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.