I'm Not Ashamed

This is going to be really quick because I'm quite busy.  But the other day I made a video on my YouTube channel about Thanksgiving (Link Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqBtoOv2PY) and one of my YouTube viewer friends, who I also know on facebook, shared the video on her page.  She asked me first, and I said sure.  I didn't know she was going to tag me,  but she did and that's fine.  But now one of my facebook friends who I know from Zumba. saw it and told me she spent the last hour watching all the videos.  Which I think is  cool, except I wasn't planning for all my facebook friends to know.  

But I am not ashamed.  I guess it's like "coming out" that I have an eating disorder.  Now everyone can know.  I think it is actually for the best.  Maybe someone who is struggling and hiding it will see that and talk to me about it.  Maybe it will help me help someone :)

Hey Soul Sister

This post is dedicated to my Sister of the Soul Variety - you know who you are! ;)

It's been about a year now since we became really really close friends.  It happened pretty suddenly. One minute you weren't there, then all of the sudden you were!  And almost that fast we were friends, and almost that fast we were sisters!  Sisters of the soul variety.  

There's no one in the world that knows me like you.  Not my parents, not my actual sister, not my husband - probably not even me!  There's nothing I can't tell you.  There's nothing I wouldn't trust you with.  Zumba made us co-workers, even friends, but we made us bestfriends (yeah, no space in that word!) and soul sisters.  We have so much in common, it's scary!  

I don't even have to say a word, you already know what I'm thinking.  Even if we aren't together.  Some people might think that's odd.. I think it's awesome.  Like when you knew I felt sad about something days before I even knew it myself.  You knew why I was so sad.. I didn't even know I was!  And you waited patiently for me to figure it out and come to you.  I've done that for you too (like the night after we did that Zumba wedding.. you know what I mean.)

There is no need for me to list all the things I love about our friendship.  First of all, it would take me forever and second of all, you already know them!  One big giant HEART drawn should suffice. :)  My wedding DEFINITELY wouldn't have been complete without you!  I know that whatever happens, wherever we are, we can have fun.  That's just how we do.

You are brave, beautiful, strong, funny, caring, smart, honest and thoughtful.  You love the color purple, Merengue songs, blinged phone cases, birds, tea, Zumba, macintosh apples, owls, stargazer lilies, your family and your friends.  You are fair, you don't judge.  You don't discriminate.  You don't like mouth noises, spiders, people who drive too slow (sorry!), some Salsa music,  Chapstick or oatmeal that isn't mush.  Hee!  These things are all what make you the wonderful YOU that you are, and you are so loved!

I feel lucky that you dropped out of nowhere into my life last fall.  I can't imagine where I'd be without you (and frankly vice versa - I know you understand what I mean.)  I wish I could become a giant shield and protect you from all the shit that can come about in the world but I can't do that.  I can, however, be here for you always and be your shoulder to cry on, the one who beats people up for you, the one who feels random pain all the way over here and texts you "What happened? Are you okay??"  I would run barefoot across needles for you (and I don't mean pine needles!) if it was what needed to be done.  The best part?  I know you'd do it for me too.

So we still need to choreograph that new Bollywood one from the new MegaMix.  Whenever we have a second between pep-talking each other, laughing so hard we can't breath (Doumbasse, party of 4??), exchanging new tea flavors, and having telepathic conversations, we'll get around to that song.  In the meantime, we'll have full-fledged conversations while co-teaching at our various gyms, exchange knowing glances in the mirror when something bizarre happens, make each other laugh in the middle of teaching and just generally have fun the way only we can do.  

I love you, sister of my heart!!!  I am thankful you are in my life!

Struggles

Hello.  For those of who who watch my YouTube channel (katenotkatie87) I AM SO SO SO SORRY FOR MY LACK OF VIDEOS!!!!!

To be honest, I feel like I look fat & disgusting and I can't get any video right.  To make matters worse, my phone is ridiculous and has a very hard time uploading videos to YouTube and it takes eons do to it through the computer.  Not that those are great excuses.. but they are reasons.  

Hopefully I'll be able to put one up soon.  I also just feel like I keep saying the same shit over and over on those vids.  Everything I have to say is something I've already said before.  Maybe it's time for another Q & A video...?  I don't know.  If you happen to read this, comment below and tell me what you think I should do.

The Anorexic voice in my head is SO LOUD these days.  I went to a new doctor on Wednesday, to replace my current Western Med doctor and he said the dreaded three words: "You look healthy."  Oh.. I tried my damnedest to keep that from getting into my brain!  I held it off until Friday.  But I just can't do it anymore.

I'm just ready to be done, you know?  I can't do everything I'm supposed to do, all my jobs, all my responsibilities, be a good wife, a good friend... I can't do any of this with all this noise in my head.  I'm only 26 but I'm just so fucking TIRED!!!!

WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!

What. The. Fuck.

Don't have time to write a whole post on this right now but I'll try to write one tomorrow!!!!

My brain can't comprehend this.

http://www.returnofkings.com/21313/5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder

Torn

I feel the need to do some random venting.  Why I think the internet is a good place for this, I do not know.  Maybe because it offers some anonymity by being SO beyond public in that it's literally out there for everyone with two eyes and internet access to read, that it goes beyond being public and becomes... publicly private?  Or maybe it's because I'm sure there's other people out there who are faced with the big scary land of "married twentysomethings" and looking at a giant fork in the road going "now what?"  

I feel like I'm pulled in a bunch of directions.  What I want, what I feel I should want, what my eating disorder wants, what I should be doing.. etc.  I feel like one of those stretchy dude toys and my arms, legs AND head are being pulled.  Work?  Family?  Zumba?  School?  What should I do?

It seems as though I fail at nearly everything.  People say my job isn't a "real job."  In fact, it is a real job and in fact I have two.  I'm a Zumba instructor and a nanny!  Both are real jobs and both make money.  Okay, so I don't make tons of money.  But it's money!  But I don't want to get another job because there's no other jobs that can make me happy like Zumba and nannying.  I don't want a desk job.  Oh my god no! I would die of boredom.  Even if I could get a "big girl job" (as my friend so amusingly puts it) I think I'd feel like I don't fit in there.

It reminds me of Spring 2012 when I was looking to buy my new car.  I looked at a Hyundai Elantra (which was the kind of car I already drove but it was a 2004), a Kia Optima and a Mazda3 (which I ultimately ended up with.)  But then my dad looked at the numbers again and said, "you could actually afford a Camry!" So we went to the Toyota dealership and I got to test drive this Camry.  I felt really out of place in that car! It was too nice for me.  I think I'd feel that way working like a high-paying job in an office.

And what about children?  I'm 26, which I know means I have plenty of time... but... I know that Corky and I want to have at least one kid by the time we're 30.  But I can't even think about that.... because the thought of having to gain baby weight makes me want to crawl in a hole and die.  So that's enough about that topic.  Lol!!!!!

I feel mostly torn between this idea of being part of a married pair and pulling away from that because of  my eating disorder.  NOT that I am pulling away from Corky or being married!  Not that!!! Just the whole idea of being a grown up and getting a "big girl job" in addition to my "little girl job" (Zumba) and potentially being a mom within 5 years (oh god) and being ABLE to drive a nice car and being ABLE to work in a nice job... there's no room for an eating disorder in that mix.  But the problem is I don't know how to be a functioning human being without one.  I've nearly had it for longer than I haven't!  How do you grow all the way up to 26 in fast forward?  I can't understand how to do that.  I can't understand where to start!

