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.)
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