Curacao: Day 3

We started our day off with a homemade Euro style breakfast on the beach. We had pineapple jam and oude kaas on dried fruit wheat rolls that we bought on our shopping excursion. The jam and cheese on bread/toast for breakfast is something that was new to me when I went to Europe for the first time and I make it at home all the time now (Marcus loves it). I also cooked Marcus an egg and we took our little breakfast down to the beach. It was a very sunny, beautiful morning. After breakfast we packed a lunch for the day and headed towards Playa Lagun in hopes of diving the Mushroom Forrest. The dive shop at Playa Lagun usually has a dive boat that will take you out to the famous Mushroom Forrest, but not this week. The gentleman at the dive shop recommended we see “Captain Goodlife” (Juney) at Playa Santa Cruz just up the road instead and then maybe come back and dive Playa Lagun afterward. Not only had I read about Capt. Goodlife, but the Dive Master at Marie Pampoen had also recommended him (his exact words were actually more like “He’s a crazy M*F*”). He has a water taxi that just drops you off at one end of the reef, and picks you up 45 minutes later at the other end near the “Blue Room.” Captain Goodlife was busy I suppose- we briefly met him but he didn’t actually take us out, he had one of the boys that works with him do the deed.  It was a short 2 minute boat ride when we arrived at the reef, fell back off the boat into the bright blue water, and started our dive. “OH MY GOSH” is all I kept mumbling out of my reg as we got into the thick of the reef. I knew no one could hear me, but it was a natural response. The dive was absolutely incredible. I thought it was a much better dive than the day before, but Marcus like them both equally. It was just a nice, lazy dive FULL of vibrant colored sea life and coral. In any direction you looked there was a school of fish in your face or a vibrant piece of coral with its own little eco system growing in and around it just begging to be examined more closely. It was a battle going back and forth from enjoying the amazing panoramic view of the mushroom shaped coral to getting in a little closer and enjoying the dive from a macro view. Surprise, surprise… we got so caught up in taking photos we never quite made it to the blue room. Not even close actually. When we were done with the dive we popped up and saw the boat waiting at least 100 yards away where were supposed to have made it by that point. They spotted us and picked us up, laughing the whole way over to us I’m sure. Oh well, we didn’t get to see the Blue Room but had an AMAZING dive none the less.

After our dive we went back over to Playa Lagun where we enjoyed our lunch on the beach and logged our dive. Both of our computers said we had a desat time of 16hours which was impossible (our max depth was 44 ft. and our dive lasted 45 minutes), but still being fairly new divers it worried us. We talked to the gentleman at the dive shop and all of us chalked it up to the fact that I had shared my air with Marcus towards the end of the dive (I still had over half a tank left). By the time we finished our lunch and hung out at the beach for a bit the dive shop at Playa Lagun was shutting down and we were feeling pretty lazy. We decided to make it another “one dive day” and headed over to Jaanchies for dinner. Jaanchies was recommended by Sunshine (restaurant & apartment owner on Westpunt) for local cuisine. It was as visually entertaining as it was delicious. The man who owns it is obviously a bird lover and the entire restaurant is surrounded by bird feeders tucked into local flora. The birds flutter from limb to limb as they sing and gobble up the food from their various feeders. When we arrived the owner was walking around with a bag a sugar, putting a little into each bird feeder to keep them coming back for more. The way it’s set up is tasteful, and the birds don’t actually come into the restaurant and disturb your meal. They are just there to serenade you and were even kind enough to pose for a couple of photos. We each had the seafood combo and Marcus tried the Iguana stew. The combo was shrimp, grouper, and Caribbean rice… put a little of the garlic tartar on the grouper and it was to die for. Marcus said the Iguana stew was good, but didn’t finish it. He said it was kind of like buffalo wings, “definitely not as good though.” I give him kudos for trying it. I was tempted but decided Iguana didn’t quite fit my pescatarian diet, however I have seen alligator on a couple menus and that may qualify for a tasting. Still haven’t found a place serving barracuda, I’m dying to try it.

After dinner the owner invited us to sit in some nearby rocking chairs and told us he had a surprise coming. We obliged and took a seat in the big comfy rockers. He then brought out a two neopalatin ice cream sandwich desserts which we enjoyed as we rocked back and forth and watched the birds. After our delightful dinner we raced the sun over to Playa Kaliki to watch it set. It was a rocky, more secluded beach over to the right and had a dive shop over to the left. We only stayed long enough to watch the sunset and then drove along the north side of the island back to the hotel. Back at the hotel we made a couple rum libations that we took down to the beach. The beach was technically closed but we went for a swim anyway, no one bothered us or seemed to care. We stayed out there just swimming and chatting the rest of the evening. The area of the beach we were on was near the Blues Bar, which we plan on checking out either Thursday or Saturday when they have a live band. On our way back to the room we stopped by just to look at their menu and it just so happens Tuesday is burger night. We were a couple drinks in at this point and getting a little hungry so Marcus got his burger fix and ordered a Texas Burger to go.  I made my own late night snack back at the room (nutella on parisettes) and we sat out on the balcony to enjoy them both. We definitely let our inner fat kids out, hopefully this won’t be a nightly tradition!