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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Islands + Topside Attractions’Mar 9, 11 Comments Off
Hey gang, I have officially reduced the daily e-mail/blog list by half! Those names I no longer recognized or folks that we haven’t heard from since the beginning of time are no longer with us and maybe they never were, we may never know?? I want to say thanks to everyone for all the comments about today’s picture, I am so glad you enjoyed it and yes I have many, many more that are on the way, so stay tuned.
Aimee was off today but I don’t think she was able to much relaxing. She first took the dogs for a walk under a very overcast sky, then took the laundry in, went shopping, got gas in the car and on and on, maybe tomorrow she can relax a bit more?? I had a very busy but fun day doing 2 short but sweet sub dives. My biking buddy Stijn showed up for the 11:00 ride and I was able to photograph him with a big happy grin on his face looking out at me at around 50 feet. After a brief photo shoot I waved goodbye and off they went down into the dark crystal clear abyss in search of new creatures yet to be found and named! The water was pretty clear today, most of the coral bleaching is gone now and back to normal but my big coral face is still weeks away from being fully recovered. I am seeing more and more Lionfish right on our small reef everyday and I hear daily thru reports around the island that they are being spotted everywhere in large numbers, hard to believe something so beautiful can be so hazardous to the reef!
Here is another fun shot from Bonaire. I am not quite sure where this is but my friends on the bench are pointing to the small island of Klein Bonaire, see it?? In 2001 the small island of Klein Bonaire was designated as a protected area and became part of the Bonaire National Marine Park, managed by STINAPA Bonaire. Today when you see Klein Bonaire, a flat island with a white sandy beach and low growing vegetation, it may be difficult to visualize how large a role wood played in its history. The island had many big trees with trunks as thick as 12 inches (30 centimeters). Many species, including Brazil wood (locally called “Palu di brasil”, Haematoxylon brasiletto), West Indian satinwood (“Kalabarí”, Zanthoxylum flavum), lignum vitae (“Wayaká”, Guaiacum officinale), and coconut trees grew there. The wood was used to make charcoal, burn coral stones to lime, provide dye for paint color, for medicines, and to make pulleys for boats. These products were then exported. Large waves, resulting from a strong hurricane in 1859, wiped out the coconuts and many other big trees that were growing near the shore. The practice of cutting trees down in an unsustainable manner soon depleted all the large growth on the island. Klein Bonaire was also used for the keeping of goats for export to Curaçao, which further contributed to the deforestation. Keeping goats was the last commercial use of the island.
We are off to dinner at a friends house, see you soon, Barry
Mar 7, 11 Comments Off
Hola Amigo’s how was your day?? Today was some kind of major holiday here, I think it was Carnival but not sure why they would proclaim Monday as the holiday as Saturday and Sunday were the big events, could be everyone was hung-over today?? I have a big heads-up to everyone on the e-mail list or should I say almost everyone on the e-mail list. As of tomorrow I will be going thru my insane long list of e-mail address and deleting any name I have not heard from in over a year! Close friends, new friends and relatives have nothing to worry about but the rest are going, going, gone! If your name is deleted and you want to still receive these free daily blogs from Curacao all you have to do is send me a 500 word essay on why you want to be kept as a contact and your name will be re-listed, it’s that easy! Ok, I’m just kidding about the 500 word essay, just send a note with your best apology for never writing and your back in, that’s easy enough right!?
I love this photo tonight, it’s a place you can just stare at and envision yourself on an endless vacation! This is the beautiful pier at Sorobon Resort at Lac Bay and yes, how did you guess, that’s Aaron and Jen once again playing tourist. The water here is warm, crystal clear and so inviting, you can literally walk off the end of the pier and walk all the way out to the ocean way off in the distance, it’s a place you just have to see to believe! I could have stayed there all day taking photos and not just because the beach was littered in bikini’s, it was just such a peaceful relaxing place and there were photos to be made everywhere, I can hardly wait to get back.
Today was fairly quiet because of the holiday, I did one sub dive with a family from Canada and worked on the commuter the rest of the day. I am still waiting on some more information on the new slit-shell we found and the Golden Basslet so please be patient I will get them out.
