Tag Archives: movie

New Year, New Hope

January 3, 2012 Maurice 1 Comment

Hope you all had a great New Year! Pam and I are hoping that 2012 will be MUCH better than 2011. It would be hard to be worse of course! It was a challenging year, to say the least. Hopefully the health issues are behind us, and Pam can continue to recover from her many surgeries!

We decided to go to one of the local casinos for the New Year, and it was a crazy experience! Seemed half the island was there. They had party hats, and noise makers for everyone. They put out hundreds of glasses of free champagne for a midnight toast. They had free give aways all night, and at 1 am they had a mad-crazy balloon drop. Hundreds of balloons dropped from the ceiling, and inside of the balloons were 300 prizes! Just crazy stuff!

The fireworks were as advertised – just crazy and went on til the wee hours of the morning. I’ve included a short film here of one of the local homes that put on a display. If you look on YouTube you’ll see there are dozens of videos of Aruba’s fireworks… the Ling and Sons (a local grocery store) was particularly amazing.

We’ve seen some great stuff in the ocean the last few days… we saw a big bluespotted cornetfish, at least five feet long, who had absolutely no fear of us. Usually they are quite shy, moving off when we approach. But this guy, maybe because he was so big, just didn’t seem to care. I even dove down right into his face to snap a couple of pictures, and he stayed there, perfectly calm. They are a cool fish, and we’ve seen a few here, but this guy was the biggest, and the most fearless.

We’ve seen a number of octopus (octopi?) and one that was particularly large. We tried to get him to move, but again, no fear! I even touched him with my swimming fin, and he refused to move… he just moved his tentacle and eye-balled us!

We briefly (and I mean BRIEFLY) saw our first turtle – he was off in the distance, and when we swam toward him, he took off like a shot… really miss the turtles. Swimming with them is so cool and relaxing. Not sure why they are skittish and not hanging about…

Commentary

Funny stuff….

January 2, 2012 Maurice 1 Comment

Heading to the movies with a fun crowd….

Aruba, Vacations

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2011 Maurice 4 Comments

Merry Christmas everyone! Santa seems to have missed us here in the Caribbean! haha Luckily he left the cold and snow in the north! Our thoughts are with you guys, and the people we lost this year. Hope you all had a wonderful day.

We spent Christmas morning swimming in the ocean, and a great swim it was! The ocean was very clear today, and we saw piles of cool fish. We saw a HUGE triggerfish, the biggest we’ve ever seen – at least 3 or 4 feet! She was pretty shy and swam away from us, and try as we might to chase her down, we got only blurry shots of her.

We’ve kind of settled into a little routine, swimming in the ocean in the morning, then spending time in the swimming pool and hot tub in the afternoon, while catching a few rays. There have been some brief rain storms, but mostly it’s been sunny. The locals have complained bitterly about the amount of rain in November and December and they are hoping for an improvement. It’s been pretty good by our standards, but not as nice as some years we’ve been here.

Here is a picture of Pam in front of our rental car, an Atos Prime. She is pointing at the license plate because it is V-1925 – her father Vern was born in 1925! How cool is that?

I should point out that I don’t reference all the pictures we’ve taken in the blog posts. There are other pics available by clicking on the Galleries link in the menu bar. So if you aren’t sick of seeing fish pics you might want to take a look.

I’m adding a brief movie to the end here of a Queen Triggerfish. This was taken in fairly shallow water, which is kind of unusual since this fish prefers to be in slightly deeper water.

Aruba, Vacations

Sunny Aruba

December 20, 2011 Maurice 2 Comments

We talked with some people who have been in Aruba since the beginning of November and they said the weather has not been very good – still warm, but overcast a lot, and rainy. Well, it’s been great since we got here! Today was sunny and clear and warm. I have to admit the ocean is a little cooler than we usually expect, but it’s still pretty easy getting in.

We returned to Boca Catalina today, since the waves at Arashi seemed to be too rough. It was another fun day of snorkeling, that’s for sure. There were, of course, lots of fish to see. First thing we saw upon getting in was a big barracuda. He quickly scooted off as soon we pointed a camera at him… for a big guy, he sure was shy!

We saw a couple of large schools of squid – always fun to follow them and watch them change color and contort themselves into strange shapes. We saw quite a few Queen Triggerfish, which is one my all time favorite fish.

We saw a small moray, but moving lightning quick across the ocean floor. And wow, did we see a large flounder, the biggest we’ve ever seen. We saw a couple of lobsters too! One was quite large, and we thought it would just perfect for dinner! Too bad we were too chicken to grab him!

Dinner was courtesy of Cafe Maurice once again, so no restaurant review today! Our suite has a nice kitchen, with non-stick pans, so it’s been great. We did breakfast, lunch and dinner all at home here. The one complaint I have about Aruba – the beer – the bottles are these little tiny things, about 5 or 6 ounces. And it’s quite pricey – it’s much cheaper to drink rum!

Here is a little movie we took outside the Aruban Parliament Buildings, showing their Christmas Display.

Holidays

Little Drummer Boy

December 7, 2011 Maurice 4 Comments

The Christmas season is here, of course, and Christmas tunes are everywhere. The following video is done by a 16 year old guy from Winnipeg named Sean Quigley. He played all the instruments himself, had his sister shoot some of the video, and then he put it all together himself. It’s shot outside, in and around Winnipeg. He played the drums in a light snow fall, on a popular walking trail in the Charleswood area of Winnipeg.