Curaçao Part 3

The third and final part of the "Curaçao Diaries."  I think there are only 1 or 2 emails left... they kind of fell apart at the end because I was so sick the last few days.

Day 11

We climbed Mt. Cristoffel this morning.  The trailhead said it's supposed to take about 60 minutes to the top.  We made it up in about 45.  We passed everyone we came across on the way up, and passed everyone we came across on our way back down.

Going up was not too bad.  It wasn't very hot out, even though we ignored everyone's advice to go at 6am!  We were climbing by 9:30am, and I would estimate it was about 75 F.  But it was SO HUMID!!!! I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower after about 20 minutes of climbing.  It was gross.  Corky actually had to stop and rest a few times, but I could have gone straight up without a break I think.  

There were some steep parts, and then some parts with rocks that you had to basically boulder your way up.  You should have seen the looks on the Dutch people's faces as they all struggled to climb up the rocks, gave up and let us go first, and I scrambled right up.  Most of the Dutch women are quite tall, and then there's 5'4" me running right up the rocks LOL!!!!  

It rained hard last night (as I told you about) so the rocks were a little slick, but we didn't lose our footing much.  But once we got to the top, I noticed a HUGE cloud coming right toward the summit!  I quickly took Corky's picture, he took a few, and then we stuffed the iPhone into his backpack and I shoved it under a rock.  Seconds later, the cloud enveloped us.  It was like being in an airplane!  All we could see was white!  There was a lady sitting on a rock on another little summit about 20 feet away, and I couldn't even see her anymore.  Then the rain came!  And the wind.  Corky and I crawled off the very highest summit where we were standing, holding onto a cement post.

After a few more photo ops, we headed down.  For me, going down was much harder.  I wasn't out of breath, but my knees hurt!  And all those rocks that I ran up?  It was much harder coming down.  However, we made it down in just about as much time as we went up in.  Actually, I would say the most difficult part of the whole trip was trying to make our crappy Daihatsu climb up and down the foothills of Cristoffel (which were like the hills in Timberland, fyi!)  I swear that car has like 4 SEAhorse power, not horsepower.  It's absurd.

We came back to the hotel, rested a little, Corky ate lunch at the bar.  For whatever reason, they serve their nachos with no cheese.  And the chips are like saturated with oil.  The paper in the bottom of the basket becomes like a vat of oil after a few minutes,  Then the clouds broke and the sun came out, so we went swimming.  No barracudas today (Corky was bummed.)  We saw some cute little black fish (that did not chase us), some Needlenose Gars, a humongous parrotfish and a Lionfish.  If you can't come up with the image of a Lionfish off the top of your head, Google it now.  They are soooooo cool!!!  (Leibaleh-Fish)

Then we went to the Executive Lounge where our favorite employee, K, is working.  She is the one who helped to get the parrots fresh fruit.  Ever since I took her around to see the parrots and showed her how they love apple, the parrots have had fresh fruit every day.  I feel so happy knowing that K will look after them now and make sure they have proper nutrition.  One day we found Jamol had no water in his water dish!!! It was so hot, poor guy was thirsty!  So we dumped water in there from our water bottle and he rushed right over and drank.  Since K learned from me about birds, they've had water every day.  And a bath or two as well.  And fresh fruit, like I said.  We still sneak apple to Jamol every day, but now he gets it anyway, even if we forget.  K is very good at making sure things get done.  So that is how I knew she would be the perfect person to bring to see the parrots.  She was astounded!!! She never knew they even had parrots, nevermind that the parrots had personalities.  People have a lot to learn.  Fortunately, K is working tomorrow too, so I will get a picture with her :)

Tonight we are supposed to go this Halloween party with C but I haven't heard from her.  I am actually not feeling all that well.  I had a little fever earlier (I could tell because the aches in my bones and my skin felt sensitive, in a way I can't explain but only happens with fevers.)  K said that I have this because it rained and I got wet.  She explained that the humidity here plus the tradewinds that blow so strongly all the time causes people to get sick if they get wet in the rainy weather because you get a chill almost right away.  Well, it poured on us yesterday and the day before, and this morning on Cristoffel.  Not to mention we sweated like crazy in C's classes and then went outside.  Nobody told me to bring an extra shirt because of the tradewinds LOL!   So that's that.  But I popped some advil and I'm already feeling some better and it's only been about an hour.  So if Charlyne ends up cancelling, I guess we'll just stay here.  We'll see.  If we do go, I am going to MacGuyver up a costume out of what I've got.  I could do an Egyptian Princess thing or maybe a black cat (a throwback for sure!)

I'll email you tomorrow.  We might get up early and go see flamingos.  We'll see.

(A little later I sent this:)

I am actually going as a 90's Garage Band Singer (the egypt/cat thing didn't work out well lol)  There will be pictures!!

Day 12

I took Advil at around 5:30pm, and it wore off just before C picked us up for the party.  I was NOT feeling good!  I didn't have a thermometer handy but I would guess my fever went up over 100.  I was freezing, achy and dizzy.  It was awful!!! Thankfully at around 2am, C and her husband took pity on me and brought Corky and me back to the hotel and then went back to the party.  

It reminded me of that time I had the flu and Mom took me to Dr. K's and when we were leaving I said "I'm going to die!" and Mom said, "no.. worse.. you're going to LIVE!"  LOL!!! 

I took Advil PM as soon as we got back and went to bed.  I woke up around 4am and drank a ton of water, but it was too soon to take more advil, so I put the advil by my bed and when I woke up again at around 5:30am, I took more, and the more again at 9:45.  I'll keep taking it all day because I still feel weird.

I think I just got really dehydrated here in Curacao, even though I tried to be careful and drink enough.  And I'm not sure if I'm sick (no cough, throat, etc) or if levels of stuff got out of whack in my blood and created fever, because I know that happens.  Anyway, we'll see.

(A little later I sent this:)

There is no Tylenol in the little store downstairs, only Advil, and we don't have a rental car anymore so we can't go shopping.  It's fine though, I'll just tough it out with Advil.  I took Advil at 1:30 and it didn't touch the fever.  So I was pretty miserable earlier.  I just laid around all day, either inside or out on the beach (such a hardship lol) while Corky snorkeled.  I even snorkeled a little at the end, and we saw an eel, a rockfish and two little fishes smaller than my pinky nail!

And that's it!!! Those are all the emails I sent during the trip.  It was a great experience (minus the sickness at the end that only got worse once I got home) and I really want to go back!  If you're looking for a Caribbean destination, I definitely recommend Curacao!  

Another post will follow this one with a GIANT picture dump! :D

Curaçao Part 2

The continuation of the Curaçao Diaries as told through my daily emails to my parents.  Crazy crazy stuff.

Day 6

Hi.

This morning we went and had breakfast (is this sounding boring yet? Lol.)  I had an extra piece of peanut butter toast again today.  Hmm.

After breakfast, we went out to the dock and jumped off again, and swam to the next beach over to rent kayaks again.  On the way over, the red filter for Corky's GoPro fell off, so we had to swim back.  I found it and dove down about 8 feet with my mask and snorkel to fetch it.  Then we swam to the beach and rented kayaks.  

