Howdy everyone, we had a relaxing day today. Spent some time this morning visiting Hofi Mango. Hofi Mango was a plantation that grew sugarcane to make rum and Mangos.
Hofi Mango has the only sugar mill on the island, Curaçao isn’t good for growing sugarcane. Mangoes do grow well, they taste good too.
They have a tree here that is poisonous, you’re not supposed to touch it, eat the fruit on it or stand under it when it rains. manzanilla de la muerte, little apple tree of death.
We thought there should have been more signs marking them.
The plantation is now a destination to go visit, spend time in nature, sample rum and they have a restaurant.
We did look at some of the other options for activities here, which there are a lot. Jet skis, atv/buggy adventures, snorkeling trips, museums and there is a company that will take you skydiving. A lot of these activities with the tour companies originate in the capital Willemstad. We have done a lot of the adventure stuff, I offered Emily the skydiving option but she didn’t feel it was a must do.
This is going to be a good vacation, we have sun, water and it’s not cold here at all. We don’t have much interaction with locals and anyplace really to walk around to discover interesting dining options or boutique shops, without a 45 minute drive first. Willemstad may have those but we didn’t there would be much connecting with the locals as they were used to cruise passengers passing through.
Where we are it would be good for people who enjoy drinking beers by the pool or hanging out at the beach type vacations, Willemstad would be good for all that and all the tourist attractions but lacking the local connection we enjoy.
Tomorrow I start diving. I went down and talked with the guy at the dive shop and things are lined up for me to do 6 dives. I was going to do 8 but they don’t dive on Sunday. Sounds like tomorrow morning I will dive off the beach below where we are staying. Emily and I already snorkeled the coast so I’m not sure if I will get to see more reef or just from deeper down. I suspect that Emily and I have been spoiled by better locations. Either way I will get to log my dives. I have a new memory card in my camera and the batteries are charged. The water is really clear he so that’s a plus. I wonder if that is all it takes for the “great snorkeling “ reviews we keep hearing.
We do have a couple other activities that we are going to try and do while we are here, there is a cave we want to visit and a boat wreck we want to snorkel.
Stay warm!
Traveling with Emily! 