Gone Caribe

This post promises to be picture heavy as we took probably one of our better if not the best excursion we have ever done, but first the setup.

We were up early again this day as it was another port day. We quick went up for some breakfast and while I was on the elevator a guy asked the other people in the elevator if they saw the person that won $10,000 in the casino last night. They said, “No I didn’t see that but I won $6,000.” I was shocked as I didn’t think people actually won at the casinos on a ship. Given the amount of people we would see playing non-stop however, I suppose eventually someone has to win something.

I had done plenty of research on Curaçao and found that Gone Caribe had a pretty good reputation of being a good excursion that was not ran by the cruise line. It was a little nerve wrecking in a way as this was the first time we bought an excursion that wasn’t tied to the cruise line. You always hear warnings of the possibility of missing the all aboard time if you go outside the line. If you book an excursion through the cruise line, you are guaranteed to not miss the ship. If you book outside you don’t have the guarantee. I will say right off the bat, Gone Caribe was always very mindful and concerned about getting us back on time. They are well aware part of keeping a good reputation is making sure people don’t miss their ship.

After some correspondence via email I was told to meet them at the Starbucks near the dock. Joey, who owned the business along with his wife, was one of our tour guides. Because we were a large group, he had one other driver named “Buff”. Ella, Leighton, Heather and I got in the car with Joey while the rest got in the van with Buff.

Joey was very talkative and knowledgable about so much regarding the island. Buff I guess was a quiet. Sometimes to the point where people would occasionally doze off while they drove. Not Joey, he kept talking but it was nice because we learned so much. Unfortunately, I don’t remember a whole ton.

I remember because the people were so tall on the island it was first referred to as the Island of the Giants. But the Spanish did not find any precious metals so the name got switched to Useless Island. We learned of the ABC islands, Curaçao is the largest followed by Bonaire, then Aruba. But population wise it goes Curaçao, Aruba, then Bonaire.

Our first stop was to see some flamingos at Sint Willibrordus .

We learned here that they dig up shrimp off the bottom of water with their bills. Also, when they have one leg up, that is when they are sleeping.

So we found out after a bit that Buff took the other group to the wrong flamingo location. Joey said there were probably more there but this place you could get closer. Also we noticed someone trying to walk out and get closer to the flamingos but as soon as they even tried they started moving away.

Then we drove off to the next location where Joey filled us with more information on the island.

While an island, it doesn’t receive much rainfall so much of it has a desert feel to it with plenty of cactuses and pointy things. People would make fences out of cactus.

Catholic church. The island is predominantly Catholic and is owned by the Dutch. However Joey said they do make their own laws and while they are Catholic, they are able to make laws that are relevant to the current social situations.

This was their school. Notice it is pretty much an open air building with no air conditioning. They only go to school until noon or 1pm because of the heat however they only get a couple of weeks off in the summer, otherwise it is year round.

The next spot was Santa Martha Bay which was a beautiful lookout point overlooking a bay where people would harvest salt.

Joey telling us about the Bay.

If you stood up on the rocks a bit, you could see the ocean in the not too far distance.

Once again we were on the move. This is the highest point on the island. You can walk up this mountain but the latest you can leave from the base is 10am, again because of the heat. Joey said it would take about 1.5 hours to get up.

Sheta Boka National Park

Our next stop was probably my personal favorite. If we ever come back again I would probably like to spend a few hours checking this area out.

You do have to pay to be in the park. Most people pay when they get to the entrance but because people obviously know Joey, he could skip the line and pay later. I was actually a little surprised that given his business that he wouldn’t have some special priveledge to just come and go. Either way, entrance to the park was part of the fee we paid him.

Joey took us on walks to our locations in the park.

The rocks were quite sharp so you had to watch yourself a little, not to mention there were plenty of plants that wanted to poke you.

We learned about termites and how they would build highways in the wood they were hiding in. Here you see the brown streak running down the side of the tree. He broke an area open and sure enough, termites came out. He said they may work to fix the highway but we came back to look about half hour later and it looked like they abandoned the route, at least for now.

This was our first beautiful location we stopped at. There were a few other small groups of people but not busy by any means. There was unfortunately trash that had washed ashore that made the beach area not as nice but it was a very tranquil and beautiful spot nonetheless.

We watched as two hermit crabs fought over a shell. By the time we returned later on, there had apparently been a winner and the other left.

We then walked down a long path to Boka Pistol. It was named that because of the sound it used to make like a pistol going off but years of erosion changed that sound. Now it sounds more like a muffled canon.

This area was so cool!

The waves would come in and fill the cutout you see on the left of the picture then suddenly…pooof!

Joey got Leighton and Kate to feed an iguana.

This was a sign on one of our walks. Be sure to read the sign.

They knew the water used to be up and over the land here as there are impressions of coral in the rock.

Another location and Joey took us down into a hidden cave.

Once inside, there was a sort of underground cave where the waves would flow in.

Definitely an instance I was glad we had a tour guide because who knows if we would have found that on our own.

We walked back to the vehicles to leave for the beach.

Joey asked us if we wanted to stop and eat somewhere or go to a beach and possibly just eat something there. We elected to just go to the beach so he took us to Playa Kenepa Chiki.

It was a very pretty beach area. All the chairs were taken except for one so we just dropped our stuff on and around that one chair.

While it was a very pretty beach it was rocky and there were rocks all the way into the water so it kind of hurt stepping in.

