We started off our first full day in Curacao with a hot cup of coffee on our balcony, just relaxing and taking it all in. After our little morning java we drove to Centrum market to do a little grocery shopping for the week. This is something I look forward to everywhere we go and was one of the highlights of my day. I LOVE going to grocery stores in other countries, and this little place didn’t disappoint. As to be expected it mimicked Alberthein grocery store in Holland. We loaded up on Oude Kaas (“Old Cheese:” crumbly, stinky gouda- a favorite to both of us) several other types of Gouda, and some produce. The “sweet” aisle was probably where we spent most of our time- I love all the Belgian and Dutch treats! We finally narrowed it down to some speculaas (spiced cookies, great with coffee) and parisettes (mini cookie-like Belgian waffles). We then made our way to the grown up aisle where there was array of different flavored Curacao liquors to choose from. Blue Curacao is what we were most familiar with, but here they had rows and rows of different flavored “Curacao liquors.” There was so much to choose from; we eventually picked up some Curacao Rum & Curacao Coconut Liquor. I think we just might have to go back and pick up a few more of the flavors before we leave though!
For breakfast we went over to the bakery where we bought Arepa Pompoena (Dutch pancake), a couple croissants, and a Kroket. The Arepa Pompoena was amazing, similar to a crepe but a little thicker with raisins scattered throughout. Marcus was not a fan of the meat and potato deep fried Kroket (I didn’t try it). After our shopping excursion we stocked up our fridge and mini kitchen and then sat out on the balcony with a map and made a dive plan for the day. We chose “Tugboat” based on recommendations from family as well as dive magazines, plus it’s not too far from where we are staying and it was already nearing noon. Well that plan was a bust… apparently Tugboat is and will be closed for quite some time. There was a language barrier between the security guard at the gate and myself so I’m not exactly sure why it’s closed, something a about a large boat I think (Cruise Ship?). We later talked to a few other people including a dive master working at a local dive shop who didn’t even realize it was closed. We drove around to Kabaye, a nearby dive site but decided to go back to Marie Pampoen which had been recommended to us by the dive master at Atlantis Dive Shop.
There are two dives at Marie Pampoen: a deep dive (around 90 feet) of sunken cars in which sea life have made a home, and an easy going 45ish foot plateau reef dive. This was our first dive in Curacao, first shore dive by ourselves (no boat to come pick us up where ever we pop up like we had in Cozumel) and no dive master to navigate us back. Needless to say we chose the easier of the two dives and may have to come back to see the underwater car yard another time.
The dive was wonderful. We saw our old friend the Rainbow Parrotfish, various other species of Parrotfish, Yellow Tail Snapper, various Angelfish and Groupers, a couple of the slightly more elusive long Trumpetfish and the big exciting sighting of the day... a Spotted Moray Eel. I don’t think the moray eel is that rare, but they can be hard to spot simply because they hide out in little caves of the coral. Marcus spotted him (he always finds the good stuff, good dive buddy) and pointed him out to me just as I was about to swim right passed him. We had fun with our new camera and mom’s underwater housing, it’s a lot different than the little disposable underwater cameras we are used to using. We can’t wait to get home and go through all of our photos and hopefully even make some “wall art” out of them.
Neither of us bothered to look at the compass on our way out (oooooops) but managed to “navigate” back perfectly by pointing in the direction we thought we came from and just making sure our dive computer showed that we were slowly ascending. We were very lucky, and definitely won’t make that mistake again! As we came up the sun was beginning to set, which made for some cool photos from the water. The dive shop that sits there on the beach also has an outdoor restaurant called “Surf and Turf” attached to it. It was simply a small kitchen with a deck coming off of it, steps leading to sand and about 8 or so tables and chairs set up along the water. They were just starting to set up as we packed up our gear and chatted with the incredibly nice dive master at the shop. He gave us some detailed advice such as: at Playa Lagun, swim out to the right and about 15 minutes into the dive and around 45 feet there are usually 3 ________ (blanking on the name) fish. Hopefully I’ll remember before we go out there, I presume they were some of the more rare fish. Anyway, after talking with him and another guy from Holland for a while, we grabbed a table along the shore and enjoyed the sunset. We ordered the Surf and Turf, fried plantains, fries, and a couple cold ones. Despite having to wait quite some time for our meal (they had lost our ticket), the setting and food were amazing. We couldn’t have asked for a better ending to our first Curacao dive.
After dinner we drove back to Avila and had dessert at the outdoor “Bella Terrace” restaurant. Marcus had a warm apple tartlet with ice cream and I had a passion fruit mousse. His was delicious, but neither of us were too impressed with mine. We ended up going back to the room and having a couple of our Belgian treats to satisfy the sweet tooth. After dessert we made a couple coconut rum cocktails and went for a walk along the beach and resort. We found a little spot that sits up overlooking the ocean where we sat the rest of the night just talking, laughing, and finishing our drinks. It was beautiful spot and fun ending to our day.
Marky
Britt finding Zen
Trumpetfish
Sunset view from our dinner table
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