!

We only lasted a couple hours at best. It was tough swimming, and we’re still a little tired from the long flight. We’ll definitely be coming back to this sight.

For dinner, we wanted to try Baci Ristorante, but of course, it’s closed on Sundays, which we discovered after we’d driven over there! Beside it was the Sharkbite, so we decided to give it a try. It is right on the water, and we got to watch the sunset as we dined. Food is NOT cheap on this island, but Sharkbites was reasonable. We started with a conch fritter appetizer. Conch is a big specialty on this island, they even have a conch farm, so we had to try it. The fritters were good, tasty, with a tangy sauce. Ten fritters were $10. Pam had a strawberry daiquiri, $8, and I had a Turkshead Beer, the local beer here on Providencials $4.50.

For the entree, we both had the ribs, for $17. It was as good serving size, with fries and coleslaw. The rib meat fell off the bone, and the sauce was thick and tangy. For dessert we split a slice of carrot cake and vanilla ice cream. Total bill including the forced 15% gratuity was $93. The service was good, and three or four waitresses kept everything flowing nicely.

Tomorrow we are thinking of going to the other side of the island, but we’ll see what happens!

Providenciales

Hanging around in Dallas

April 13, 2012 Maurice 1 Comment

Well, we`re at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Never been here before, but no free wifi. It’s 8 bucks for 24 hours of connectivity. I’m trying an experiment I read about in a geek magazine – get near an Admiral’s Club, one of the paid “clubs” for those flying, and set up your laptop. Well it worked! Have free wifi — for now! Not sure how long it will last!

Had a great flight on American Airlines. Walked up to the auto-check in line and nice lady was waiting there, asked for our passports and checked us in! I hauled out my credit card to pay for the bag fees, but American gives you one free! Must be the last airline in the world doing that… checked right in, easy as pie.

Flight was not packed so didn’t have a third person in the row. Was terrific. Nice easy flight into Dallas. We leave for Miami at 5 am, so we’ve got a long lay over here. Hope this will post!

All About Max

Goofy dog

March 5, 2012 Maurice Leave a comment

Here is a video of Lemon the dog. She’s a rescue dog, found abandoned on the side of the road. It’s an hysterical look at a dog’s life… the camera is one of the little GoPro jobs that alot of people strap to their bike, or helmets. The guy was looking after this dog for a friend, so he decides he’ll run a video to show his buddy that he took her for a walk. And it evolved from that!

Too funny. Love the bit where she’s looking at the deli counter!

Aruba, Vacations

Some more about Aruba

January 17, 2012 Maurice 3 Comments

I’m writing this from home. We have arrived back to some nice snow and ice. Quite a change from the constant 85 degrees, sunny, palm tree-lined existence we’ve come to know and love for the last month! The last couple of days in Aruba we tried to get in as much swimming in the ocean as we could.

I’ve prepared some pictures of the last couple of days, and uploaded them to the Aruba 2011 gallery. I’ll reference some of them here, but there are others I’ve not posted in a message. As we pulled up to the parking area of Boca Catalina, we saw a rather unique parking job! So if you come to Aruba, make sure you know which way your car should point when you park!

One of the really odd things we saw was a gold colored barjack. The barjack is quite a fish – they are hunters, and come cruising through the ocean usually in packs of three or more. You see the smaller fish heading one way in a hurry, and usually if you look toward the region the fish are running from, you’ll see a crew of barjacks! There are a cool steel blue color with a black trim. So this gold colored one was really quite unique.

One of the funny things about snorkeling is that you get a “crew.” One theory is that the bubbles created by your fins, interest the fish and so they tag along with you. Another is that so many of the tour boats encourage their snorkelers to feed the fish that the fish think any snorkeler is going to feed them, and they are tagging along in case you decide to start feeding them. Whatever the reason, it’s hilarious to see the fish swimming along with you. And some of them can be quite large. The chub is one of the larger fish that joins your posse, but a lot of them are the Sgt. Major. The picture here was taken by Mike.

People seemed to like the bird movie, so how about this picture of a pair of birds? The pelican is coming in for a “dive bomb” while the smaller gull seems to be eyeing Mike suspiciously. While you are snorkeling, you can really get quite close to the birds sitting on the rocks in the water. They don’t seem to care too much about you until you get within a foot or two.

I really like the fish called a coney. It’s a really cool color, and very shy. They sometimes can be seen swimming with other fish, or even with another coney. They do not like to be around swimmers, and will rapidly move away if they spot you. I dove down and surprised a coney, and managed to snap this picture before he realized I was there.

I took this picture of Pam on our last night in Aruba. We decided that we’d go up to the California lighthouse and watch the sun set on our holiday. There was hardly a cloud in sky, so the pics of the sunset are not worth posting, but this one sure is!

We had a really nice time in Aruba. It was tough leaving that beautiful weather, wonderful water and nice people. We’ve come to really know the people at the Caribbean Palm Village, and that familiarity has really added to the special feeling we get in Aruba. We have come home to a considerable snow fall and cold weather, so we miss Aruba even more!

Aruba, Vacations

Finally!

January 12, 2012 Maurice 3 Comments

Today we headed south to Mangel Halto, a place we’ve only been once before. You walk down a ramp into a grove of mangrove trees. Birds chirp all around you, and there are a couple of openings through the dense mangroves that allow you to walk along sandy, shallow water until you hit the open ocean.