The weather was not as nice today.  I've been told this is actually Curacao's rainy season (hmm.. C failed to mention that!) so I wasn't surprised to see some overcast skies.  The tradewinds are RIDIC!!!! The waves were going nuts, especially by the rocks.  First we went down this canal... probably about 1000 feet.  The wind was at our backs.  Then we went to turn around and come back.... it was SO HARD!!! I was rowing and rowing and rowing... or paddling, or whatever you call it... and it felt like I was getting absolutely nowhere.  My arms were aching.  Finally we made it back to the mouth of the canal.  

We had planned to go around this jut of rocks and snorkel on the beach over there, but I knew I'd never make it back around the rocks if we went that way.  My kayak was going up and down and side to side... the wind and waves were very strong.  So we rowed away from there and went around a while and then returned them.  Once back on the beach the kayak ran over my toe.  I was pissed.

We came back to the hotel, showered, changed and went down to the dive shop to try to schedule a dive for tomorrow.  There was a Monday afternoon dive listed on the schedule but when we got there we were informed that there was no Monday afternoon dive.  Corky was irritated and told them "well perhaps you shouldn't have it on the schedule then!"  And we left.  We fed apple to the parrot we call Jamal (although I think he's a she... go figure) and went back to the lobby to meet C.

At 2pm, C and her 2 year old (almost 3) daughter S came to get us.  S had a little cold and was sleepy in the car.  She's very cute!  C drove us to the west side of the island and showed us some stuff.

First she took us to this place called Shete Boka (Seven Mouths).  Here, the waves crash into the rocks and create these huge splashes!  We got some pictures and video of the insane waves.  They looked lethal.  S picked up 6 or 8 little snail shells from the top of the rocks.

Then C drove us to see some beaches.  The last one she took us to, we all piled out and stripped to our swimsuits and swam.  C and S stayed by the shore while Corky and I snorkeled out and toward some rocks.  We saw tons of fish and an eel (it was pink.)  Corky climbed up and jumped off some rocks.  Then we left.  As we left, some dudes were hitting on C in Papiamentu.  It was so funny.

We met up with C's husband F at a restaurant called Fusions.  He is Venezuelan, and very nice.  S was tired and started falling asleep at the table.  She kept speaking to Corky and me in Papiamentu, and didn't seem to understand why we weren't answering her.  C and Corky had fajitas, F had salmon and rice, and I had a baked potato and veggies.  And tea.  C laughed about my "pickiness."  She does not know the real situation.

Corky treated us all to dinner and then C dropped us off at the hotel, while F took Sofia home.  She told me she'll come pick me up tomorrow to go to another Zumba class at a different gym with her.  :)  She is sooooo nice!  

I ate an apple and a yogurt just now in the room.  I was still a little nervous to eat around C so I only had the potato and veggies.  I had not eaten since breakfast.  Guess it was fine I had that extra toast after all.

Corky has our whole schedule planned out for the rest of the time we're here.  It includes an excursion to a small, uninhabited island 2 hr boat ride away called Klein Curacao, climbing St. Cristoffle (a mountain, oy vey), going to the Hato caves, and scuba diving a place called Mushroom Forest on Wed.  Mushroom Forest sounds like something out of Mario Kart! (You can tell Nan I said that.)  Saturday will be a rest day before we fly home on Sunday.  Whew!!!!!  So tired.  

I'm going to go take a shower, I'm all covered with salt water and sunscreen.

Day 7

Not much happening today, except a weird start to the day.  Mom, you know how when we are in South Dakota and Grandma's Life Alert phone rings and I fly out of bed?  Well that happened this morning.  There was a fire drill!!!  I, of course, levitated out of bed.  Corky flew up soon after  and we ran around all confused in the dark (the curtains were closed) banging into each other and looking for our shoes (and a shirt in Corky's case.)  I'm sure it would have looked amusing if anyone could have seen through the window.  After a minute the alarm stopped.  We blinked at each other like "what the hell was that about??" Then decided there was no emergency and went back to bed for a bit.

When we finally got up at 9:30, we had breakfast, as usual, then went down to the tourism place and scheduled our trip to Klein Curacao for tomorrow.  I'll have to remember to take Dramamine, C said she got seasick on that trip.  It also starts at 6:30am AGHHH!!!! I hate waking up early.  But apparently it's worth it.  There are tons of fish, some turtles and possibly even dolphins that you can see from Klein Curacao.  C said we should go, so we'll go.

Then we went down to the beach.  The sun was out but I could see clouds coming in so I wanted to lay out for a little before the sun went away.  Corky leaped off a rock into the ocean, and I sunbathed.  After a bit, the sun went behind clouds so I decided to go into the ocean too.  I leaped off the same rock and then stood on a rock slab to put on my mask.  I saw three sheshes go scuttling over the side.  

I swam to Corky, who at the time was swimming back toward me.  He beckoned me to come closer, then pointed toward this dock thing.  I couldn't see anything so I popped up and said "what is it?"  He said, "look by the surface next to that pole, but don't go any closer."  I looked again and was immediately sorry I did.  It was a barracuda.  I kid you not.  And he was HUGE!  Like.. about 5 feet long nose to tip of his tail.  I flew back in the water, freaking out.  "What the f*ck is that? What the f*ck is that?!?!"  "A barracuda," said Corky like it was no big deal.  You can be sure I swam like hell for the shore!

However, after about 50 yards I decided the barracuda wasn't going to come flying after me, so I slowed down and started looking at fish.  I think the barracuda was asleep, he didn't move at all.  So I saw lots of parrot fish and a puffer fish and something that looked like an eel but wasn't.  Corky said it was a needlenose something (gar maybe?)  The sun came back out and we went out and laid on the chairs again.  When Corky went back in later, the barracuda was gone. Fortunately he wasn't feeling carnivorous today!

There is a really nice lady that works here named K.  I asked her this morning at breakfast if the parrots on the property had names.  She said, "we have parrots???" So I said, "what time are you off?"  She said 2:30 so I said "meet me in the lobby then."  I took her around and showed her the parrots.  I told he what I unofficially named them.  She said the names were perfect and she was going to contact the manager (A) and tell him the parrots need name tags.  She LOOOOOVED Jamal!  And he put on quite a show!  I sang and clapped and Jamal danced.  K was cracking up!  She had never seen parrots act like that before.  I fed Jamal some apple and educated K about parrot nutrition.  She said she would make sure the parrots got more fresh fruit.  

We also went to the grocery store.  I found these things called "beschuit" which are like giant, unflavored croutons.  They are sort of like rice cakes and only 30 cal each!  So I bought a tiny jar of Skippy peanut butter and have eaten a few of those plus one wafer candy bar (in addition to my usual breakfast).  I feel hungrier today, so I've had some extra.  Tomorrow morning I most likely won't eat breakfast because the boat to Klein Curacao leaves at 7:30 and we have to meet in the lobby at 6:30 oy vey.  So... anyway.  Cheat day, I guess.  

