The Curacao Cure - Part 2

During breakfast on the hotel verandah, Katy and I noticed the small yellow and black bananaquit birds on the feeder close to the railing of the verandah at our hotel. The gregarious birds were everywhere it seemed and almost close enough to touch.

We also noticed the larger and more solitary trupials perching closeby. The hotel also had a litter of six month old tabby on white kittens that basked in the sun and begged for tidbits at the tables. They were pretty irresistible and seemed to be doing well. Katy seemed to especially like feeding them. I guess they kept the mice down. The boat dive for the day was announced and since Katy and I never dove (we were snorkel buddies) we made our own plans.

Katy and I snorkeled in the morning in the bay right off the hotel and saw lots of starfish, both bony and not, sea urchins, and parrot fish. I can't tell you how great it felt to be in the warm, blue Caribbean again.

After lunch, Katy and I decided to take the vehicle and tour the island while the boys were out on the dive boat. We hopped in and Katy drove. We headed westward. We noticed wild goats roaming along the roads and really just everywhere in Curacao. People eat the goats in Curacao. You can buy goat burgers, goat steaks, goat kabobs, goat jerk, goat anything that has meat in it. They were kind of cute though, so I didn’t eat any while I was there.

Suddenly we passed an older and bent over, decrepit looking native man, and Katy swerved the car as if to pull over and said, “Sue, let’s pick up this guy! He can be your date tonight!”

In that instant I knew it. We were kindred spirits with the same bawdy sense of humor. I laughed and we bonded. We looked at each other and both knew it instantly. She broke the ice. Together we had a good laugh.

We headed for the Catholic Church that we had passed on the way to our hotel, Saint Willibrod, built in 1884. The church is a landmark of sorts as it is at a major crossroads on the island that one must pass to get north of Willemstad. We found the cemetery to be most interesting because the graves were built up from the land, instead of buried as they are in the US. I guess they started doing that in case of floods on these tiny islands where there can be hurricanes.

We drove around some more and then decided to head back and see if the dive boat had returned.