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
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