C is coming to get me at 5:30 to take me to her OTHER zumba class.  This one is at a gym, apparently, called Beach Body.  She has some American clients there, and sometimes some Russians.  So that should be interesting.  I'll email you tonight if anything interesting happens.  If not, I'll email you tomorrow about Klein Curacao :) 

Day 7 Part 2 (and change of plans)

Well!  I'll just sum up this evening by saying "fun except a little frustrating."  C's Zumba class was fun!  There were 3 Americans and 2 Russians.  The Russians ended up driving me back to the hotel because one of them lives in Piscadera Bay which is where the hotel is located.  They were so funny and really nice.  I will probably go to Aqua Fit class with them on Friday morning.

I wanted ice cream tonight so we went to the little store at 8:45.  They are open till 9... or at least they're supposed to be!  They were closed and I was so pissed.  I've been really very patient this whole week with people being on "Island People Time" (IPT) or schedules not really being what they say, like at the dive shop the other day.  But it is so infrequent that I actually allow myself to have ice cream with relatively little guilt that when that happens I want to pounce on it.  I've been so very patient.. but tonight I was mad.

We were going to go to Klein Curacao tomorrow but literally EVERYONE is saying that the boat ride out there is really horrendous.  I went to tripadvisor and many people said in their reviews that the seasickness was bad.  The locals (6 in total) told me that even with Dramamine or Sea Legs, they still got sick as did half to three quarters of the rest of the people on the boat.  They said it doesn't matter what company you go with, what size of boat you take, it's always always bad.  I told Corky I didn't want to go.  Also, there is apparently literally NO shade on the island.  No trees.  No buildings.  Nothing.  And the sun here is crazy intense.  And the island is littered with trash.  Lovely.

I discovered there is a like 350 year old synagogue called Mikve Israel in Willemstad.  So instead of Klein Curacao, Corky is going to go down to the dive shop nice and early and see if he can get on a morning dive, and then we are taking the 1:30 shuttle into Willemstad (we already reserved our seats lol) and walking to the synagogue.  We might go for Shabbat on Friday night if it's nice.  Also on Friday we are going to a halloween party at night with C.

Instead of ice cream I ate a "beschuit" with peanut butter and now I'm drinking Sprite Zero.  I often drink a Sprite Zero at night because I sometimes feel hungry and the sprite fills up my stomach without any caffeine.  So it's a win win, because I don't want to eat the food here very much, it's very scary.

Day 8

This email will be short, because we didn't do much today.  We had breakfast, went to the beach... saw the barracuda again. Yikes!!  Not as big as the one yesterday but... still I could see all his teeth.  He was asleep under the dock, like the one yesterday.  Corky got it on film.  We also got more footage of that little fish biting Corky's feet. Lol!!  I also sunbathed.

We caught the 1:30 shuttle into Willemstad.  We saw the old synagogue but couldn't go in because it was closed (even though the posted hours dictated it should be open.  Such is life in Curacao!)  We got some pictures.  We bought many souvenirs in the city.  Dad, I got you something.  It's cute and I hope you like it!

Corky had a cheeseburger by the water, and I had diet coke.  However, I did have a little cheat later when we went to starbucks.  Mom, you won't believe it -  I had an iced nonfat caramel macchiato!  Even though the lady gave me expired espresso shots, it was still okay!  We went to this hotel called Renaissance.  It has a beach on the 2nd floor!

We came back on the shuttle at 5:15.  Now we're just hanging out in the room, watching the videos from Corky's Go Pro.  I'm uploading pics from my phone.

Day 9

Hi.  It's about 4:00 so I thought I'd write an email just in case nothing else interesting happens today.

We went diving this morning again.  At 8:30 we went to the dive shop, got our gear and boarded the boat "Explorador."  The captain was a Dutchman named E.  We had one guide on the boat, named T.  On the way to our dive site we stopped to pick up a second guide, C.  He had to come because I'm not certified.  Everyone else could follow T but I had to have a special guide.  Anyway, we met C at a beach somewhere up the coast.  We drove up about 100 yards from the beach and he swam to us.

The captain let people come up top to where he steered.  Corky and I went up because the "first floor" was pretty crowded.  We went along, in the wind and sun.  I saw something flying over the top of the water and at first I thought it was a bird, then I realized it was a FISH!  It was a flying fish!!! They really do fly!  I was like "Fish! Fish! Look!" But Corky din't see it.  We saw like 5 or 6 of them on the way back though.

Upon arriving at our dive site, marked only by a solitary orange buoy, we all got into our gear.  Getting into scuba gear isn't the easiest of tasks when you're on terra firma, nevermind pitching all around in a dive boat!  I got into my BCD (buoyancy compensation device or buoyancy control device), which is like a giant vest with a scuba tank strapped to the back.  I already had on my weight belt (about 8 pounds.)  I put on my fins and my mask, and C lifted my tank so I could walk (or flop, in my fins) to the back of the boat.  I held my mask and regulator and took a HUGE step off the boat.

My BCD was inflated before I jumped in.  Basically, the vest fills with air (from your tank) and causes you to float. That way you float on the surface while you adjust your mask, fins, etc.  When you deflate it, you sink.  When you get back to the surface, you reinflate it so that you can take off fins, mask etc. But you never want to inflate it underwater because it could make you rise too fast and hurt your ears or lungs with an air expansion injury.  That is why you must NEVER EVER hold your breath while diving.

We went down underwater and I can't even explain to you what I saw.  Fortunately we had a photographer along and he took tons of shots.  I'll show them to you.  The dive site is called "Mushroom Forest" like I said before and the coral is just crazy.  It looks like little mounds, covered with all kinds of stuff.  Some of it looks like fungus, which might be why it's called Mushroom Forest.  Or else the coral kind of looks like mushrooms.  You'll see.  

We saw Lionfish.  They are soooooo cool!  They have these poisonous barbs that they can shoot, I think.  I know they're venomous, but I don't know quite how they transfer the venom.  I think it's like porcupines do.  Anyway, we saw some big ones and a few small ones.  We saw tons of triggerfish, parrotfish (my favorite) and some trumpetfish.  Also a moray eel.  Well, I didn't see the eel but the photographer did.  He took pictures of us and fish underwater.  It was really cool.

After we swam in a big circle through the Mushroom Forest, we went to the shore.  The shore at that point is like a 35 foot cliff straight down to the ocean.  Under the surface there is a cave entrance.  Once you get through the "door" you can surface and breathe.  It's called the "Blue Room."  I didn't like being in there very much.  I don't know why, but it freaked me out a little.  I wouldn't say I was scared, but I did feel a little nervous.  As it turned out, one of the guys on the dive had a small freak out just outside the Blue Room and he shot straight to the surface.  C looked at me and I signaled that I was cold, so he beckoned me to come out of the cave.  We surfaced near the boat, I removed my fins and climbed back on.

Once back on the boat, we headed back toward the dive shop.  It took us about an hour to get to Mushroom Forest, and about an hour and 45 min to get back.  The sea was nuts!!! We were hitting swells and bouncing all over the place.  Then it started to rain!  Corky and I were up with the captain and I was FREEZING!  Wouldn't you know it, the guide C said "you need to eat more!"  Just like Captain M said in Hawaii.  Well, M's words were "you need to eat a cheeseburger," but it was the same idea.  Kind of!  C said, "you need to eat so you have calories to burn down there!"  I said, "I did! I ate cereal and 2 pieces of toast with peanut butter and coffee and orange juice!"  He said, "do you eat like that at home or just on vacation?"  I said, "Just on vacation..." He gave me a pointed look and walked off to get some water.  LOL!  Funny.  I'm sure I'll never hear the end of that.