Here’s something cool, go to; http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2011/03/5-caribbean-mountain-biking-escapes.html#more this is an article written by the World famous writer Aaron Gulley about our mountain biking trip in Bonaire and he talks a little about the trails here in Curacao, this is for Outside Magazine on-line.
Off to bed, see you soon, Barry
Mar 2, 11 Comments Off
Hi guys, this one is for my friends in the States who are encased in cold freezing climates at the moment and wish they could be out riding!! This was shot at the “Tolo” dive spot and in background where you see those radio towers in the famous dive spot called “1000 Steps”! None of us brought bikes but we found a great spot to rent them at a place called “Caribbean Sports” www.caribbeansportsbonaire.com which is located near downtown Bonaire. Once we had the bikes we then needed a guide and we found just the right person at a place called “Bon Photo Bonaire”, www.bonphotobonaire.com Our guides name was Leo Hoogenboom, he’s the one in the black shirt with the black helmet in tonight’s photo. My new friend Jen is seen here leading the pack along the scenic coast of Bonaire with her husband Aaron following in the rear! This is the woman I told you about a few days ago that eats sissy riders like myself for lunch, this girl is fast! Her and her hubby are both accomplished cyclists and enter some of the hardest races in the States each year, like the Leadville 100 and countless 24 hour death rides, they both kind of give new meaning to the word “in shape”. I was able to keep up to them on some of the downhill’s with a strong tailwind but when it came to the hills, well lets just say I didn’t have my mini-binoculars with me so I don’t know how far ahead they were? Other than constantly holding my water bottle like it was an oxygen tank the ride was great and super scenic! Keep in mind Leo who lives on the island is in pretty good shape as well so if you hire him for a bike trip know in advance what your getting into, these island boys can do the miles. He took us on a fantastic trip with some road and lots of rarely seen Bonaire single-track that lasted around two hours or 20 miles which ever came first?
I had a pretty eventful day of taking photos of all kinds of cool things like that new slit shell, some tiny underwater hermit crabs, a flying gurnard, and of course this cool flashy orange colored mini-sub. My big complaint for the day was the water, today was as bad as ocean water can get, it was like diving in pea-soup, and I kid you not. Days like this are caused by, rain, no current and a change in the wind direction, I really hope it improves tomorrow as we have to dives to do with the sub.
Off to bed for me, see you tomorrow, Barry
Mar 1, 11 Comments Off
Good evening readers, it’s your daily note from Curacao. Today was spent helping the scientists out again from this little organization called the Smithsonian, ever heard of it?? I started my day out again with a dive alongside the submarine but bad visibility put an instant end to that so I took off instead on a short dive in search of Lionfish. Thankfully I only found one and left it there, I will have to see if I can employ the talents of Lionfish Hunter Johny who handles all our little problems. Most of our scientists leave tomorrow morning but one is staying until Friday and he studies invertebrates. He went down in the sub today and proudly brought back a beautiful new slit-shell of some kind which I will photograph in the lab tomorrow morning, I’ll send a photo. After work I met my little super fast mountain biker for a fast and furious one hour ride thru the wilds of Curacao. Both of us looked like we got attacked by a lion afterwards as we had scratches all over our arms and legs from the sharp thorn bushes and I hit my elbow on a tree, and yes it was still fun!
A little Bonaire sunset for your viewing pleasure tonight. After a long fun day of diving everyone at Buddy Dive was at the Friday night Rum Punch party and got treated to this beautiful sunset, it was the icing on the cake!
Off to bed, thanks for all the kind notes, Barry
Feb 28, 11 Comments Off
Hi friends, how was your Monday or do I dare ask?? Mine was pretty fun as I got to hang out with a team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution. They are here again for three days in search of new species of fish, shells and invertebrates and using the new sub as their searching tool! I think they ended up doing three dives today and I left this evening before they returned so I have no idea what they found down there. This morning I did a deep dive with a friend right out in front of the Substation, we zipped down to 140, had a look around and slowly made our way back up, it was short but super cool.
