Life is a Beach, and I guess a Highway

Next week the contestants on the Bachelorette are going to Curacao. I’m excited to see where they end up. (I feel like I have to admit here, that yes, I do watch the Bachelorette even though I think it is an awful and cruel premiss for a show.) I wanted to show you all how awesome we are that we discovered some more of these places, put you through more trip log pictures, and maybe just bore you.
A few side thoughts first:
Rent a car on Curacao. And get insurance. (And a GPS—I’ve never seen corkscrew roads before this island!) Your regular car insurance doesn’t always cover internationally. We had the great pleasure of our unattended parked car being hit at the parking lot of our hotel. Thank goodness it was only a few hundred dollars as we were billed directly by the rental company until we got the refund check in the mail from the insurance company. I say no fair since we weren’t even close to the car but what can you do…
It took about 3-4 hours out of our first day to get this sorted (when the perpetrator simply left his name at the scene). They have traffic “cops” in vans that turn into traveling offices. “Step into my office and close the door.” He pulls down a little desk, starts recording our “statement” and typing on the computer. Kinda weird.

Sometimes things don’t always translate well. I don’t think this would be the name I would choose for my shoe store. Connotations, people.

We don’t speak Dutch, but this was easy to figure out the meaning. I don’t know why we thought this sounded so funny. It reminded me of Brenna for some reason.

I’m sure you are wondering about the beaches. There are some beautiful white sand beaches in Curacao, framed by cacti and desert plants.

 

My favorite beach. Beautiful!
Other Curacao scenes:

The food was the hardest part of the trip. We found it to be often expensive and disappointing for the price. We also tried following guide book and hotel recommendations, only to have the restaurants gone when we showed up. We ended up eating at Dominoes, KFC, Denny’s, McDonalds (which was even closed due to a power outage our first try), Subway.
(We were glad to find these McDonald’s signs to help us find some food we knew would be predictable—even though this was the closed McDonalds)
 
Our best and cheapest meal was probably at the Old Market. This is a place to sample local fare for lunch during the weak and I highly recommend it! We should have done that more often.

There is also the Floating Market close by where merchants from Venezuela sell fruits, veggies, etc from the mainland from their boats.

The diving in Curacao was great (at least the three dives we did). We did have to drive all over the island to find a shop that would take us to the famous Mushroom Garden but we finally succeeded. Unfortunately, I don’t have an underwater camera. We had a very Dutch dive guide. He seemed very typical of my dive friends, heavy smoker right after diving and all.
 
We finished one of our last days with a tour of the Hato Caves. Close to the airport, this cave was used by slaves as a hideout when they escaped from the nearby Hato plantation. Unfortunately, they were caught and the cave entrance was locked closed. It was an interesting place worth exploring. You are only allowed to take a few pictures inside. They have some cool formations including ones that look just like the Virgin Mary and a pirate face (can you see him in the picture below).

I’m interested to see if the places we went show up next week on ABC!