Our little boat fought it's way back to the dock.  Before we docked, we dropped off Corky and this guy from Czech Republic a ways offshore so they could do an unguided, complimentary dive back to shore.  They came in after about 40 min.  As I waited for Corky, I watched a huge cruise ship come into port.  It was so massive! The photographer saw me looking out at the Cruise ship, which was in the direction that Corky and the other guy were coming in from.  He said, "are you worried about your husband?"  I said, "oh no! He's a great diver! I'm looking at the huge ship!!" 

I finally got my ice cream today!  We just had it.  So I'll not have desert again until MAYBE Saturday.  We'll see.  I'm planning to go to Zumba at 6:15 at the hotel but I'm soooo tired!  I'm always surprised by how tired I am after diving.  It's weird, it doesn't seem like you're working that hard but I guess you are.  Oh well.  We'll see.

We also got a new gaggle of KLM people in today.  As the previous crew was waiting for the bus to depart, Corky asked one of the flight attendants what kind of plane they were flying.  She said, "today its a 747."  I was so excited lol.

Tomorrow we are renting a car and driving around.  We're going to go spelunking in the Hato Caves (provided we can find it with no GPS, just a map!) and then out to C's Zumba class in Salina, and then out to dinner at this restaurant called Fort Nassau.  These 2 ladies from Alabama who we keep running into were raving about it yesterday.  So we'll try it.

In response to an email from my mom about getting stuck in the cave:

Mom, that thing with the cave couldn't happen.  You can't get into it without scuba gear so you'd never be caught in there without it.  If the water rose, you'd just pop your regulator in, breathe, and swim out.  It is impossible to get stuck in there.  However, I wouldn't take you there until you were much more comfortable in the water.  I would have a challenge getting you into your scuba gear on the boat, to say nothing of having you breathe underwater! (lol!)  

But seriously, there is that "Oh my god what the heck am I doing?" moment that I think everyone gets when you start breathing underwater.  It just FEELS wrong!  You know in the back of your head (or maybe right in the front) that humans are not made to be doing this.  It feels unnatural and scary!  But once you get used to it, there's nowhere you'd rather be just then.  It's the most amazing thing ever.  The fish are like "oh.. hi" and just go about their business and you can watch them.  They don't mind!  It's so quiet.  All you can hear is the "KUHHHHH.... HAAAAAAA" of your own breathing and the bubbles that come out of your regulator.  And you can hear little clicking sounds as the fish eat off the coral.  

The great thing about scuba diving is that it practically forbids you to panic.  You have to breath deeply and continuously in order not to hurt yourself.  So you just force yourself to do that no matter how scared you are.  NOT breathing underwater could kill you.  Breathing will keep you safe.  At one point I got a bunch of water in my mask and I couldn't see anything.  I had to blow out my nose while holding the mask to get the water out.  I was totally blind!  But my fin was on the ocean floor so I knew where I was, so I just closed my eyes and breathed there for a minute before blowing my mask out.  It was so amazing to be blind underwater!  I could hear everything and feel the fish all around.  Then I blew out my mask and went on.  

The ocean is dangerous and you don't want to piss him off (most people say the ocean is male - Poseidon I guess) but if you respect him, he will give you the best experiences of your life :)

Day 10

This morning, after breakfast (which was the same as always except minus the cereal), Corky went down and rented a car.  It's a Daihatsu Terios.  I have never heard of that until today!  I think Daihatsu is their version of Suzuki.  It's kind of a crappy car, but it'll do.

We set out with only a crappy map, and drove to the Hato Caves, which are right next to Hato Airport!  Unfortunately for me, there were no 747s at the airport just then.  But it did start to rain!  Oh well.  This was our 2nd day of rain in a row.  Kind of reminds me of Cabo, when we had a hurricane!  Only much less rain.

Anyway, at the caves we went on a tour.  I forgot our guide's name but he spoke English, Spanish, Dutch, German and Papiamentu.  He was really funny.  He took us through all the chambers of the cave.  With us were 2 Austrian guys.  The tour was supposed to be in English but it ended up being half English half German.  With a peppering of other languages because every time the guide would come up with a vocab word in German, I'd match it in Russian.  Then at the end I was speaking Spanish to him.  He said, "you have a high IQ!"  I laughed and said, "I guess!" as Corky looked on, snickering.  We took many pictures in the Hato caves, which will soon be on facebook.  

One interesting thing for you to tell H about.  The iPhone5 has this thing where it recognizes faces.   Basically, when you're taking pictures, the phone "sees" faces and puts a square around them, to try to focus itself when you're taking a photo of many people.  I was taking a picture in the cave, and it suddenly did the face recognition thing on a part of the cave where there was nobody!  It was very weird, and it never happened anywhere else in the caves.  We also went to the bat chamber.  I think this guide, like Chico on the ATVs. was surprised when I said, "oh cute!" instead of screaming and ducking when they swooped by.

After the caves, we wanted to go to this place that we had been on the ATVs, a restaurant called L'Aldea, where there is an attraction called Amazonia.  Basically it's like Curacao's version of Polynesian Cultural Center, only more animal-oriented and much much smaller!  We took so many pictures!  Reptiles, birds, turtles, monkeys... I got my picture with a blue & gold macaw.  His name was Phillip.  We saw a bright orange iguana and a green iguana 1 and a half meters long!  There were some creepy skeletons and stuff, so I thought it was perfect since it's Halloween today.

We were planning to drive to C's zumba class this evening, so we ventured through town to locate the area called Saliña.  We kinda sorta found where to go.  But later, when we tried to go there, it was pouring down rain and everyone was driving like idiots, naturally.  So we got totally lost.  Finally we found it but we were about 10 minutes late.  I hate that!!! Honestly.... people need to learn to drive.  It's just rain!  Not nuclear fallout!  No need to creep along at glacial speed.

After class, we went to Fort Nassau for dinner.  It took 2 hours but the food was fairly good.  I had fish with vegetables.  Corky had tuna tataki on seaweed salad (for starters) and steak.  I tried the tuna tataki... it was..... okayish.  It didn't taste horrendous but I don't think I'll eat it again.  He also had dessert, which I stole some bites of.  Fort Nassau is on a hill in the middle of the city.  We got some pictures of the oil refinery.  I know, I know... doesn't sound very interesting.  But the refinery has these tall chimneys that are on fire!  It looks really cool at night (but it smells really terrible.)  

We finished dinner at around 10:30pm.  Like I said, Island People Time!  As we were driving back to the hotel, it started raining.  And because it's tropical here, when it rains it REALLY rains!  It started monsooning.  So we sat in the car for a minute, waiting for it to subside.  Well, subside it did!  It just STOPPED.  One minute deluge, the next minute nothing.  Dry as can be.  We cracked up laughing, and got out.  We walked by the two macaw cages on the way up to the room.  The macaws were SOOOO PISSED!!!!! They don't like rain.

Tomorrow morning we are getting up at the crack of dawn to climb Cristoffel.. which everyone keeps saying is sooooo hard and we better go early or else the heat.. etc, etc.  We'll see.  Tomorrow night we are going to a Halloween party (on Nov 1st of course because in Curacao Halloween doesn't really exist!) with C and one of the ladies from her class tonight whose name escapes me.  Should be fun.

