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Archive for the ‘Water Sports + Recreation’Dec 20, 09 Comments (0)
 Christmas Dive Hey guys, it was just another normal day in Curacao, if you call dressing up like Santa’s Elf’s and decorating tanks normal that is!! I first took the hound dogs for a two hour trail cleaning bonanza and again just like the last trail cleaning day, I did all the work, those dogs are no help at all! This time I cleaned the steep main trail that heads up to Jan Thiel. Last night when I rode up it I passed one of my co-workers pushing her bike because the trail was so rocky and I told her tomorrow there will be a surprise for you! I know what a nice guy, but hey someone on this island has to keep our trails looking good! After I got back home I went to the Dive Bus Hut and picked up Marks tank and BC and took it back to my house where I spent the next hour decorating it for today’s festivities! I used around 50 zip ties, 36 feet of colored decorations and countless ornaments! At 11:00 I met Mark and Suzy and around 15 other divers all participating in today’s annual Christmas Fun Dive at the World famous Dive Bus Hut. The dive itself was really fun but to my disappointment it was overcast and the water was pretty murky, both things a photographer with a wide angle lens doesn’t need when trying to take Christmas Photos. Before the actual dive Mark had the whole group kneel on the sand at around 25 feet and sing Christmas songs, that was just down right hilarious! The group that guessed what song Mark was singing first won, and now that I think about it I am not sure what they won?? Your photo this evening is of Mark with his famous chicken hanging on his tank taking a photo Miss Santa, I think it’s safe to say fun was had by all!! After the dive we did a present game with everyone at a big table. In short you had to roll a dice and if you rolled a six you were able to pick any gift from the table and I learned immediately why I have never been to a Casino! Once all the gifts were gone, they started rolling again this time if you rolled a one you had to give one of your gifts away and if you rolled a six again you could take any gift from any other person and so on and so forth, again I now know why I am not in any way drawn to Casinos or why I don’t buy lottery tickets, I stink! It was a fun afternoon, I spent the rest of the day cleaning cameras and gear at home.
So that’s what I did today, like I said just another normal day in Curacao!! Barry
Dec 1, 09 Comments (0)
 Mushroom Forest Hi friends, I had the day off today and for once I left the house really early to get the most out of the morning. I arrived at Saint Joris at 6:45 just as the sun was fighting it’s way thru some storm clouds that had just passed leaving a spectacular rainbow in it’s place! As we started our walk along the waters edge I noticed a wine bottle with a piece of paper inside and with a closer look after washing the bottle it had a note in it! The cork was on to tight so I tossed it in my bag and continued our morning hike. My destination this morning was a little beach that almost every day has new washed in goodies like wood, shells, buoys and of course the hundreds of pairs of flip-flops that Indi loves to collect and chew on. As I was searching I noticed another big storm coming right at us and was currently dumping rain over the ocean. I dropped what I was doing and found two big washed in wooden pallets and quickly carried them to the side of this rock wall and proceeded to make a little shelter for all of to hide in! The little cave was very small about three and a half feet high and maybe four feet wide but once we crawled in it was perfect! The rain came as expected within seconds of finishing my shelter and I kid you not when I say I could not see the ocean which was only thirty feet away, it was an all out tropical downpour! The dogs stuck close to me the whole time and the pallets kept us really dry so after about ten minutes it passed and out we crawled! It’s amazing how active the snails on shore become after every rain they just come out by the thousands, it’s so cool but you have to watch where your walking. It was a great morning of collecting and taking photos and by 9:30 we finally made it back to the car and boy did I ever have two muddy but happy dogs!
So back to the note in the bottle, I decided to wait till Aimee got home to see it in the bottle before I opened it just in case it was something really cool. I had imagined someone was stranded on a deserted island or someone was being held captive somewhere but after opening the bottle and removing the note we read that it was just a note tossed overboard from the Mermaid (a local tourist boat) on the way back from Klein Curacao on November 29th! There goes that fantasy! But anyways there is an address I will send the note back to them and tell them we found their bottle, I’m sure they were hoping it would have traveled a lot further!
