I can’t believe day five is already in the books. Time is flying by WAY TOO FAST. Picking a dive site has become difficult because I know we only have a couple days left to dive and I want to fit all of them in. We just have to have the mind-set that we will be coming back soon, otherwise it’s too busy trying to do and dive everything on our list. Today we chose to go back to Porto Marie to dive. Yesterday we just snorkeled there, and it has been recommended to us by several different people on the island for its uber healthy double reefs.
On our way to Porto Marie we stopped off at Landhuis Daniel for some Dutch pancakes. These were much more like crepes than the ones we had from the supermarket, very delish. I went sweet and had the rum and pineapple (YUM) while Marcus went savory with the ham, pineapple, and Gouda. A little syrup and powdered sugar to top off my mid-morning snack (we already had breakfast on the beach) and I was all hopped up on sugar and ready to dive! The flamingo sanctuary is on the way to Porto Marie and what would you know, there were actually flamingos there today! There were only 4 but we were still happy to them and snap some photos.
As anticipated the dive at Porto Marie was stunning. We explored the wall of the reef on the right and came back along the top of it. As soon as we descended we spotted a sea snake (he’s not on my Reef Creatures of Curacao card, not sure what his official name is) slithering away to some nearby coral for cover. There was also several trumpetfish just hanging out right where we descended. At other sites we have been lucky to see one or two, I guess we found where all the trumpetfish like to party. Later in the dive we also saw a couple gorgeous rainbow colored Queen Angelfish. We may have seen Queen Angelfish before, I can’t remember, but these two were quite large and a treat to admire so close up.
After our real life aquarium experience we went back to the dive shop to rinse off and we met some nice people originally from Colorado. The man had a fu manchu stash like Marcus, so we knew off the bat he had to be pretty cool. He was there was his two sons and as we got talking we learned that he had retired from the Colorado Springs Fire Department a couple years ago and just decided to move to Curacao to enjoy his retirement. He now does a little work for the Fire Dept. here at the airport and was just getting his sons certified (must have been a DM). I love meeting other divers and hearing their stories, such a nice (and usually very interesting) group of people.
We did our surface interval over to the far right of the beach away from the bar where it’s a little more secluded and relaxing. As we ate our lunch we dusted off our dive tables and calculated our next dive the old fashioned way (something we SHOULD do before every dive… lazy computer-reliant divers). After about 1 ½ hour surface interval we got all loaded up and back in the water only to realize Marcus’ tank was leaking at the regulator seal. We went back to shore, adjusted it a few times but it still leaked (we think it was the O-ring). Rather than switch out the tank we decided to just cancel the second dive and have a beer at the beach bar. The fact that this was the bar with that delicious Belgian Triple may have been a contributing factor. That means we had another “one dive day” but we enjoyed every minute of it.
We kicked up our feet and enjoyed our beer and pommes frites while watching a little wedding that was taking place on the beach in front of the restaurant. It was an absolutely gorgeous back drop for a wedding; I can’t imagine what those wedding photos look like.
After relaxing and reminiscing our dive for a bit we drove back into town, stopping on the Otrabanda side of the harbor to capture some sunset photos of the enchanting waterfront Dutch architecture. We climbed the steps of Rif Fort, which overlooks the vibrant Punda side of the harbor and just took in the view. The Rif Fort area of Otrobanda is very upscale and lot like Santana Row back home. I wasn’t impressed but it was worth walking around and seeing for a few minutes. Most of the shops were closed by the time we arrived but I didn’t feel like we missed anything.
We had dinner at the Blues Bar where a live jazz band was playing. The restaurant sits up over the beach and we were given a nice romantic “window seat” (there actually are no windows; every restaurant seems to be open air). We stayed there the rest of the evening just enjoying the sultry music, creole style food, and conversation.
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