I'll email you tomorrow after Cristoffel (if I'm not dead tired lol.)

Unpleasant Tests

I interrupt my Curaçao posts (or post, rather) to bring the updates of the medical variety.  I'll finish the "Curaçao Diaries" in either one or two more parts, after this.  

Anyway.  Finally yesterday I had had enough and dragged my sorry butt to Urgent Care.  I taught my class in the morning and then didn't have to teach again.  I don't until tomorrow morning, actually.  But I had 2 classes I was planning to attend but not until 4:30.  So I went to Urgent Care, filled out a bunch of ridiculous paperwork and waited.  

To their credit, the wait was not very long!  I had time to read about 1/8th of a gossip article about Kim Kardashian and her baby body before the door open and the nurse called me in.  

To my intense horror, the first thing she did was weigh me.  I said, "Do I have to?"  And she just laughed.  So then I said, "well, okay, but PLEASE don't tell me what the number says!"  She said, "Okay, I can do that."  I then asked if I could stand backward on the scale.  She gave me a funny look and I said, "if you look at the paperwork I just filled out, and look at the 'existing medical condition' section, you'll see why I'm asking this stuff."  Of course that was the section I had written "Anorexia Nervosa."  She didn't say anything after that.

She took me into Room 1 and took my vitals.  It was one of those blood pressure machines that's mounted on a rolling stand and also takes pulse (and probably reads your palms while it's at it!).  While it was constricting my arm like a boa, she took my temperature.  She wouldn't let ME hold the thermometer... SHE had to do it.  And jabbed it into the back of my under-tongue area.  I swear it took forever.  Finally she pulled it out and said, "98.3."  I was thankful she didn't blurt out my weight too.  My blood pressure was high for me.  117 over something, and my resting pulse was 91!!!! The nurse didn't seem bothered by that though, which I thought was odd.  A resting pulse of 91 is pretty high, even for me.

After a few minutes, a Physician's Assistant or something came in.  She was really nice.  She asked me lots of questions while standing a little too close to my face for my liking.  But she was very nice.  She had me lay back and she poked my stomach, asked me questions about my symptoms, and then listened to my heart and lungs.  She also said nothing about my high resting pulse.  Hmm.  Anyway, she then went on to say that she thinks I'm getting better but that she would like to get a blood test to check for hepatitis..... what?? That made no sense but I just smiled and nodded.  She also said I could have a parasite (which makes the most sense to me) or c. diff... so she wanted to get a stool sample too (sorry I know that's gross. Hang on, it only gets better!)

She sent in another nurse to bring me the stool test kit to take home and to take my blood.  Not a bad blood test (I've had worse for sure) but not painless either.  As for the stool test I told her it could take me a week to get it back to her at the rate I've been going.  She said, "as soon as you can."  But oh my god... the stool test.  No details to ruin your day but.. let me just say I will never be the same again after that experience!!!!!!!

The nice lady also gave me a scrip for Zofran to help with the stomach aches and nausea.  So that's good.  Because I'm getting pretty tired of that shit.  But.. we'll see.  I've got to return the... ah... "specimens" to them this morning.  Should be interesting to see what they come back with!

STILL sick!!!

This is one stubborn bug.  Actually I think it might be an intestinal parasite.  Lovely.  I'll keep you posted.  

Temp 99.2.  Blah!!!

Curaçao Part 1

Because so much went on in Curaçao, I can't possibly write blog posts about it.  So what I'm going to do is copy and paste the daily emails I sent to my mom and dad.  (I know, I know.. I was on my honeymoon.. what was I contacting my parents for? Lol! I just wanted them to know about all the cool stuff we saw!)

Day 1
So.. our room has free wi-fi.  That's good news.  I can email you any time. 

Obviously, we made it to Curacao!  The wedding day became the longest day ever because we never went to sleep.  The car came at 3:50am.  The first flight was on an MD80, which wouldn't have been bad if we weren't in row 29!  MD80's (as I'm sure you are NOT aware) have rear fuselage mounted engines.  The right one was literally RIGHT outside my window.  The wall vibrated so much it was hard to sleep.  But I must have because it didn't feel like 3+ hours.  

The 2nd one was on a 757.  Much better plane, but I was in the middle and the lady in the aisle seat was eating a disgusting mixture of tuna fish, chickpeas and onions. UGH!!! Then she fell asleep and snored with her face toward me so I got the lovely onion/tuna breath all the way to Miami.  

The 3rd flight was 2 hours and 50 min.  It felt the longest to me because I was awake.  Corky forgot his headphones so he borrowed mine to watch TV.  While he was blissfully entranced by some show, I got to listen to an Estonian girl getting airsick for about 30 minutes.  Lovely.

We got to the hotel last night, unpacked and went to bed!

Today, the weather is cloudy, but it's HOT and humid.  The resort is sort of nice.... nothing like Cabo, and I would say the one in Cancun was nicer too, except for the room.  The air conditioning at least works here! 

 

They upgraded us to the "executive floor" which means we have a huge room and access to the executive lounge which has free breakfast.  We actually have 2 reservations here because Corky bought 2 nights free with his Hilton points, and that ends tomorrow so I'm not sure if they'll be making us move rooms for the 2nd reservation or not.  Either way, we took advantage of the free breakfast this morning and we will tomorrow too (just in case we lose our access to that room after tomorrow.)  I had cereal (twice) with milk, fruit, 1 and a half pieces of toast with peanut butter, and I stole an apple to eat later.  

The lady in the lounge was really nice and when she found out it was our honeymoon she told me she'd send something to our room.  Well, just now we walked back in and found a plate of cheese, some pieces of bread, tons of walnuts and honey.  And wine.  One of the cheeses was cheddar, one tasted like nothing, and the third smelled like manure so we didn't touch it.  We also did not touch the wine.  Lol!

I discovered some caged macaws on the property.  They are sort of friendly.  But super cute!  And there are some wild green parrots that fly around squawking.  I saw them when we went to the little beach.  We snorkeled and saw some tiny fish and some medium fish.  Corky was standing on this rock and a little black fish rushed out and bit his toe.  I think the fish had eggs.  Anyway, it chased after Corky, trying to bite him, until he was like 10 feet away.  It was hilarious!

I contacted C [my friend] and we are going to her Zumba class on Thursday.  She is going to come pick us up and then drop us back off after.  I also discovered there is Zumba here at the resort in their gym!  Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.  So tomorrow I'll go do that.  

It's a little after 4 now.. and I have no idea what we're going to do.  We are looking online for stuff to do in Curacao.  I think 2 weeks may actually be a little too long to be here.  We'll see.

Day 2

It's only 2:40pm right now but I wanted to send an email about the first half of the day..

We went to breakfast at about 9:45am.  I had basically the same stuff as yesterday.  Then we went back to the room to figure out where the nearest grocery store is.  There is one called Centrum Supermarket like 4 miles away.  So we took a cab there and he waited for us while we got our groceries.  I was SOOOOO happy to find they had the greek yogurt I like!  We got apples, milk, cereal, some sodas and Corky got chips & salsa.  The lady at the checkout was a total grump and only spoke Dutch.. so that was fun.  Lol.