Here’s another shot from the beautiful Mushroom forest, that’s a big Grooved Brain Coral on the bottom, a cluster of Purple Stove Pipe Sponges at the top and the gray ball is a Black Ball Sponge.
I just found a tiny new species of frog outside, photo on the way soon. See ya, Barry
Nov 29, 09 Comments (0)
 Mushroom Forest Hello all, I’m finding out now just how much I miss my camera and computer and how much I used them!! The camera is being worked on in a repair facility in Arizona and the computer is on it’s way to the States so it’s out of my hands now!! It seems like forever since I have been out diving on the reef and I can’t even remember when I did my last night dive?
Aimee went to the whale this morning while I took the girls hiking. We had a great morning the only thing missing was Aimee but whales and dolphins come first! I had a borrowed camera with me this morning and shot some new species of snails which I will send for next Thursdays daily. I carted home a nice big piece of driftwood that will make a great top for something, Indi carried an old shoe the whole way back and Inca well she brought back tons of sand, will be needing to clean the car out real soon!
Here’s another shot from when Eva was here and our trip to the Mushroom Forest. This is a great dive spot with beautiful sponge and coral arrangements everywhere! The down side is getting there, you either need a boat or you have to use the water taxi at San Carlos, I recommend doing the boat dive from one of the numerous dive shops that dive here on a daily basis!
That’s about it. have been home with Aimee most of the day doing nothing!! Till tomorrow, Barry
Oct 21, 09 Comments (0)
 Car Pile Tires Hi friends, here’s another fun picture of Mark exploring the Curacao Car Pile or what we are now calling the Junk Pile! I forgot to give you all the link yesterday to the history of this pile-o-rusted-stuff so if you have a moment read this, http://www.the-dive-bus.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=342 This is another piece of upside down Curacao history now completely engulfed in corals and sponges making a nice little artificial reef of sorts. I am constantly blown away by how long a tire can last underwater?? This one here has been submerged for around 60 years and it still looks like it have air in it and could be used? This was again found at around 115 feet which unfortunately makes your visits very short but it sure is fun! This is one of those sites you could dive everyday on vacation and never find all the treasures that lay down there. Aimee and I are headed back here tomorrow in our quest to discover new and unusual things so stay tuned for more! Oh yeah, for those of you wondering what is on Marks back, well that’s his rubber chicken that goes everywhere he does, gives you a little hint to the type of fun and crazy guy he is!!
Work was again MEGA busy!! Normally I get home at 4:30 but today I got home at 5:30 that doesn’t happen to often. This is a fall holiday for half or part of the Netherlands, the other half of the country has their vacation starting next week, figure that out if you can?? That’s about it, have a wonderful evening and thanks for tuning in again, Sunny regards, Barry 21-10-2009
Oct 20, 09 Comments (0)
 Carpile Excavator Good evening all, I’ve been going non-stop all day and finally I can just sit here and relax! Aimee and I left the house at 6:30, I dropped her off at the whale while Inca and I went on our own little adventures. We had an hour to kill before Aimee was done so we first drove to the old castle at Caracas baai and checked on the Geocache that is hidden there. I had gotten some e-mails saying folks couldn’t find it or that it had maybe been stolen again but it was right where it was supposed to be. Next we drove and picked up some driftwood that had been dumped in the desert and then went on a 20 minute hike cutting thorn bushes along the way, it’s amazing how much you can do in an hour! Once we got back home, I then took both dogs for a short walk over by the Aquarium and then back home because of the heat. I then took off to the store and dropped of our laundry and went to a book store to try and find the new issue of Scuba Diver but it’s not here yet. Upon returning home again, I started working on my driftwood toy box that I have been building for weeks now, this project is consuming a whole lot of my wood supply! At noon I met Mark at the World famous Dive Bus Hut for a deep dive to the Car Pile! The dive was really fun!! This was the first major thing we came across at around 110 feet, this is a giant antique Excavator Bucket! I found it ironic that this bucket once used for scooping up large amounts of soil or rock is now filled with beautiful sponges and encrusting corals, it’s kind of fitting isn’t it?? This is really one of the coolest dive spots in Curacao and you can bet I will be spending more time here searching for goodies! I think our maximum depth today was around 118 feet, we swam from rusted object to rusted object and never ran out of things to find. When we surfaced Mark said, “they should call it the Junk Pile” and he’s right it’s just littered with old rusted things of every size and shape, complete cars are hard to find! The rest of my afternoon just flew by and at 4:30 I left the house for a two hour bike ride. I rode by myself for the first hour and was met by friends for the second half, that deep dive kind of killed my riding tonight!