Here’s a photo I took on the last day in Bonaire in the rain! I think “Cheba” was the name of the guy in the doorway, he and his friends were under the overhang of this colorful grocery store hiding from the morning shower. Our tour guide Rolando was kind enough to ask this gentleman if we could take his photo which wasn’t hard being that they knew each other. I asked Rolando what these guys do all day?? He told me that most are retired and hang out here in front of the store just talking or playing cards, and like us they get a check every month, although it isn’t much. Cheba was a semi-celebrity for those few minutes and he loved it! I remember his buddies yelling at him the whole time and he tried not to smile while I had the tripod set up and Rolando trying to keep the rain off the camera.
Not much else going on, the puppy is doing better every day, I promise I will get a photo to you soon!! Have a wonderful Tuesday, see you again soon, Barry
Feb 25, 11 Comments Off
Hi gang, I am back!! What a trip to say the least!!!!! I am so, so, so sorry about not even being able to post a quick photo or blog this week, I really had no time!! Almost every night I ended up getting to bed after midnight and then having to get up again at 5-6am just to get ready to do it all over again. So our goal was to do a story for the June issue of Sport Diver and the theme was to find other super fun adrenaline sports to keep you busy in between dives! We went caving as you see below, mountain biking, hiking, diving, windsurfing, kayaking, bird watching, exploring and my favorite snorkeling in an underground cave. Our group of three consisted of me, a famous writer named Aaron Gulley and his wife Jen who helped out non-stop thru this adventure, I used her and Aaron as models just about every day. Below is our tour guide Clay giving us one of the best cave tours you could hope to find on a small island, he was so passionate about his work and it really showed!! It was so funny because we just parked along the road just out of town and walked thru the desert along a little trail until we came to a fairly small hole in the ground. There we peered down a dark hole with a ladder going all the way to the bottom and the first words I remember hearing are “who’s going first”?? Well that was me since I had the camera and a big tripod. I first went down and set everything up and then one by one my models came down the ladder gazing into the darkness with their lights. Clay gave us a great tour explaining the history and everything you ever wanted to know about Caribbean caves and all though I was sweating buckets of water from the heat it was a total blast! Aarons wife Jen is an accomplished photographer in her own right and helped a bunch, she had tons of great ideas and like a smart photographer I listened and took notes when I could.
I am so tired, more tomorrow, Barry
Feb 13, 11 Comments Off
Hello everyone and Happy Valentines Day!! I hope all you gents out there have already taken care of business and done something or have something planned for those ladies in your life?? I made Aimee a necklace and got here a bunch of yummy chocolates. While collecting beach glass I found this clay pendant off a 200 year old jug and it has a big “A” stamped into it. I then took it home and drilled a tiny 1mm hole thru it with our junky house drill and then strung it up with turquoise and silver, it came out pretty good. Tomorrow night we have dinner plans somewhere, she won’t tell me but it should be a fun time.
We got a nice rain storm today which we kind of needed, I can’t believe I am saying that but it’s true. This island dries out so fast without rain due to the constant winds coming off the ocean, the moisture has no where to hide. I just got home from a fun bike ride followed by a great dinner and now it’s game over and off to bed. The puppy is doing so well, I will get a new photo out to you soon, her hair is all starting to grow back.
Sorry so short, Happy Valentines Day to all my ladies out there, you mean so much to all of us!! Good-night, Barry
Feb 9, 11 Comments Off
Good evening from the Caribbean. For those of you who have never seen a dog smile, this is what it looks like! Inca and Indi had so much fun this morning running along side us as we made our way up the coast to our favorite little hidden beach called “Inca’s Place”. For you Geocachers there is even a cache hidden there and it’s named, yep, you guessed it, Inca’s Place. The desert is still nice and green from our two solid months of rain, look on the ground we even have grass of sorts! This mornings ride was so much fun. We parked the car near the bat caves and rode down a dirt road straight to the ocean and then took a left, we could now see the giant windmills up ahead in the far distance and with a strong tailwind we got there in no time at all. The dogs again ran straight to the water to cool off and while they were doing that we set up their water bowls and went in search of beach treasures. I kept telling Aimee, “watch where your walking, there are little hermit crabs everywhere”!! She sat down at the edge of the tide-line and collected little shells while I walked around looking for fossil corals to be used as jewelry, it’s amazing how much stuff there is to find. After around 30 minutes of resting, collecting and playing with the dogs we grabbed the bikes and headed back this time straight into the wind. I hate riding a bike into a strong wind but the dogs love it as it helps to keep them cool, needless to say it took much longer to get back. Fun Curacao morning, I highly recommend this trip to any of you who have not done it, you can walk as well but that would take quite awhile and you would need to leave very early.