We came back and put on sunscreen (lots of it) and went down to the beach.  We snorkeled for a little bit then Corky went to go look for a memory card for his GoPro while I sunbathed.

We REALLY need to find a memory card for Corky's GoPro... BECAUSE.... if we had one, then we would have caught the following scenario on camera:

We went out on the pier here and jumped off so we could swim to the next beach over and rent kayaks.  When we were on our way to the pier, I saw a crab (shesh) in the sand.  It was tiny and jumped away from my feet.  Then when we were swimming we saw those same crabs in the sand underwater.  One came rushing out from under a rock and chased after Corky.. just like the fish yesterday!  He was trying to pinch his toes!!!  He had his "arms" straight out (like Bijou) and was running sideways after Corky.  I laughed so hard I got water in my mask.

Day 2 Part 2

After the pier/crab fiasco, we went to Captain Bligh's Bar so that Corky could get lunch (I was still full from breakfast.  I got Coke Zero.)  After that we walked to the Dive shop to schedule our dives for tomorrow morning.  

This is going to make you cringe but DON'T WORRY!!! IT'S FINE NOW!!!! While walking to the dive shop I felt something in my right heel, like a sliver.  When we got back to the room I really felt it!  I could see it, but I couldn't get it with my fingers.  Corky went on the hunt for tweezers.  Unlike in Mexico, he was able to find some!  I was able to pull a small piece of something out of my heel.  UGH!!! The thing is, it's impossible to wear shoes all the time because there's sand literally everywhere!  So.. that was that.

Then I went to Zumba.  I was the whitest person in there.  There were 2 other "white" girls (and by "white" I mean Caucasian but very, very tan) in there, but they spoke Papiamento, the native language on Curacao, so they were obviously island residents if not natives.  One had a decidedly German appearance (Dad, she reminded me of M.B.) and the other looked Dutch, which would make sense given that this is the Netherland Antilles!  Anyway, everyone in there spoke Papiamento except for me.  Which was unfortunate because the instructor, S, cued only in Papiamento.  Fortunately for me, I understand "uno" and "dos" so I was able to catch the single, single, double pretty well, but all the other directives ("shake", "turn", and "squat") went right over my head.  It was pretty interesting!  My knowledge of language extends far but not that far!  

After Zumba we went back downstairs to Bligh's Bar for dinner.  We ordered dinner (Nachos for Corky and a salad for me) and listened to a live band while we waited... and waited... and waited.... forever.  I had read reviews of the Hilton on TripAdvisor so I expected slow service but really, an hour for nachos and a salad??? That's a little insane.  Fortunately, the live band was playing all the european/brazilian/portuguese hits which means... Zumba music!!!!!  Also they did a Papiamento version of Gangnam Style, Blurred Lines and some Maroon 5 tunes.  I went through 2 diet cokes with lime before my salad came.  It was actually pretty gross.  So I had some cereal and an apple when I got back upstairs.  

We are going to go to bed in about an hour or so because we have to be up at 8 to eat breakfast before we go diving.  I'll email you tomorrow once or twice, like today.  :)

Day 3 Part 1

Hi!

This morning we went scuba diving.  We were with 2 other people, Brazilians who live in Spain (go figure.)  They were probably around our age but it was hard to tell.  The dive instructor had to ask me my age - apparently I don't look over 18.  Lovely.  Anyway, we did a shore dive down to about 30 feet.  We would have gone deeper if we'd had more time... which we would have if it weren't for the Brazilian Spaniards having freak outs every 5 minutes and shooting to the surface!  At one point, the guy had a fit and flapped his fins on top of my head.  Needless to say, I was irritated.

I swallowed about a quart of ocean I think.  Now my nose, throat and mouth sting.  But we saw lots of fish and an eel, and tons of coral and other flora rolling around in the current.  I also found some live sand dollars.  The instructor turned to make the "OK" sign to me (which I was supposed to return) but instead I handed him a sand dollar.  He laughed in a bubbly fashion.

We haven't really done much else today.  Corky just had a "quesadilla burger" for lunch (yes it was horrifying.)  We are going to C's Zumba class tonight.  We are also going to try to get a memory card for Corky's camera so we can hopefully catch on video him irritating the underwater population of Curacao.  

I'll email you later.

Day 3 Part 2

Hi

So! Before I forget to mention this to you: the Hilton must have a deal with KLM because every day we see gaggles of KLM pilots and flight attendants in the lobby area.  Today, that girl from Zumba last night who looked German appeared from the hotel wearing a KLM flight attendant uniform!  So that solves that mystery.  She's Dutch, but speaks Papiamentu.  Interesting.

Corky and I went down to the beach today at about 2:30 and I sunbathed while Corky went snorkeling with his GoPro and fins and got some footage of the little black fish flying out from the rock and attacking his feet.  It's funny.

C came and got us at 6:30 and took us to her Zumba class.  It was in this teeny tiny studio with hollow floors that were slippery.  There were about 20 people crammed into this tiny space.  It was SO HOT!  She let me teach 4 songs in a row!  I did Applause, Mamba Negra, Udd Udd Dabangg and Ice Cream and Cake.  The last one is a fast, fast merengue.  By the time it was done, I was pouring sweat and my face looked like a stop sign.  It was funny.

After class, C drove us around Willemstad a little before she dropped us off.  She showed us some cool places to hang out in the city, as well as giving us some advice about activities we should try.  She dropped us off in this area called Otrobanda.  Willemstad is divided into 2 parts, Punda and Otrobanda.  They are separated by this huge inlet of water that is spanned by the Queen (or princess) Juliana bridge (Koningin Julianabrug in Dutch).  We wandered around before we found a place to eat dinner.  I had fish, Corky had a Dutch thing called Keshi Yera or something... it was cheese with chicken, veggies and raisins inside.  And french fries... again!  I had tuna and vegetables.  And diet coke... again!!  Lol.  Then we caught a cab back.

Then we took an apple and went to visit one of the parrots on the property.  His cage is kind of off the beaten path and I feel like he's lonely.  I bit off a piece of apple (because we don't have a knife) and fed it to him through the bars.  He just woke up so he was a little cranky, but he took the apple and started eating it.  His eyes started closing and he tilted his head back..... it was so cute.  He was falling asleep with the apple in his fist.  We put another piece in his bowl for him to have later.  We also dropped a few pieces in the other parrots' bowls, but they were hiding in their nest box and didn't come out.

Then we walked to the pier and I stared at the sky while Corky stared into the ocean.  We had totally parallel conversations while still hearing every word each other said.  It went something like this.

Me: There's cassiopeia...

Corky:  What is this rock formation?

Me: ... and there's the little dipper..

Corky: ... it's too square to be natural.

Me:  Did you know there are barn owls in Curacao?

Corky: Tomorrow I'm going to dive here and see...

Me: Look!  Orion!

Corky: Tomorrow night I'm going to use my dive light.

On a side note, I think our hotel room is haunted.  Three times I've seen a shadow figure in the room that I can't place.  Twice on one side of the room and once on the other.  Very weird!

I'll email you again tomorrow, of course.  We are going ATVing in the afternoon. :)

Day 4

I don't know why my emails aren't getting to you instantly (or almost.)  Isn't that the point of the internet??