That’s about it, I am going to bed, talk to you all tomorrow, Barry
20-10-2009
Oct 15, 09 Comments (0)
 The Blue Room in Curacao Good morning friends, we had quite a day yesterday at Santa Cruz. For any of you wanting to visit the famous Mushroom Forest or play in the Blue Room you only have two options. Do what we did and drive to Santa Cruz and pay for a water taxi which cost $20 dollars each and he will take you out and drop you off or you have to arrange the dive thru one of the many companies on the island and jump on one of their big boats, it’s just not possible to do from shore it’s too far out! So we got there around 10:00 after a long drive, set up our gear on shore, climbed in the little boat and off we went, it was about a three minute boat ride at high speed. We asked to get dropped in an area that wasn’t dove as much and turned out to be a very beautiful area. Aimee and I kind of raced from beautiful sponge or coral outcrop to another, I would set up and she would swim over and pose in the background we really work good as a team doing this now. The whole time we were shooting Eva just hung out along side and enjoyed the dive she was just super relaxed with a smile on her face! This was really a nice little reef, it’s right before the start of the actual Mushroom Forest. We stayed for one hour and then slowly began our assent to the surface where the water taxi would pick us up. Our little boat showed up right on time and one by one we took off our gear in the water and handed it up to the driver. We then asked if we could go check out the Blue Room real quick since it was so close and we all had extra air. Beware of this though folks if you go with the Santa Cruz water taxi he will charge you for another dive if you get out and get in again which would have been useful information before the dive. Ask as many questions as you can before you leave shore he won’t tell you much unless you ask. So he pulled up at the Blue Room, Aimee decided she was going to just free dive and left all her gear in the boat and Eva and I jumped back in on scuba. I went directly inside the big cave and just watched as my half fish half human wife dove down 20 plus feet time after time and explored the cave by just holding her breath, made me tired just watching her! Eva explored the cave behind me which goes in pretty far and I just sat there on the sand watching them both. This is really one of Curacao’s coolest water attractions and I highly recommend this to everyone and please call me before you go!!