That’s about it, was a nice relaxing day! The puppy got her first vaccination today, will send a new photo out soon! Help us find her a great home, she will be a winner!!
Good-night all, Barry
Jan 16, 11 Comment (1)
Good morning all, I hope you were able to get the most out of your Saturday. I kept busy from sun-up till down sun-down getting so many things on my “to do list” done. I had a great two and a half hour walk with the dogs to the Calabash trail, the sun was out with a nice wind which made the trail work seem much easier. The rest of my day was spent doing errands, computer work and a fast trip to the glass beach and in the evening Aimee and I went out to eat, it was a great day off.
Here is another shot of all the activity from a few weeks ago at Playa Ascension, if you missed that story I wrote here is the link; http://www.coralreefphotos.com/uniek-curacao-playa-ascension-beach-clean-up/ This small area of beach is really all that got cleaned and look at how much trash was picked up?? Behind me in this shot was a pick-up truck full of picked up trash as well, you just can’t imagine the mess these poor beaches are in. If you look across the water you can see a group of people over there as well, that side of the bay still needs lots and lots of work, please feel free to load up the kids and drive on over a do your part, it’s actually a very rewarding activity for the whole family. Once again I just want to say thanks to Uniek Curacao for organizing this event and for all the sponsors that donated food, garbage bags, people and anything else, we need lots more of these events.
Have a great Sunday, I am doing a long bike ride today but first taking the hounds out to play, see you all later, Barry
Jan 8, 11 Comments Off
Good evening readers, today something wonderful happened in Curacao! After doing a two hour walk with the dogs and re-opening some old lost World Cup trails I grabbed my camera equipment and took off to the other end of the island to a place called Playa Ascension. The drive took me around 30-40 minutes and our little car did real well considering the shape it’s in after it’s last episode with a crazy local driver. Upon arriving at Playa Ascension I parked the car along the road and began the long hike down a muddy road which ends right at the beach. There my eyes beheld a wonderful sight, dozens of people joined together with one mission in mind, clean up the beach!! This special event was put into motion by a non-profit organization called “Uniek Curacao’, you can read more about them here. http://www.curacao-actief.nl/index.php?id=552 Plus, many business around Curacao played a big role in helping sponsor this event and they should all get a medal! This is just one of a handful of great things “Uniek Curacao” is doing to help save this island, but they really rely on your help as volunteers, so next time one of these events happens I hope more of you can attend. In total I counted around 60 plus helpers today, at least 20 of those were from the Military and the rest appeared to be every day folk like you and me. Many people were in the water collecting trash and were hauling out long pieces of plastic and muddy tires and countless glass bottles. Others were digging thru the sand while the military boys hauled tires and wood but mostly it was just bag after bag after bag of plastic containers being filled and tossed into a big pile! For any of you locals wanting driftwood now is the time to get down there and take what you want, they had a mountain of it! This area is well known as being an area sea turtles come to shore and lay eggs and now with a ton of trash gone that will be even easier for them! When I left this giant metal container was completely full, that’s just from one little beach area, it’s no wonder the locals call this place “plastic bay”. The Dutch Military was a big hit today, those boys worked like there was no tomorrow and I am sure will be sleeping good tonight. So folks drop “Uniek Curacao” a line and just say thanks, you really can’t imagine how much good this did today. I left with a smile on my face and warm fuzzy feeling all over knowing the next time I come here it won’t be so trashed!
Great hearing from you all, have a wonderful weekend!