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and this version is definitely a “rocked up” version… In a CBC radio interview, he says he started thinking about making a video of a Christmas song about a month ago, and this song just “speaks to him.” The idea that you don’t need money to make Christmas special just appeals to him…

Hope you ENJOY! And Merry Christmas!

Curacao, Vacations

Back to Caracasbaii

October 28, 2011 Maurice 3 Comments

It’s getting to be old hat, but we jumped back into Caracasbaii again today. The ocean was too rough to head out to the Royal Sea Aquarium, so this has kind of been our “go-to” beach. The water was not that choppy, but definitely gave us some motion. We checked out the wreck, and spotted our first lion fish, hiding under a chunk of metal. Try as we might, we could not get a decent shot of him! All of them turned out blurry, or “white.” If you move the camera too quickly after pressing the button, you get this white streak. And since we had to dive down to get the pic, we just didn’t get one.

We swam toward the fort, a considerable distance and discovered a whole different look. There are a number of large pylons, 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet and towering at least a hundred feet. There were tons of fish around them, and we saw triggerfish (our first on this vacation) a large barracuda, French angels, flounders, and eels. There was a long swim across beautiful white sand, and we spotted this rather unusual fish. I’d never seen him before. Not sure what he is. They were situated around the the open sand, about six to eight feet from others of their kind. It was a tad strange.

We stayed in the water a long, long time… probably too long. But it was going to be our last long snorkel, if not our last period, so we just didn’t want to get out.

For dinner we decided to go to the Argentinean steakhouse El Gauchos which is on a hilltop overlooking the city. They have a shuttle from the hotel, so it was nice to just hop in and let them do the driving. The road up to the restaurant is not great, and I’m glad it wasn’t me driving! Prices are about you’d expect for a steakhouse, but include a salad bar, and a fresh daily soup.

Pam and I have had dinner here before and totally enjoyed it. This time, not so much. My steak was not good. I order their “Famous El Gaucho” and it was rather pedestrian. They do not serve it with a potato or vegetable, so we ordered the “grilled vegetables” which turned out to be steamed, in some kind of sauce. Not very good.

Our first waiter was a nice fellow, but difficult to understand. Half way through the meal, he was replaced by a woman, who for some reason had a chip on her shoulder. I said to Mike, what did we say that offended her?? It made the rest of the meal very uncomfortable. Desert was something called Pyramide, a cake of some sort, served with ice cream and whip cream. It was nice. Mike had the tiramisu, but it was merely ok, and he said he’d had better on this vacation. I would not return to El Gauchos based on this experience. From the poor food, to the horrific service, it was simply too much money, too much effort.
This movie is of a flounder, that I saw as I was about to get out of the water. It was in about 8 inches of water, and I think it gives a pretty cool view of his eyes swiveling, and his cool color, and how it changes as he moves across the bottom.

Curacao, Vacations

Playa Porto Mari

October 27, 2011 Maurice Leave a comment

Thursday we went to Playa Porto Mari. This is a beach Pam and I have been to a couple of times in previous vacations, and it’s one of Pam’s favorites. It’s a very nice beach. As Mike said, it’s what he thinks of when he thinks of the Caribbean – a long white sandy beach with lots of girls in bikinis! It is definitely the busiest beach, by far, that we’ve seen. Lots of people, but not so many you feel crowded.

There is a large parking lot, and you walk down a road into the beach, past the restaurant and dive shop. There is a board walk running the length of the beach, so you don’t burn you toes on the hot sand. There are lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas on either side of the boardwalk. Just drop your stuff on the chair you want and hop in the water. A lady walks up and down the beach, and eventually she finds you and charges you 2.50 for the car park, and 4.50 for the chair and umbrella.

Snorkeling was interesting. There were lots of places to snorkel, and lots of fish to see.Whether you go to the right, or the left, you’ll see some fun stuff. The coral is not as good as it has been, apparently because, according to our hotel concierge, there was a “localized storm” that really battered Porto Mari. You can see the damage, but there is still some coral hanging on, and they’ve put in a number of reef balls in an attempt to encourage regrowth.

We stayed in the water a long time, sliding from one side of the bay to the other and back again! We had lunch in the restaurant, and it was, well, it was lunch! Just what you needed after a long swim. Service is fine, but it’s tough to get them to bring you the bill. They are very attentive taking your order, bringing the food, refreshing your drinks, but as soon as you ask for the bill, you wonder what happened! Overall, it was a nice day. Not the best snorkeling on the island, but certainly fun. You can’t go wrong checking out Porto Mari.
We had dinner at the Rose Garden Chinese Restaurant. Very expensive. VERY expensive. Service was good, but we were the only people in the restaurant so that’s understandable. The reason there were so few people, I’m sure, is because of the prices! Some dishes were over 30 US dollars! For Chinese food! The food was ok, nothing special, but not offensive. The portions were not large, and certainly not worth the type of money they charged. Don’t get me wrong, the food was fine, just that 20 US dollars for a garlic chicken dish, with a few vegetables (a few slices of pepper, a few slices of onion) was a bit much. The dish was not big enough for four people, and barely enough for two servings. The restaurant had some fine green jade carvings that were really lovely.

Here is a brief movie, taken by Mike. It’s of a parrotfish, crunching away on some coral. They are a fairly large fish, but they are quite skittish, and take off very easily. If you have your sound turned up, you can hear the crunch as his teeth hit the coral.