I had my snorkel gear and Joey brought enough for everyone so we tried to go out. It probably was quite humorous if people were watching as only the adults really knew how the snorkel. We had tried it on our first cruise with an excursion through Disney but it was such a disaster as we had to jump off the boat and into the water and were expected to just start snorkeling. I was hoping this would be better as we could just wade into the water but people were still having a hard time with water in their breathing tube or water getting in their masks that at one point there was probably 6 or 7 of us all trying to balance on this one rock as they tried to adjust their masks.

Leighton and Ella got used to theirs so the three of us went off and followed the rocks. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t much to see. We actually saw the most fish nearby where we were all trying to balance on the one rock. Apparently others including Sophie were able to get things adjusted enough to actually snorkel a bit.

We figured we had been in there a while and came out of the water to check in with Joey. Now after passing a cliff where people jump into the water Joey had promised Leighton we would find another jumping off point on our way back to the ship. So when we came out of the water Joey said we had to leave in 40 minutes if we wanted to jump off the cliff so we should get something to eat now.

We went to this food truck to order burgers, fries, cheese curds, etc. While there wasn’t a line as you can see below, what we didn’t realize is they had a bunch of orders ahead of us and they would give people a buzzer that would go off when their food was ready. So they would go back to the beach and wait for their buzzer to go off. Well, we wound up waiting about an hour and half before we got our food. Of course because Joey is so concerned about getting us back to the ship on time, we were not able to stop to do the cliff jump.

Along the way we came to this statue that symbolized the 1795 Slave Revolt. However, slavery continued until 1863 officially.

Back to the Ship

So we head back to the ship and go through the Tunnel of Love which is an bunch of flowering trees that spread over the road. Joey said you are supposed to hold the one you love or keep in mind someone that you love as you pass under it.

Joey gave us a quiz on what we learned on the way back and taught us some words in Papiamento which is a blend of African, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, and Arawak Indian.

When we get back around the port area we buy some drinks and snacks. Heather and I bought a sample package of Curaçao (you know…Blue Caracao that we’ve been pronouncing wrong all these years). I guess the recipe itself isn’t patented but the original bottle that developed the drink is.

A few ordered beers and some mixed drinks that had Blue Caraçao in it including Blue Lagoon but some younger ones.

A group of us went up to 9 forward to watch us depart. Again, some beautiful architecture on the island.

And a very cool and amazingly tall bridge.

Kind of upset with ourselves that we didn’t ask Joey about this but Buff said that the original colapsed when they were working on it because the builders were cutting corners on material. I guess his grandfather was working on the bridge but did not come to work that day. Butterfly affect is he may not be alive had his grandfather showed to work.

Norwegian Viva was also in port at both Aruba and Curaçao with us.

We pulled out of port, did a 180, and started to head back north.

We went back on deck 10 to watch a little more as we sailed away.

Most went to have a snack and then went to have a nap. Because I had plenty of sleep the night before from the headache I got, I was not tired so I went up to Serenity to just relax and look at the stars. I did doze briefly but otherwise enjoyed the beautiful evening.

I headed to the room and it was still dark in there from people napping and I realized I had my shades with me when I was at Serenity so I went back up to get them.

Tonight we decided to just make it a buffet night. We noticed that what was on the MDR menus was also available at the buffets those same nights. The buffets however were not as good as when you got the food in the dining room but we decided to keep it simple tonight anway.

We went to the PG Comedy tonight from a comedian from Puerto Rico. He did quite well and was funny talking to the guests. There was one, Carol, an older lady who wound up trying to steal the show and would become a pain in the butt the next night as she thought she could continue to get this comedian to respond to her.

We also went to Amor Cubano at Liquid Lounge. Now we figured, based on what we saw with America Rocks and the dance moves we saw with that show that for sure a Havana themed show would definitely have some sketchy dancing. It actually wasn’t bad but we will never forget “Fireball” where a guy grabbed a girls legs, so with her hands on the floor and legs wrapped around the guy, her but was right up in the air so the guy could play the bongos on her butt cheeks. This would later be known to us as doing the “Fireball”.

Tonight was also White Out at the Atrium.

I sometimes question the location of things. There was plenty of people at the Atrium and I thought this would work much better up on the Lido deck.

Now here is where we were introduced to Captain Ron. Now apparently Captain Ron became known during the Love and Marriage show as he told the crowd he’s been married for 30 years and he has never met her family, nor she met his. Well during whiteout Lawrence pulled to the middle of the dance floor Captain Ron and of course, Jim who tonight sported a flamingo suite, and the two had a dance off. Well Captain Ron, a bigger, older gentleman who looked and sounded like Rom Odegard (a parent from our school but is the only person I can reference to for now), couldn’t get his shirt off fast enough. He got that sucker off and tried snapping Vanessa (oi Vanessa – one of the crew members) but she wanted nothing to do with it. Some other lady bent over and Ron snapped her with his shirt. Jim, because of his suite, couldn’t quite get his shirt off though it looked like he was trying.

Now we were right there and somewhere one of our kids has pictures of this event. Yet again, we walked away thinking, what in the world did we just witness?

Afterwards, Chris and I continued to dominate Leighton and Ella when we played games later that night.

Actually, I completely sucked at table shuffle board so Chris saved us quite often. Foosball I was better at.

Later, Leighton tried to get into the club by using Chris’ card but it clearly didn’t work when they scanned it. So we decided to have a snack and head off to bed.

Tomorrow….Sea Day—–>

<—–Yesterday …..Aruba!