Sunny regards, Barry
Jan 3, 11 Comments Off
Hello all, here’s a little Curacao sunset for your viewing pleasure tonight, actually we are calling it “the question mark sunset” as the cloud directly above the sun looks like a question mark, cool huh? Yesterday, (Sunday) was our annual event called “Fuik Baai”. That’s were every boat in Curacao heads to this big protected bay called “Fuik Baai” and ties up to each other creating a wall to wall carpet of boats. It’s the biggest event/party Curacao has each year and the idea is once your all tied up to all the boats you can then walk from boat to boat. Well, I wasn’t there but I heard there were thousands of boats so just imagine the mess above water and below. And with all these people swimming and trying to walk from boat to boat you can just imagine all the stuff that accidentally falls into the water. Well today five of us took off early in the morning on a small boat equipped with dive gear to see just what could be found. Everyone jumped in and immediately went different directions, I just kind of headed for shore. Now the bay was empty, but just hours earlier it was solid boats, once underwater the evidence of the later day was clearly visible! The bottom was a mess of beer bottles and chicken wings by the hundreds and probably thousands, such a major mess! But in with all the trash we found treasure! I personally came back with a dozen pair of new sunglasses, a new Zippo lighter, 14 bottles of unopened beer, a nice paddle, a towel, some jewelry and a bunch of tongs for cooking on the grill and a cool mask. I found the least of everyone, Johnny found a $700 Welder watch, 3-rings (all nice), a dozen sunglasses, but good ones, Prada, Ray Ban, Oakley etc., a big crazy wooden bead necklace, mask and snorkel, a knife, a Jack Daniels Glass, and so much more! Our friend Bruce came back with the biggest stainless steel necklace with matching bracelet I had ever seen, a nice Swiss army knife, a leatherman tool, a beautiful underwater camera (working), another sterling silver necklace, a dozen pair of sunglasses, 2 new hats and tons more. And then Rob and Bart found more paddles, more hats, lots more sunglasses and on and on and on, we hit the jackpot! We only searched in a small area, imagine what is still down there?? Upon our return we took most of the glasses over to the Dolphin Academy and handed them out, I gave all my beer to some friends and Johnny is looking for buyers for some of his stuff. Fun morning of treasure hunting!
Better get to bed, probably going to dream about empty beer bottles tonight, we need to go back and do a clean-up! Good night, Barry
Jan 2, 11 Comments Off
Happy New Year once again, last night was again filled with the sound of non-stop explosions here in Curacao, these folks sure do love their fireworks! I had mentioned a few days ago that we boarded up the windows and many thought I was kidding, I really did! We live just a block or so from one of the biggest beach dance clubs in Curacao and usually at around 3-4 in the morning when the local kids leave that’s when we get rocks thrown at the house, not just ours, anyone with a visible window. So a few days ago I took my unused driftwood and made use of it, I will take a photo and send a picture it’s really funny looking from the outside. Yesterday we woke to an all out downpour again!! I had to take Aimee and Junior to work at 6:30 in the morning. As we got close to work, we saw and almost ran over this big iguana that was sitting in the middle of the road loving the rain shower, it was even still dark, that’s something we had never seen before! I ended up staying home all day yesterday not doing anything and really not feeling very well. For the past few days I have had that feeling that I was getting sick but nothing major ever came, yet?
Not sure what this has to do with Christmas but it’s one of the new and fun light exhibits in the water behind the town of Punda, kind of right behind the movie theatre. Curacao went all out this year spending a small fortune on lights and I must say it was a great idea as they really needed some help in the tourism area. Aimee and I both had a blast this year walking all around the town and shooting holiday lights, they were everywhere and it was beautiful, thanks Curacao!
