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Archive for the ‘Islands + Topside Attractions’Mar 16, 10 Comments (0)
 Curacao Kites Good morning all, here’s something I have been meaning to shoot for years and finally for once had my camera with me as I passed by. Curacao is big into kites, check out www.curacaokites.com they have meetings, contests, shows, everything and the coolest thing is they are all made by hand. We have seen this guy before usually about this same time every year because March is a big month for the kites because of all the wind. When I pulled in and walked over the first thing I did was ask to take a photo but as you may have already guessed I had to buy a kite in order to get the photo, but that’s fine by me anything to help out a local who is doing something good for the island. The kite cost me around 15 guilders which is around $6 and I also had to buy a roll of string and a tail each sold separately, so I spent around 25 guilders, money well spent.
Not a whole lot to report today, I am taking the dogs for a walk shortly and then have a million things to do again. Curacao is still burning up in the sun, the desert is now as dry as it gets, I don’t know how these plants and animals survive?? The cactus look awful and thin and like every other plant just waiting for that first big rain, I sure hope it comes soon because it’s way to early in the year for such a dry spell.
See you tonight, Barry
Mar 14, 10 Comments (0)
 Lunch Time Hi again, I never want it to be said that I always sent the o’l stuff, so here’s my lunch today. I went to a 100% Dutch grocery store today called Albert Heijn and while passing by the freshly sliced meat counter I saw this smiling bologna begging me to take it home, so I did! I just stared at it wondering how in the heck do they make this stuff, or did I even want to know? I have never seen this before in the States have any of you?? As I was checking out I ran into our dolphin trainer Zenzi and she said yes it’s a Dutch thing and it’s mainly for the kids. I told her I was going to go straight home and take a picture of it, it’s just too cool. So the last thing Zenzi said to me as I was leaving was, “you only bought the meat to photograph it”?? I said yep, I did try it but ended up giving it to my two four legged un-picky food eaters and put ham on instead, it just wasn’t for me.
About the only thing I did today was to take the dogs on a two hour hike along the coast. You can come here and walk along our North coast all day and never see a single person, it’s a big area. I checked out some little remote beaches that I had not been to in a long time and they were just filled with great wood. I spent and hour moving wood from one place to another where others won’t find it, I can now go back anytime and pick it all up. The dogs had a wonderful time running and swimming and are currently passed out in bed. I was planning on going for a short bike ride later after it cools down but am still undecided.
Hope your all having a wonderful Sunday, talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Jan 24, 10 Comments (0)
 North Coast Trash Good evening all, one of my readers wrote to me and said, I love your daily photos but why do you post photo of trash?? My answer to this is, Awareness!! Curacao is just like any other country, they have a big trash problem here and very little seems to be done about it. This amazing pile-o-trash, mostly floating plastic items is at the mouth of Saint Joris Bay on the beautiful North coast. That’s our dear Emily standing above the trash heap looking down onto it wondering just where did all of it come from?? Every time we get big waves from a storm or high tide this stuff gets deposited here and every year this pile just gets bigger and bigger. For the life of me I personally can’t figure out why the government here doesn’t clean this stuff up, it’s located in prime tourist area and is seen by everyone that visits. So friends do your best to recycle your plastics and glass it really does help.
I had a very busy day starting at 7:00. I drove the dogs over to the salt ponds and we did a two hour hike and a little trail cleaning. When I got home I grabbed the bike and took off on a fast one hour ride. On my way back home on a trail I built I took a corner to fast and down I went in a cloud of dust! Good thing no one was around. I cut up my arm, elbow, hip and leg and crawled home on a semi broken bike, it’s like we say, if your not bleeding, your not speeding!! After that I put my underwater camera together and went to work and did a two hour snorkel with the dolphins, yeah I know rough life. I really didn’t get any great shots today the dolphins kept their distance, they really hate these big underwater cameras! After that I went back home and worked in my little studio playing with sea urchins again and by the time I finished it was dinner time!!
Hop all is well with you guys, talk to you soon, Barry
Jan 22, 10 Comments (0)
 Top of Mount Christoffel Good evening all, mega winds and monster waves are really stirring up our little island, it looked like the North shore of Hawaii at the Sea Aquarium today!! Honestly today was some of the biggest waves I have seen roll in around here, it was one big crash after another!! Usually when waves hit they get stopped by our mountains of giant boulders that surround the aquarium but today they hit and exploded over the top! I spent almost all day outside photographing dolphins and was amazed at the amount of salt spray flying thru the air. Before I took my camera out in that mess I cut the leg off one of my old wetsuits and made a full length neoprene cover that went over the whole camera, it worked great!!
