Tag Archives: movie

Snorkeling at the Sea Aquarium Beach

October 26, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

It’s been quite a while since we’ve down to the Sea Aquarium, so today we decided to make the trek. It sure was nice to see all the healthy coral! It’s still quite a snorkel to get to the really nice stuff, but definitely worth it. You need to snorkel down a long channel, then head across a rough opening to get into the open ocean. But once there, it is truly spectacular.

We saw lots of fun stuff, including green moray eels, black durgons, barracuda and some really huge chubbs. The coral is plentiful and in very good shape. It does not suffer from the bleaching so common in many bays. We used to stay at the Royal Sea Aquarium all the time. I would recommend it to you highly.

We didn’t stick around and have dinner or lunch there, but it sure has gotten busy. Lots of restaurants and bars and snack shops on what is now called Mambo Beach Boulevard. You can find everything from sushi to ribs, East Indian food, Italian, Mexican, even a Starbucks. If you can’t find something to interest you, you’re way too picky

Curacao

Boka Sami

October 15, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

Today we tried out a new beach called Boka Sami. It’s in a small fishing village just up the coast from Blue Bay. It’s also referred to as Snake Bay, and for some reason Pam has been leery of trying it. But with Mike in town, we decided to give it a go. It’s a nice sandy beach, with a super easy entry into the ocean.

There are lots of fishing boats around the bay, and there turned out to be lots of fishing traps in the bottom of the bay. I find it tough to see the traps with all the fish stuck in there, knowing they are going to be someone’s dinner. sigh Wish that didn’t happen, but what can you do? If humans didn’t eat them, they’d wind up as dinner to some fish or bird.

Anyway – it was a nice snorkel. Lots of flying gurnards in this bay. I think we saw at least a half dozen. I think it’s alternatively called Snake Bay because of all the moray eels we saw though. They were everywhere! (Even in some of the traps.) We also saw turtles, some ceros, and a coronet fish.

This is definitely a beach we’ll be back to visit. Nice and peaceful.

Curacao

Playing with turtles

October 12, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

We headed up to Westpunt to check out the turtles in Playa Piskado. It’s always a great favorite of ours, and most of the island as well! It can get crowded out there. There are so many turtles in the bay, and everyone loves to snorkel with turtles.

There were literally dozens of turtles today. Usually we can count fifteen or sixteen, but today – wow! Again, usually the fisherman come into the dock and offload their catch, while gutting and filleting the fish. But today, this boat stayed out in the deeper water, and I’m not sure if that attracted more turtles or what. But what a show they put on!

There are lots of things to see in this bay besides the turtles, but you wouldn’t know it by the pictures we take. I took about one hundred pictures, and ninety are of turtles! haha They certainly catch your attention. The one picture I always have to take is of old King Neptune. He’s in fairly deep water out near the drop off.

One other thing we saw that is quite cute. There are a lot of these little crabs wandering around the bay, and they seem to pick up a buddy. We often see flounders bumping into the crabs. We’re guessing the crab stirs up the sand and some micro food, which the little flounder gobbles up. It’s really quite cute.

Curacao

Snorkeling with Mike

October 11, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

Mike has come down to Curacao to escape the rain and cold of a Vancouver October. His first day here we decided to just jump in the ocean at here at Blue Bay Beach. Saw lots of fun stuff, including flying gurnards, octopus and turtles. A really fun first snorkel.

The weather has been a bit, shall we say, volatile? We’ve had some crazy rain, and some awesome thunder and lightning. But it sure is amazing how quickly the place greens up with just a little bit of water. Although, I wouldn’t quite say it was a little water! Tropical rain showers really do dump a ton of water in a hurry.

Curacao

A hole in one!

September 25, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

I’ve been playing the Blue Bay Golf Course on Curacao quite regularly in the last seven or eight months and I’ve had some good rounds, and some not so good rounds. Yesterday, I played terribly, and Pam said, “Let’s go today, you’re bound to do better.”

And I did. I played very nicely. Drove the ball well, and was putting like a house on fire. When we had just finished 16 and were driving to the par 3 17th, Pam said, “Well you have to be pleased with your round.” I had just missed a birdie putt by about an inch. I was feeling pretty good about my game. It’s been a while since I’ve had such a nice round.

Came to 17 and it was running at 111.8 yards according to my range finder. It was funny because I had had another shot of 111 yards and hit a nice nine iron to within a couple feet. Sometimes the winds are swirly at 17 so I took a nine iron and an eight iron to the tee box. I hit my nine iron and it seemed a bit left, but it bounced once, then rolled into the cup!

And here is the movie to prove it!

Curacao

1st Curacao Invitational Golf Tournament

August 26, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

On Saturday, I played with my partner, Katherine, in the 1st Curacao Invitational Golf Tournament. It featured all the usual golf prizes – closest to the hole, longest drive – plus two big hole in one prizes! A hole in one on the sixth hole could win you a car.

The second hole in one was a raffled chance at a million dollars! There were ten “entries” drawn for the opportunity to take a shot at the hole in one. And I got one of the entries. I told Katherine that if I sunk the shot, I’d retire. When she reminded me that I was already retired, I realized I could let some one else win it. How generous of me, eh?

The shot was from 170 yards out on the 18th hole, across some water. The “tee box” was in the middle of the fairway. My excuse for missing the hole (in fact the whole green!) was that the tee box wasn’t level. haha Only one of the ten actually hit the green. Several hit into the water. I can take some (minor) satisfaction that I didn’t hit into the water and could pick my ball up.

It was a fun tourney, but I have to admit I didn’t play very well. A case of the jitters I guess. The harder I tried, the worse I got. Ah well, there is always next time. The fellow in the blue shirt is the club pro, Oliver, who ran things very smoothly.

Kat is the lady who was our real estate agent here in Curacao. She’s a fellow Canuck, so we “had to represent” as she put it. It wasn’t hard to pick our cart out of the pack on the course!

Curacao

Just a quick post

July 28, 2018 Maurice Leave a comment

Pam has been taking lots of pictures on the golf course lately, mainly because I’ve been out playing every other day! There are just tons of birds around here, and she got a couple nice ones in the last couple of days. To the right is a southern lapwing. We see this bird quite a bit. Around the 17th hole there is a one with three little babies. Very cute.

The lora parrots are a brilliant green (the bird in the featured picture at the top of the message) and Blue Bay has a lot of them around. Pam calls them squawkers because they noisily call to each other. The movie at the end of the post has a nice little clip of these two in a playful mood.

I like this shot of a snowy egret giving himself a shake. He looks like he just got out of bed after a rough night!

The clip also has a bit of Bailey in it – she has made several doggie friends on the resort, and the whippet named Ollie has become her favorite playmate. When we get near the golf course, she is constantly looking for him. The second she does, she’s gone like a shot after him!