Mar 31, 2013 - The last few days

Wednesday 27th March Went shopping in Willemstad for groceries for the four of us staying in the house. Played radio in the afternoon. Thursday 28th March Played radio. Went to a beach resort for lunch with Gill and the other two guys staying at the house. While there Gill booked a scuba diving lesson for beginners on the Saturday. Friday 29th March All four of us went down to visit PJ2MI, Josi, former head of the Curacao Radio Bureau, who was in a retirement home and still going strong at 86. He had erected an antenna outside his door in...

Feb 16, 2013 - Leaving Vacation Land

We have packed and awaiting our flight to Houston then we continue on to Las Vegas arriving 5:00 PM, Western time. So we will be traveling about 16 hours total if the airlines keeps us on schedule. We had near perfect weather, with occasional rain showers and temps in the 70's & 80's most days. We did a combination of over 25 dives in some great waters, never saw any sharks, darn it but experienced the relaxation of being in another world with all of the underwater friends. There were 32 of our old dive buddies, and/or newly found friends....

Feb 9, 2013 - Paradise in Bonaire Dive- Dive- Dive

Cindy and me fly out Friday to Bonaire, one of the ABC Islands of The Netherlands Antille, the other island Bring Aruba & Curacao and that gives you the ABC islands. we have been to Curacao several years ago and hadareally great time and excellent diving. We return To Vegas Next Saturday the 16th to continue or vacation, or is that part of our retirement. I get conflicted with those two words. We'll open up the blog upon or return.

Jan 25, 2013 - Kralenddijk, Bonaire

Yesterday we docked at Kralendijk (coral reef) on the beautiful island of Bonaire The third Island of the ABC Netherlands Antilles Islands. Bonaire is 50 miles north of Venezuela, a tiny arid island with a population of 18,000. It is as the license says “Diver’s Paradise”. We were going to take a short ferry ride to Klein Bonaire – a small island with beautiful beaches but we were told there was no shade there. Instead we took a taxi with another couple to Sorobon Beach, a lovely area with very shallow water and a plethora (our travel...

Jan 24, 2013 - Willemstad, Curacoa

Willemstad, established in 1634, is the capital of Curacao the former Dutch colony now an independent protectorate of Holland. It has a long history of being invaded by many countries but the Dutch influence can be seen in the buildings which also have verandas, porches and are painted in lovely pastel colours. After a bit of a walk from where we were docked we stopped at the Museum Kura Hulanda. The museum is actually the 19C slave quarters and gives a history of Africa and the slave trade with all of its brutality. It was well set up...

Dec 2, 2012 - Turtles and coral

My last shore trip was St Maarten and was my highlight. Not being much of a swimmer, snorkling is not really my thing but they offered a reef trip in what they called a semi sub, so it's a boat with a submarine bottom and glass windows. I go to see lots of fish and coral as well as barracuda, sting rays and more importantly - turtles!!! It's a pity not many of my photo's worked. Damn auto focus - took to long though the glass!!! But then a diver went into the water an lured the fish close to the boat. Who said fish were dumb. These guys...

Apr 7, 2012 - an other day in paradise

Hallo allemaal, even weer een korte update, zijn woensdag naar de dierentuin geweest, en wat voor een!!! Erg grappig, het is net een oude versie van Artis, Donderdag zijn we even om een kop koffie bij Anneke en Werner geweest, die wonen schitterend en hebben het erg druk met hun 4 appartementje, maar wat wil je ook met de service die hun verlenen daar krijg je het druk van. Gisteren vrijdag dus eerst maar een poosje mak an gedaan en een beetje thuis aan het rommelen geweest,en aan het einde van de dag nog even naar Cas abou geweest voor...

Apr 4, 2012 - vandaag alweer woensdag

Zo eindelijk weer even een berichtje, De eerste paar dagen gezellig door gebracht met Joost Irene en de Kids,We zijn nog even met Joost Rondje geweest maar hij had het best nog druk op het thuisfront want er moest nog wat werk af en de koffers moesten nog gepakt. Zondag Zijn we nog even met zijn 2en op pad geweest even naar Willemstad en Zuikertuintje, Maandagmiddag de hele bubs op het vliegtuig , naar Nederland,wij op het gemakkie terug naar huis om daar te gaan genieten van een rustig avond. Dus gister voor het eerst met z'n 2en eerst...

Jan 14, 2012 - Cruising the Caribbean: St Maarten

It has a bit of a lounge atmosphere, the terrace of the Holland House Beach Hotel on the Philipsburg boardwalk, where I am having an afternoon tea and looking out over the sparkling blue expanse of Great Bay where Philipsburg was founded in 1629. The hotel lobby behind me also looks nice and through it I can see the traffic stuck on Front Street, the street running parallel to the boardwalk where many of the tourist outlets are. 'Maybe I should have booked in here after all', I muse. Two comments on Tripadvisor by people who, having made a...

Dec 7, 2011 - The (A)BC Islands (Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire) Expanded with Travel Trouble 21/1/2012

Tula stood a little bit in front of the group of some 50 slaves in the courtyard of Knip, a sugarcane plantation in Bandabou on the western end of Curacao, where they had assembled for work after the early morning bell. ’We want to be free and not work for you as slaves anymore’, he told Shon (owner) Caspar van Uytrecht. Van Uytrecht told them to take up their complaints with the Governer in Willemstad and while Tula and his men went on to free imprisoned slaves and moved to other plantations enlisting more black slaves as they went along,...

Nov 8, 2011 - Mangroves, Brunches, All Souls Day, and Trivia Night at the Hyatt

Camp Curacao…. Where we thought we were Too Blessed To Be Stressed (that’s a sign on a party bus that drives around the island with tourists)”…. It was the first time EVER since we arrived on the island…. We were warned…….. NEVER leave anything valuable in your car! Becky dropped us off at the PTA’s Big Halloween Event at our school (open to the public – games, haunted house, disco, food/drink) where we had to work our 1-hour shift….so not wanting to take our purses into the hoopla, we tucked them under the car seats and Becky/Mike drove...

Oct 23, 2011 - Hiking, Oktoberfest, UN Day, 1st Curacao Cookoff

ISLAND UPDATE October 23, 2011 Hellllllloooooo from the tropics… here’s the highlights… Oktoberfest Oktoberfest was last weekend downtown ….. we thought “WE” were going to be Oktoberfest… but “WE” were pleasantly surprised by 100’s of people, beer tents… brats(served on hamburger buns) …. a live band…. a rousing disco-style Chicken Song…. a yodeling contest (which ended with Yodel-off between an American ISC teacher, a Peruvian woman, and a Norwegian tourist… which I can proudly report was won by one of our own ISC teachers)….. the only...