Advertisement
Published: April 17th 2018
Edit Blog Post
Curacao 2018
Walk way to dive shop It has been an interesting couple of days to say the very least. Originally our trip was going to begin Saturday morning 4/14, with a stay the night before in Minneapolis since we had a 5 a.m. flight. However, I'm sure you have all read about the huge storm, that barrelled across the plains slamming into central and southern Minnesota dropping over 2' of snow. American Airlines had the foresight to email passengers leaving on flights Saturday and Sunday allowing us to change our reservations at no cost. The second we received the email, I called and we managed to get out on a flight Friday night at 5 p.m. just ahead of the storm. So we arrived in Charlotte, NC Friday night to 79 degree temperatures, 12 hours earlier than originally planned. We met our friends Dave and Donna Rink Saturday morning and resumed our trip as previously scheduled.
We arrived in Curacao at 1:30 Saturday, after a long and somewhat boring plane ride, close to 4 hours. When we came down the escalator to Immigration in the Curacao airport there were probably 200 people in line waiting to get through the immigration process, because two planes had arrived
Curacao 2018
View from restaurant at the same time. The plus side is the Curacao airport is indoors and air conditioned, unlike Bonaire and some of the other Caribbean ports of call where you stand in the sweltering heat and humidity waiting to get "stamped in". Luckily Curacao has updated the process by installing the new automated immigration machines, (that look like ATM's with cameras) so we were through the line in about 20 minutes. After picking up a few provisions we arrived at our resort Oasis Coral Estates about 3:30 p.m. EST.
I won't go into a lot of detail on the accomodations we were originally booked into, I will only say the resort was great at making things right for us, and we are very happy with our rooms, which are now in the VIP section of the resort, which includes our own small infinity pool and gorgeous lanai's that overlooks the ocean. The temperatures here run about 83 degrees during the day and there is always a tropical breeze, that sometimes picks up enough to be called a tropical wind. The gardens around the complex are beyond beautiful as you can see by the pictures, and there are hummingbirds, parrots, and
Curacao 2018
Steps down to ocean for shore diving butterflies everywhere. There are also lizards of all shapes and sizes that grace us with their presence on our lanai every day, so we've taken to feeding them snacks. Today "Larry the Lizard" had some lime flavored Doritos and he was very happy with his snack. He's probably dead and dried up from the salt by now, but he went out smiling! Just kidding.
Today was our first boat dive, and there were only 4 divers on the boat, three of them being us. I have not dove since I had my left knee replaced last August, so this was going to be all new to me. We did do a short check out dive from shore yesterday and everything was fine, the new knee was absolutely bionic! The first dive today was a 57 minute dive (one of the longest ones we've ever done) and unfortunately for me that was about 20 minutes too long, for my right knee which also has to be replaced in the near future. I really struggled to get back on the boat after the dive and my knee immediately ballooned. Moral of the story, my diving will be from shore this trip,
Curacao 2018
Entrance to VIP Studios Apts where we can keep the dives to about 35 minutes, which is about as long as my knee holds out. However Jim and Dave will be boat diving each day, so I will continue to post pictures and relay their adventures as well as mine and Donna's day time excursions.
Honestly, if I couldn't do anything but sit on a stump on this warm tropical island, I would still be happier than sitting in 2' of snow back in Minnesota. No offense folks, but my tolerance for cold and snow ended about the same time Regan left office. Bon Nochi - translation; good evening of good night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.078s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0342s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Pam
non-member comment
Wow
Super pictures would so love to go there hey maybe next year and we could meet up there!!