Holiday time

I've sort of recovered from our holiday. Things are still a little confused because Elaine still has one more week of March Break, and Stephen is working from home a bit. So my computer time is drastically down! However, we shall overcome....

Lots of pictures, folks! Click to embiggen.

We went to Curacao, in the very southern bit of the Caribbean, just 40 miles off Venezuela. It's not a super touristy island, but it has a huge harbour and one day there were 3 cruise ships in! We stayed at a resort a bit out of town, so we weren't really affected by the coming and going of thousands of people on ships. We had our pools,



our food, our palm trees,


our beaches, our swim-up bar. Our giant chess set.



One day we went to the big town of Willemstad, saw the market, the old fort made into shops, the bridge that swings open to let huge ships pass through.


As well as the pretty white cruise ships, big old freighters come and go frequently. There is an oil refinery in the bay, and there must be a small container port, though we didn't see that. We had lunch by the water, watching the bridge open and the ships go by.

Is it kinnearing if the subject knows you are there?

On another day, we rented a van (we were with my brother, his wife and son, so there were 7 of us) and toured around. We found, after much twisting and turning, the distillery where Blue Curacao is made. They also make it red, green or orange, and it is a mainstay of pretty drinks!

We got back on the road and went to the cave! I believe Elaine called it "interesting but creepy."


The island is an old volcanic lump, covered in coral. The land rose, the ocean receded in ice ages, geologic time passed, and we get a big sea cave 48 steps up from the parking lot. The fellow who took us through was very engaging and told us about the geology, about the slaves who hid out there (and cooked, blackening some parts of the ceiling), the algae and the bats. When Elaine pointed out to him that she could see a sleeping dragon formation, he agreed, and then showed her a crocodile as well.

After the cave, lunch. Well, this took some time. We stopped at one likely place, but it was closed up. We drove through little roads and looked at cacti, and finally found Jaanchies, with a couple of tour buses parked outside. At least that meant it was open! The owner has apparently been reciting the menu for years, but it all, of course, seemed fresh to us. The food was good, but there are a lot of bones in iguana meat! Then it ended up costing more than we expected, and the power was down so the Visa machinery was not operating (what ever happened to the little imprinting slider thing?) so we gathered together all our cash and were still a bit short. I think it'll all work out in the end...

Okay, then it was time for the beach!



The guys did a bit of clambering about on rocks,



Elaine made sandballs (like snowballs, but with sand!)


and we got to watch two little girls on a fashion photo shoot. "Here, put this on, carry the parasol and walk around looking cute." I don't think we managed to get any photos of that!

Other days we hung around the resort, eating, splashing in the pools, snorkeling. We went for a Hobie Cat ride out into the rather rough seas. There was always a little entertainment on the pool deck in the afternoon. Maybe you would take a dance lesson (ha!) or learn some useful local language. (Dushi means sweetheart, and also delicious.) One night I hear there was some karaoke being sung, but Elaine and I had retired by that time so there were no reliable witnesses. Stephen tried a bit of juggling and found himself rusty. Robert, my nephew, did very well in the arm wrestling.


These people were watching... Since Elaine and I found this picture highly amusing, I thought I'd include it here.


I knitted a bit.


I took my nice light lace project, but didn't actually work on it till I was on the plane home, because my hands were always sunscreen-y or sandy or wet. But I figure a girl can work on dishcloths with sandy hands, so I made two and a half, before running out of yarn! The one in the foreground is the Mitered Hanging Towel from the second Mason-Dixon book. (Also available free online!) The main part used a whole ball of Sugar and Cream cotton. I changed the strap part thus: I put the "button" hole at the base of the strap, and then at the end I made a "button" by increasing in each stitch all across the row a couple of times. So it goes like this: *increase in each stitch across the row, k 1 row* repeat 2 or 3 times till you have a great rose to fit through the hole. I also cast on an odd number of stitches and did a double decrease in the centre instead of ssk, k2tog.

Now, lastly, the natural history. Perhaps I should have put this first, because who knows if Dave, my bird guy, will read this far....

Okay, first we have the little bird that was most common. Flew around in the palm-fond-roofed dining buffet hall, ate crumbs. Sat on lights looking around.


Then the bigger, also yellow, one.


And then the big sea bird.



It was hard to get a decent picture of this guy, but we tried.

And a turtle, for those non-birders in the crowd.


And as the sun sets in the west, we say farewell to Curacao.