Our dear Emily left today, to say she will be missed in an understatement, everyone loves her!! Emily is on her way to being a first rate veterinarian and was here working with Aimee and studding the dolphins and learning more about them. She has worked in Africa and is going back soon again, I think she should be doing a daily blog!! So Emily we hope you are safe and sound back home and thanks again for everything, we loved our Christmas gifts!!
This is Aimee at the top of mount Christoffel, she was actually the highest point on the island for a short time! You can really see just how high up we are, this is around 1300 feet above sea level and like I said before the view is amazing!!
Hope you all are doing well, enjoy the weekend, Barry
Jan 19, 10 Comments (0)
 Aimee on top of Christoffel Good evening friends, I want to first say, for those of you trying to call me today there is something wrong with my phone!! I can hear you guys on the other end nice and clear but you can’t hear me. If you need to contact me, call our home number it’s 461-7016 or Aimee at 527-1232, will get a new phone ASAP!
This is Aimee at the top of Mount Christoffel. Behind her is the south side of the island and just 37 miles across that stretch of sea is Venezuela. The views on top of Christoffel are nothing short of spectacular, you can see the ocean on all sides and really lets you know your on a Caribbean island. I may be going back here on Sunday for the whole day to do photography, I have always wanted to just take my time and see what can be found.
This morning I went with Emily and the dogs back to the North coast for another fun morning walk. It was windy again but we still had a great time. We found some ultra tiny flowers growing out of the limestone and tried hard to get a photo but in the end the wind was just too much! We ended up looking for small shells and wading the whole way back in the water and other than Indi and Inca finding every dead smelly fish along the shore it was a great time.
I spent a good part of my day inside in my little studio shooting more urchins and other cool shells, those are on the way. At 4:20 I left for a two hour mountain bike ride with some friends. The weather is just perfect right now, not to hot and a little breeze, it was just a perfect evening for riding.
That’s about it, Emily and Aimee went out to eat I was just to tired to go. Be back tomorrow, Barry
Jan 18, 10 Comments (0)
 Crashing Waves with Rainbow Hi gang, as promised here is the rainbow from yesterdays walk to the North coast. This is where the sea meets the land with such incredible force that it sends each wave high into the air creating a cloud of salty mist! In the mist you can see these beautiful rainbows but they only last a few seconds and getting close enough to capture one usually means your going to get soaked as well. And I did!! Emily was standing guard yelling at me to watch out but there was only so much she could do! Again, the things I do for a photo!
It was a crazy day at work and when 4:30 rolled around I ran from that place! Emily and I took the dogs on a very short walk and then called in an order of Chinese food, that’s pretty much my day.
Sorry so short and boring, more tomorrow, Barry
Jan 17, 10 Comments (0)
 Jesus Clouds Good afternoon all, it’s so windy out that I just want to stay inside today! Emily and I took the dogs to the North coast this morning and we did some more trash photos. At the entrance to Saint Joris bay where the untamed ocean meets the land there are a few coves there that are piled deep with every kind of plastic container known to man that has floated in over the years. As Emily and Indi stood high above on the rocks I was below shooting the trash but we had to stop because of this big cloud that came and blocked out the sun but at the same time creating a unique photo of it’s own. We ended up having a pretty fun morning although I ended up getting pretty wet. We were walking along these shear cliffs when I yelled out to Emily, “be careful…. and before I could finish my sentence a monster wave from below rolled in and hit the side of the rocks and soaked me! I was going to say” be careful not to stand here” but never even got the words out of my mouth! And we were at least 25 feet above the water line! After that we walked further down as far as we could until we were standing on the North coast just looking out at nothing but rough seas. There the waves rolled in one by one and smashed into the coast, it sounded like thunder and in the mist and spray was a beautiful rainbow each time, I’ll send that out tomorrow. The important part is the dogs had a great time and are now asleep.