Well, sorry so short, I need to get the dogs out and turn this Sunday into doing something useful. Have a great and safe holiday weekend, Barry
Dec 31, 10 Comment (1)
Happy New Year from Curacao!!!!!!!!! Aimee and I want to once again say thank-you to everyone who has helped us in this adventure, we honestly could not be doing this without all your continued support! I know our friends back home think we are never coming back and that I said we would only be here for a year and yes now it’s been almost seven years, it’s just turned into a longer vacation than we had expected. That’s why mail from you all is so important, please don’t ever think we get too much mail already, we love hearing from you and seeing photos from home. Aimee and I had a great year, we sold lots of photos, got to go fossil collecting in the States and see friends, went diving in Bonaire, rescued more puppies, met new friends, had old friends visit (who brought Highlander), and so much more, we have a lot to be thankful for!! I hope you all have or had a safe New Years Eve, I just finished boarding up all the windows as tonight the “CRAZIES” will be out in full force! Talk to you more next year, Curacao regards, Barry and Aimee
Dec 30, 10 Comments Off
Good Morning friends, welcome to another addition of “life in Curacao with Barry and Aimee”. Yesterday Aimee was off, she first went on a two hour hike with the dogs and did some needed trimming on the Calabash as it’s now turned into a jungle trail! She then waited around the house for the rest of the day for the workers to come and fix our broken window which did get fixed and looks great. I had to work and did two dives yesterday. My first dive was spent fanning red algae off the reef since the current was running at full speed. We have many places in Curacao where the reef is in terrible shape and just filled with different kinds of algae, some red, others are green but most are black and brown, it’s really nasty stuff. If you go out on a high current day, you can just wave your hand over an infected area and it will all just disappear into the moving current. The downside was there is so much but I did get one area done in the hour and a half I was there. My second dive was with the sub but the visibility was terrible so shooting photos was very difficult, thank goodness for Photoshop!
At 6:00 Aimee and I left the house and headed back to Punda for another try at shooting all the beautiful holiday lights in the city. We met up with a friend of ours named Papito at 6:30 and he stayed with us for around an hour adding a little bit of safety to a man carrying a lot of camera gear. This is the famous waterfront area called Punda and our spectacular all lit up floating bridge. The Punda District boasts a number of elegant dining options, including a Michelin Guide-caliber French restaurant. There are also countless stores waiting to relive you of that extra cash and you can find stuff like round bricks of Dutch cheese, designer fashions, crystal from Ireland and Germany and porcelain products from England just to name a few. Another of the facts about Willemstad Curacao is that you can gamble here, and you will find several casinos, as you will at some of the resorts and luxury hotels elsewhere on the island. Take tours in the suburbs of Scharloo and Pietermaai, and you will find beautifully restored old mansions. If all this isn’t enough for you, Willemstad boasts colorful festivals, regattas, and other special events nearly all year long. In fact, every time a cruise ship glides into the harbor, the merchants of the Punda District put on a Bon Bini (meaning welcome in the local Papiemento language) festival for the arriving passengers.
I better get to work, see you soon, Barry
Dec 28, 10 Comment (1)
Good evening from Curacao, it’s me again!! Aimee and I get so many requests for boat photos, maybe more than anything else but I just never seem to have time to go in search of these types of pictures, but today I did. First of all there must be a short story told before I introduce this evenings photo. Years ago Dutch, the owner and creator of the Curacao Sea Aquarium bought and sunk two beautiful old tugboats in around 40 feet of water out in front of the aquarium on what we call “the House Reef”. The tugboats were an instant hit for all the divers and became home to many creatures in this new artificial reef. Well one day a big storm came to visit and by golly those tugs started to move and by morning they were gone! Where did they go you ask?? Yep you guessed it, straight down, they now rest on a sandy flat on the edge of a massive wall at 170 feet! The good part is that now the mini-sub has an incredible place to take it’s passengers but since then the diving community has been without a fun sunken ship to explore, see where this is going?? For many years Dutch has been looking for a replacement tugboat and finally found just the right one and I got to go see her today. Everyone meet Adriana, a beautiful tugboat that was born in the 1920′s and has been in use till up to just a few years ago but now the cost to overhaul her and fix her is beyond reason. Adriana is now parked in the oily waters next to Isla, “our Caribbean oil refinery” and tomorrow will be towed to another area so workers can start cleaning her in preparation to be sunk for a new Curacao dive spot. From what I was told she was originally outfitted with a steam engine and later was up-graded to a diesel motor, talk about history. I will be following this from start to finish so stay tuned for more, together we are all going to learn how an artificial reef is born, it should be fun!!
Aimee and I are off to look at more Christmas lights, have a wonderful evening, Barry
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