Hello All: I have not done a post for the last couple of days because I haven’t had a whole lot to write about. We are having a perfectly fine vacation, but I can’t say this is one of our more exciting ones. The water here is beautiful and clear but there isn’t much to see. It’s like someone started building an aquarium but forgot to finish putting plants and fish in it. I did see a seahorse a few days ago. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen one, but it was in a weird spot so I’m a little bit suspicious that the owner of this place found a realistic-looking plastic one and put it out in the water for tourists to find. I have seen some real flounder and a couple of moray eels, but it’s been a little sparse.
The ocean here doesn’t have a lot of creatures, but it does have a lot of either jellyfish or siphonophores that sting! I never see whatever is stinging me, and it’s not a serious sting but it does create a small, temporary red spot. I have been swimming with a bright yellow shirt so my back doesn’t burn and I’m visible to boats. One of the little stinging creatures got into my shirt yesterday and stung me in several places before I either got it out or squashed it. It was very unpleasant.
The rest of the environment is similar. It’s greener here than in Bonaire, but still dry and arid. The plants are low to the ground and almost all of them have spines. This is a hard environment and you can see that in the kind of plants. There are tons of reptiles and this is a pretty good place if you are an ectotherm and need the environment to warm your blood.
This morning, Bill and I did a nature walk at a place called Hofi Mango. It’s a newer establishment and they are still working to create a pretty walking trail in an environment that’s mostly ideal for goats. It wasn’t bad, but I think it will probably mostly be good as a venue for events like weddings in the future. We ate at the restaurant, and that was pretty good. I had grilled tuna with grilled vegetable. It had okra in it. I like okra but it can be hard to cook. This was really good. Bill ordered a mango smoothie, but they didn’t have mango smoothies. We were both confused about how a placed named Hofi Mango that has its own mango grove doesn’t have mango smoothies? I briefly babysat for a Dutch woman who needed to use the bathroom but couldn’t fit the stroller into the stall with her. The baby, who was probably under 1 year, was watching something on an iPhone and didn’t bother to notice I was there.
We ran by the grocery store after lunch then spent the afternoon in the pool. We made spaghetti for supper because the hotel restaurant isn’t that good. Overall, I haven’t been that impressed with the food here. I have had some really good fish. Goat is a very popular meat here, probably because goats are some of the few animals that can live here. We went to a bakery a day or so ago and I got a piece of chocolate cake, some cookies and a flat round thing that looks like a frisbee. It would probably be better used as a frisbee because it’s terrible as food. The cookies and cake were also inedible. We did fine a lady selling banana bread from a food truck that’s pretty good, but the hamburger that I got from her was a weird orange color and was almost inedible. At least we have a kitchen so we can cook our own food.
The mangos are delicious! I got a fantastic coffee cup with flamingos on it in the capital a few days ago.
In any case, it’s warm and sunny here. We have a nice pool and plenty of swimming in the ocean. If we hadn’t been anywhere else, we would probably think this place was amazing. The more you travel, the pickier you get because you can compare all the places you have been. At least when I help other people plan vacations, I can help them find better places.
Bill starts diving tomorrow. I’ll go and snorkel over the divers. Maybe the dive shop will take us to some interesting places that we haven’t found. Either way, we are having a fine time. We don’t ever have really bad vacations, just some that we like better than others.
Traveling with Emily! 