Aimee and Emily are working today I may jump on the bike and go riding later but really hate to be out in this stupid wind! Hope your having a great weekend, Barry
Jan 14, 10 Comments (0)
 Trashed Beach Good day folks, here’s a real eye opener for you all this evening, a completely trashed beach in one of the most beautiful parts of Curacao. This is Saint Joris where we take the dogs four days out of the week. The piles of plastic and trash all come from the sea and magically find their way to these poor beaches. The local kite surfers/boarders have cleaned these areas countless times since we have been here but it just keeps coming! We took Emily here today and she just stared in disbelief but our answer to it was “you have to look beyond the trash and see the other beautiful things”. Like all the cool driftwoods pieces, sea urchins, shells, snails, crabs, etc… Behind this pile-o-trash is a nice trail that we walk and yes it leads to more beaches that look the same but hey it’s home!! Curacao like so many other places has a real problem on their hands that for the most part is either out of their control or they just tend to ignore it. As we were leaving today we watched as a local guy sat in his car (which was loaded with trash) and waited for us to leave so he could dump and run, we did take a photo of the car but really what good would it do. If you want to help keep things clean please do your part in recycling your plastics otherwise who knows where your trash will end up?? I am sure we will be going back here soon to start picking this stuff up again and bag by bag carry it all the way back home.
After our walk this morning Emily and I went back to the polished glass beach which is also full of trash but again “one has to look past the bad stuff to see the diamonds”, or in this case it was shards of beautiful glass.
I then stayed at home most of the day photographing urchins and shells indoors and at 4:15 went on a fast hour and a half ride with a friend. So that’s my day what did you all do?? Gotta go, Barry
Jan 7, 10 Comments (0)
 Mount Christoffel Good evening one and all, it was another fun day in Curacao!! Today we left the house at 7:00 and headed for Mount Christoffel located on the Western tip of the island. It was me, Aimee, Emily and Junior, dogs are not allowed in the park so unfortunately they had to stay home!! We all had an absolute blast today! The climb itself is around 1300 feet, and the trail is rough, washed out and very rocky. Junior, who as most of you know is one of our dolphin trainers, he was so funny today. We started out as a group but minutes into the climb he asked “do you guys mind if I run up ahead, I want to see how fast I can get to the top”!! All of us were already out of breath and sweating really bad trying to keep up to him so we said “go for it”!! Hearing that he was off like a man on a mission! We kept climbing and climbing, the trail got steeper and steeper and we seemed to just get wetter by the second, it was like someone had poured a bucket of water on each of us! It got so bad that I couldn’t even see out of my glasses anymore because of them fogging up from the humidity. Well after around 25 minutes my phone rang and it was Junior calling from the top, we were a little more than half way at this point. Being from Honduras Junior was made for this crazy environment, he’s skinny and fast! Your photo this evening is of Aimee (red hat) and Emily on the last part of the climb to the top. You can really see just how high we climbed and the ocean in the background. Once at the top there was a very cool strong wind blowing and after 15 minutes our clothes were dry again. I carried up a backpack with 20 pounds of camera gear and am feeling it tonight. I finally got some great Trupial shots (local bird) and some other little birds, I kept busy with that while the others took photos of each other and in general just had a great time. As we were up there climber after climber made their way up all gasping for air and completely soaked!! For those of you reading this and wanting to go, be warned it’s hard on the knees also get there very early, take lots of water, a dry pair of clothes and don’t forget the camera the view at the top is incredible!!
We got back to civilization at around 12:30 and had a hard time getting out of the car because of our tired and weak legs, they felt like Jell-O! We did a little shopping at the new Goisco Mega Store, we went in for DVD’s and came out with tons of other things, funny how that happens!!
That’s about it, I heard Sully is still doing great and George may be back tomorrow. Talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Dec 31, 09 Comments (0)
 Baby Iguana Good evening all, it’s 7:00 and the fireworks have already begun! Inca has been kind of scared all day and hides every time she hears one go off and Indi just barks. This morning after my two hour Saint Joris fun walk as I was driving home, some kids tossed a firecracker near the car at a turn and Inca jumped into my lap while I was driving, she was scared to death!! If you have never had a 35 pound dog in your lap while your driving down a busy road your missing out, I was laughing so hard I had to pull over!! My day went really fast for some reason, the only real thing I accomplished was going on an hour and a half bike ride and the walk with the dogs this morning.
I have another request for everyone this evening. Are any of you going to the States soon or know someone that is coming, I need someone to bring my repaired laptop back for me, it got held up in shipping and won’t be delivered in time to our friend Emily who will be here on the 4th. If anyone can help, I will make it up to you!!
Here’s a baby Iguana I found in our back yard last night and I saw him again today but was unable to get very close. Last night he let me get very close, he just hung there on that branch blending in motionless. His tail which you can’t see is about as long as his body and I noticed it was turning brown. These young iguanas spend all their time hiding in bright green foliage and if they don’t move they are almost impossible to see during the day!! I will be keeping an eye on this one so maybe I can send you more shots in the near future.
It sounds like World War 2 outside, our cat is hiding under one of the beds, first time she has been in years!! I have to go, Happy New Year, best wishes, Barry and Aimee
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