I think we got home around 1:00 all of us hungry and very thirsty and the dogs were so glad to see us. Aimee and Eva went to Punda for some shopping and relaxation time while I cleaned gear, and worked on the computer. Thanks to our friend Cindy in Rapid City I was able to put together a little Halloween Video for you all, actually there are two they are really funny and we think you will really enjoy them! Here’s the links, monstermashup.com/
 9298b2 and monstermashup.com/5dd85b That’s about it we are really enjoying Eva although we keep calling her Sheila? We have two best friends that have come here a lot Leon and Sheila from Hill City, South Dakota so we keep calling her the wrong name, forgive us Eva. We are again headed to the West end this morning for some great diving at Playa Kalki, join us at 10:00 if you wish!! Gotta go, bye now, Barry
14-10-2009
Oct 13, 09 Comments (0)
 Superior Producer BW Good morning from adventure central. Our day yesterday started out with yet another trip to the Superior Producer. We figured since the ocean was a bit more calm now getting in and out would be so much easier. Well for the most part this was true, it was much easier than the day before but still a bit of a challenge. I was hoping for killer visibility but instead it turned out to be the complete opposite. As we descended down the coral reef and out over the sandy flat at 85 feet normally you can see the giant ship resting ahead of you on the sand from quite a distance, well not yesterday. It wasn’t till we got fairly close that the outline of this monster beast came into view, in fact it was kind of eerie as you can see from the photo this morning. As we approached I gave the signal to Eva to descend all the way to the bottom which was about 112 feet and for her to swim thru the big hole where the propeller used to be, fun for her and cool photo for me. As I got into position on the sand waiting for her to swim thru I noticed a family of four Yellowhead Jawfish just next to me popping up and down out of their holes checking us out, I told Aimee she has to come and see these guys. Even though the ship was engulfed in a watery fog it was still a blast! We swam all over checking things out like the sponges and corals stuck to the sides and the creatures that live in them or around them, it’s just always a great time there! Our time quickly ran out and off we went headed back to the safety of the reef and shallower waters. On the assent up we found what looked like the same two big squids from yesterday and hung out with them for a bit during our mandatory “Deep Stop” to decompress from our deep dive. Eva is a great diver, very calm and getting better and better with her air it sure has been great having her as a dive buddy and guest.
The rest of our afternoon was fast paced as well, we first cleaned gear, went to drop off the tanks, went to the grocery store, then to the bakery, lunch and then I took her to our favorite glass beach to collect polished glass.
While collecting beautifully colored polished glass we decided we should go get two more tanks and do a night dive as well, my kind of girl! We jumped in this time at 5:30 on the Sea Aquarium reef and got out after dark. Our dive was one for the books, we ended up seeing so much!! We started out with watching two French Angelfish mating, three Spotted drums together, a pair of Hamlets mating, two Spotfin Butterflyfish chasing each other, a Seahorse and much, much more!! I found this Seahorse in the dark if you can believe that, and it was the first Seahorse Eva had ever seen in the wild on all the dives she has done all over the World! When I pointed to it underwater and for her to come closer she looked and then let out a great scream of delight underwater, that made my day!! Doing dusk dives is really the best time to be out there for behavior photos, I have to start doing more! Our night dive ended with watching a squid eating a shrimp but he wouldn’t let me get close, I think he thought I would take his food or something! Aimee came to pick us up at 7:15, the night ended with a homemade dinner of Mexican enchiladas, it was great!!
Eva and Aimee are at the whale already this morning, when they get back Eva and I are taking the four wheelers on a trip to the North coast for the morning should be fun! Better go, lots to do, see you tomorrow, Barry
12-10-2009
Oct 10, 09 Comments (0)
 Car Pile Good evening readers. Once again we woke to a whole bunch of rain! It’s amazing how a rainy morning completely changes the plans you made the night before. Our little Aimee left the house at 6:00am to go help with the whale and was back home by 8:00. I spent the morning getting my camera ready then off we went in search of tanks to rent. Eva and I finally made it to the Car-Pile dive site around 11:00 which is located out in front of Breezes Hotel at 100 plus feet! This is one of the top five best dives in Curacao and is steadily getting more and more famous. The bottom is completely littered with old car parts, wheels, metal beams, barrels, and so much more making it one of the coolest dives in town!! This is our friend Eva above the front end of an old car!! The round cluster of sponges at the bottom is where a wheel would have gone and the other big piece of yellow sponge above it is an old wheel well and fender with tall sponges growing out of the engine compartment! Come on use those imaginations!! We had a real fun dive, I think this was at around 95 feet and it was pretty dark down there today with no sun overhead. On our way back up the slope we came across a big eel that was out hunting so we followed him for around 10 minutes all over the reef, was strange to see him out during the day. So we had a pretty fun first dive, tonight we are meeting Dirk for a coral spawning dive in front of Aqua-Electra on the double reef they have there, we jump in at 9:30!!