The water is shallow for quite a ways, then you hit the
coral. And what a coral forest it is! It’s a wonderful spot, filled with every kind of coral you can imagine, and it goes on for miles! It’s really quite a remarkable swim. The only downside is that the current is tremendously strong, and you must constantly swim against it.

The visibility was very good, and there were lots of fish to see, but it was just so much work to stay in place! Constantly battling the current really tired us out quickly, so we were not able to stay out there very long. We saw some cool stuff, but man, I’m not sure I’d come back here unless it was dead calm!

We came home for a quick bite to eat, then Mike and I headed over to one of our favorite, go-to locations, Malmok beach. Pam was too tuckered out from the swim at Mangel Halto. She’s been doing really great with swimming, and walking. Her physio coach is going to be impressed with her improvement! Even some of the ladies around the time share have commented on how much her walking has improved.

The ocean at Malmok was really clear, with great visibility. We saw some cool stuff, then we finally hit the jackpot! Yup, we got to swim with a turtle! First swim with a turtle this month! Mike had never been in the wild with a turtle before so it was pretty special.

He wasn’t a really big one, but hey, it’s the biggest one Mike’s seen! He cruised straight out into the open ocean, and we followed. After a while, we realized we were probably a kilometre or two off shore! It was indeed a tough swim back, especially after all the effort we’d expended in Mangel Halto earlier in the day. But it was worth it!

There is something special about swimming with a turtle. They move through the water with real ease, flicking one front paddle or the other. If you get too close, or he feels threatened, he kicks it into overdrive with both paddles flashing, and he can leave you far behind in a hurry!

We saw some palometas, a pretty cool looking fish, which we have seen many times. But these ones were so big! They were easily thirty per cent larger than any we’ve seen. The pic doesn’t really show how big there are, but you can see they have some orange color on their underside, which we’d never noticed on other palometas before.

Aruba, Vacations

Arashi Beach

January 11, 2012 Maurice Leave a comment

Mike and I started the morning by swimming out to the wreck. It was very calm, and the visibility was very good. But you know something? There just isn’t that much to see, besides the wreck! The fish were all the usual suspects, and this is the first time I’ve been there where there were no barracuda. It’s tough to get in here, as the entry is very rocky and a bit of a pain to get in. It’s very shallow for quite a ways, so Pam didn’t come in with us. We only stayed a short while, then got out.

Then, we hopped into the ocean at Arashi Beach. The waves at Arashi have been quite high lately, but they were very calm today, so we jumped at the chance to try out this beach. It was a pretty darn good swim! Lots of fish to see, of course, but some neat stuff to see as well.

One of the neat things we saw was an ocean trigger fish. They are quite large, over 3.5 feet high and about as long. They look really neat swimming through the water, and always leave the area whenever a snorkeler comes near. The picture we have is quite grainy, because it is taken from such a distance away, but it gives you an idea of them.

We saw a couple of ceros who circled around below us several times. This is not a fish who worries about snorkelers! They are hunters for sure, and rove the ocean looking for tasty morsels. They are similar to a barjack, but much sleeker looking. It’s pretty rare to sight them, but in the deeper water, we’ve seem them a couple of times.

Then we saw a rather large octopus, who was an active swimmer! He didn’t just sort of hide under a rock like a lot of them do… this guy was out in the open and wanted to stay there! I’ve ended this post with a nice movie of him – check out the color morphing, and his brief little swim at the end of the movie.

Aruba, Vacations

Birthday in Aruba

January 10, 2012 Maurice 5 Comments

Well, today I turned 55, so I guess I’m officially old. But on the bright side, I do get some discounts now! We swam at Baby Beach, and it was awesome. The water was super clear, and the wave action was minimal, and we really got to see a lot. It was a great swim. We spent a great deal of time on the north end of the cove, where most people do NOT go… It’s got amazing coral formations, and just tons of fish. It’s really a different take on Baby Beach. Most times we have been there, we’ve focused on the channel, and it’s huge current and large coral formations. But this other end of the bay, is really cool.

We got back to the time share about three, had a quick bite to eat, then Mike and I headed over to Malmok for a quick look-see. The visibility was just awesome here too. Saw a couple of new fish, and a couple of old favorites – including a rather large green moray eel.

We had dinner at El Gaucho’s, an Argentine steak place. We come here most times we are in Aruba. They really know how to cook a steak! Pam had made reservations, and told them that it was my birthday. When they took us to our table, there were a couple of balloons floating on the table!

El Gaucho’s is how a steak joint should be! I started with an appetizer of Argentine soup, a beefy vegetable soup in a spicy broth, and it was really delicious. I had the 12 oz tenderloin (you can order a 16 oz, or a 22 oz if you like…) and while I like my steak medium-well done, this steak was done to perfection, juicy and amazing. They serve it with your choice of three side dishes. The have a roving guitar duo, and they stopped at our table, played Happy Birthday, then asked us if we wanted something sung for us – so Mike got them to do Guantanamera.

When desert came, a white and dark chocolate mousse cake, they had put a candle in it, and the duo came back for one more chorus of Happy Birthday! Pretty swell day, all in all!