Okay... so today We woke up at around 9:30 and went and had breakfast.  I ate about the same as I do everyday.  Then we went on a walk.  Yesterday when C took us off the resort she showed us a sidewalk where people can walk.  So we walked about 2 km both ways (4 total.. sorry I know you can do math) and we saw the Curacao equivalent of squirrels: iguanas!!! They are huge, green and everywhere!  They go running across roads and sidewalks.  Sometimes they stand in the grass and shake their heads up and down a bunch, to signal their displeasure with our proximity.  They're cute... but C thinks they are gross. Lol!!

At 1:30 the taxi came to get us and take us to our ATV adventure.  Eric's ATV Adventures is housed in this sketch area in a half-constructed building of some kind.  There was nothing in it but a hastily made table and one chair.  We were supposed to wait for 2 more people but they never came.  

Our guide was Dutch but looked like Kalif Alhassan.  He said his name was Chico but I don't believe him.  Anyway, he was great!  He took us to an aloe farm (yes Mom, we got you a present!) where they had three HUGE fields of big aloe plants.  They were probably up to my mid-thigh level, although we didn't walk up to them.  We got some pictures in front of one of the fields.  Then we drove off the farm and passed a bunch of chickens.  One ran away from our ATVs but the rest didn't seem to care.

Then the guide took us to the east side of the island, called the Wild Side, where there are no beaches because the waves are crazy.  There were tons of cacti everywhere!  We got some pictures there too.  Then we drove some crazy off-road trails up onto "mountain" (read: hill with rocks.)

We got to a cave.  We scrambled up a steep incline.  The guide had to stop after 100 yards to catch his breath.  Corky and I waited patiently.  Then we went up a little more and into this cave.  Then this happened:

*fluttering sound*

Me: OOOOOH!! Bats!!!! Hi there!

Guide: Don't you mean "ahh!"  You are not scared?

Me: No...?  They're cute!  Look how tiny they are!

Guide: (laughing)

Corky: Has anyone ever told you the bats were cute before?

Guide: No.. she's the first one.  

Corky: Yeah... she's a unique one.

Me: Oh.. they're mad, let's take a picture! Look how they swoop! OOOOH!!

Yeah, so... lots of bat squealing.  They were SO CUTE!!! They were like 3 inches tall!  So little and silent when they flew.  They would fly right down in our faces and then zoom up and away. I took some pictures of the bats with my phone, but I'm not sure you could really see them.

Then we went to this restaurant place to grab some water or soda because it was so hot and we were sooooo dirty.  Well... this happened:

*we walk in*

People behind desk: Hi there!

Us: Hi!

*start to walk past*

Me: OOOOOOH!!!!

Corky (instantly): Bird! Where?

Me: Look, look! She has a cockatoo!!!  Wait! I have to go see it!

Yeah... the lady behind the desk had an umbrella cockatoo that she was skritching.  His name was Luna and he was the cutest thing I'd seen since the bats!  I of course showed her pictures of our birds and we "bird talked" for a while.  That place was called Amazonia.. and yes, we are planning to go back!

3 hours later we returned to the start.  We were tired, dirty, sweaty and hot.  Corky said he was impressed by my abilities on an ATV, but not surprised.  

I had cereal and apples for dinner in the room and then Corky and I went down for him to get a Surf & Turf dinner.  A few nights per week the hotel has themed buffet nights.  This wasn't exactly a buffet but it was a "create your own."  So Corky picked Rib Eye and "Shrimps" as they say here.  I tasted the steak... it was mediocre but expensive as heck!  Corky says everything here is expensive.  I said he's fortunate I don't eat much!  I eat breakfast (which is free) and then dinner, but not usually lunch.  Which is nice for his wallet, and for me.  

After dinner, I went to the Executive Lounge on our floor.  We had been in there right before dinner for Corky to get a beer and the attendant is this young Dutch girl (who looks local) named H.  I went and asked her if the parrots on the property have names.  She said she didn't know but she didn't think so.  I said, "well they do now!"  We conspired about it and she printed up two signs for me.  One says "Hello! Our names are Patrick and Red."  And then it says it in Dutch and Spanish.  The other one says "Hello, my name is Jamol!"  I am going to find scotch tape and tape the signs to their cages under cover of darkness tomorrow hahaha.

After that, Corky got his stuff and we went down to the dock.  He put on his fins, mask and snorkel.  In the pitch dark, he jumped off the dock with his dive light.  He was looking for seahorses but I don't think he found any.  He did find leaves, fish and an eel.  He came looming up the beach out of the water with his light and freaked out a few people on the beach.

The last thing we did was sneak some apple to Jamol.  He was so tired he couldn't even hold it in his foot!  He just ate it with his eyes closed.  A few times I thought he was asleep!  But he cleaned out the apple peel and dropped it.  He's so cute.

Tomorrow I think we are going to go into Willemstad in the afternoon.  I hope you receive this email.

Day 5

This morning we had breakfast, same as usual.  Then we went to see if we could get on the 1:30 shuttle to Willemstad.  We were told it had one spot left (and there are obviously 2 of us) so we should come down at 1:30 and see if it checked in full.  If it didn't and there was an extra spot, we could go.  

In the meantime we went to the beach.  Well, the pool, actually,  but it's like 10 feet from the beach so it's basically the same thing.  Corky decided to go jump off these rocks into the ocean.  We noticed a PADI (scuba) flag bobbing on the surface, which meant there were divers down.  They tie this string to a buoy with a PADI flag (it's red with a diagonal white stripe) to their equipment and then as they swim around, the flag and buoy follow them so people know where they are.  Corky had his snorkel and mask.  He can dive with his mask on, just holds his breath.  So he bottomed up and went down, down... he found the divers, waved hi to them, scared them to death, and shot back up.  He said they were about 30 feet down!  Can you imagine??? You're in a wetsuit, all decked out in scuba gear, at depth, looking at fish, fish, fish.. and Corky in his swim trunks and snorkel!?!?!?!?  LOL!

After sunbathing for a while, we came back up and showered and changed.  We went down at 1:30 but found that the shuttle had left already.  Apparently it checked in full!  So we caught a cab.  We walked around the two sections of Willemstad that I mentioned to you before.  Otrabanda was nice right up on the water, but if you walk like one block back it becomes rather sketch.  Punda is the other way around.  It was a lot of shops that had bright colored shirts that said CURACAO.  Kind of like the cheap T shirt shops in Hawaii.. except not Hawaii. Lol.  We saw some humongous ships go under the Queen Juliana Bridge and out to sea.  I took lots of pictures.  We ate dinner by the water.  Well... Corky ate dinner!  I got a salad but it was so disgusting I hardly ate it.  

However, I'm sure you'll be amused to know that within about 30 minutes of sitting down, we were totally surrounded by pigeons.  I have no idea why! I hadn't even fed them any bread yet!  I noticed people looking at us... then I looked around and saw like 8 pigeons just sitting there, looking up at us!  It was so funny.  Corky was like "of course... YOU'RE here!  That's why they all came over!"  One even flew to my chair!  It was very adorable.

We went and had ice cream.  I had butter pecan.  That is all I will say on the topic. :-(

Now it's about 7pm and we are back in the room.  I refuse to eat anything else until morning!  And no one better try and make me, or it might just be the last thing they ever do!