After washing dive gear, we ate lunch and then went to the store, after we all took a short nap, it’s been a fast paced day! I’m getting ready to get the grill going, then re-build the camera for tonight, load the car again and hopefully make it to bed by midnight tonight!!
Gotta go, Cheers, Barry
10-10-2009
Sep 28, 09 Comments (0)
 Superior Producer Good evening from rainyville! We woke up this morning at around 4:00am to the sound of rain and at 1:30 in the afternoon it finally stopped!! The little frogs have been singing all day, the birds are loving the free bath and the green stuff is all blooming again, love that rain! Needless to say, rain means no walking the dogs and no diving but I did finally get all day to work on some new photos for the website!! After the rain stopped I made an attempt to get back to the driftwood projects but it was just to wet out still. Plus after each rain here we get these little snails that crawl out of nowhere so you have to be careful where you walk, I spent a bunch of time picking them up from the walk-ways and putting them somewhere safer. I did head out for an hour bike ride mostly on the road, went in search of hills to climb trying to get a good workout in a short amount of time.
Here’s another fun shot of Mark looking into one of the many old windows of the Superior Producer. I was inside one of the upper rooms while he swam out the door and posed for a nice picture, I can hardly wait to get back there! The sides of the walls are covered in different colors of encrusting sponges plus if you look carefully you can see a few giant clams stuck to the sides.
Looking forward to our newest guest arriving soon, I have the whole week off so we are going to be making some great photos! Hope everyone is doing well, thanks for the letters, miss you all as well, I’m out, Barry
28-9-2009
Sep 17, 09 Comments (0)
 Helidive Good day all! Well I’ve had a crazy fast paced day again. My day began with taking the dogs out for their morning tongue dragging session at 7:00 and by 8:00 it was so hot we were all racing back to the car! I was completely soaked from sweat and had to sit on a towel to get home, I really hate humidity! Once home I took off to do some shopping and pick up the laundry and then spent the next few hours cleaning up the house.
At noon I met Mark and his friend Jim at the World famous Dive Bus Hut www.the-dive-bus.com we loaded his truck with dive gear and put a bunch of light stuff in mine for after the dive. Mark and Jim drove to Blue Skies, home of the pretty blue helicopter you see flying every day all over Curacao and got ready to climb aboard. Yours truly went straight to the beach equipped with my mountain bike and all my camera gear. I had to ride the bike a ways to get to where the helicopter would meet me for this fun jump into the sea. Everything went pretty much as planned today, once I got my camera on the tripod and was in position I called George, (owner of Blue Skies) www.blueskieshelicopters.com and told him I was ready, we had already discussed exactly what we were going to do. It only took the helicopter a few minutes to get to where I was and just as planned he lined it up exactly how I had asked, talk about a great pilot!! George was flying and behind him was one of his helpers sitting in the middle of Mark and Jim. Once in position the divers carefully got up from their seats, climbed out onto the skids, gave each other the ok and out they went. The guy sitting in the back seat was holding both divers hands and when the ok was given he is the one that lets them go. The divers have their fins connected to their BC’s and their hands are over their masks, it looks like fun huh?? After the divers were safely floating the helicopter left and seconds later with an ok signal from mark they both disappeared underneath the aqua blue waves. I loaded up all my gear jumped on the bike and headed back down the beach to where I picked them up one hour later. So after returning them to Blue Skies where they left their truck I drove back to the Dive Bus, unloaded the wet dive gear and tanks and took off home. The first thing I had to do when I got home was wash my bike, it got a lot of salt water on it this morning! This whole event today was compliments of Niels Jorissen www.divechartercuracao.com We needed some new shots for an article that will be in an up an coming diving magazine, I will get you more info on that soon.
I need to get moving, I have to get to the airport and see if there is a lost woman from the States walking around with a ton of luggage and is in need of a ride?? Wish me luck! Barry
17-9-2009
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