November 2008The ABC’S - A little like the Three Bears
How is it possible that we keep finding places we like so much, each one seems a little better than the last. These islands are amazing; especially for the rocky little desert islands that they are…sitting where they do, just north of Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea. It’s not that easy to get here mind you, especially going the way we went, that is East INTO the trades. And these days Venezuela is not a safe place to stop, so your track really is from Cartagena to Aruba, bibbity bobbity boo through the ABC’s, and then another long run from Bonaire to Grenada. Needless to say, after our harrowing passages, we were deliriously happy to get to Aruba… although she is only 19 miles long, and 6 miles across, she is a jewel and our refuge. And a new country for me…#93. The only new one since Ecuador in 2005. I need 100 to become a member of the Century Travelers Club - hopefully in ‘09.
I guess the only negative about Aruba is the checking in process. We arrived to see two cruise ships in port and to a disconcerted port authority individual who told us via radio that it would be okay to go directly to the marina and then taxi over to check-in, which is not the way the cruising guide said it went in Aruba. And once secured in our slip at the Renaissance Marina, the hard working and resourceful Dock mistress “XJ” told us she’d better check to make sure this was really okay, as the Aruban authorities do not want anyone ashore who has not first gone to Customs and Immigration. XJ contacted the Port Captain and learned that we in reality would have to leave Oranjestad and head back to the commercial port of Barcadera to check in there.
Darn, but okay… still happy to be in the lee of anything, we head out and find the deserted looking port with an inhospitable wharf and offshore winds at +20k and insufficient power to get alongside long enough for me to jump off and tie-up to something, anything ashore…two attempts and we circled back around to see if we could find another spot to tie-up. Voyager said they would try as their side thrusters are more powerful than ours, and gratefully there were now a few scruffy looking sailors off a cargo ship ashore to flake out their hoses, so they were able to take their lines and secure them to miscellaneous junk bolted down. So, once they were secured, we side tied to them, and then hopped ashore to accept Dreamweaver’s lines. The women stayed on our respective boats while the men were taken away in a little car with the paperwork that would allow us to stay in country. It’s an inefficient system that has many yachties that are not staying in a marina deciding not to check in or out at all. Not an option for us as with my Catholic guilt, we were sure to be discovered and thrown into an Aruban prison.
Okay, so now we are really ready to relax after our five day run from Cartagena, including our engine failure, and so we pick up the renowned Balashi Beer (Tim Lloyd tip) and head to Voyager for a victory dance…and dance we did, and sing, none of it particularly well, but we thought we were wonderful!
We stayed in Aruba for a week and walked for miles and miles, enjoying every step in the near perfect weather, finding all manner of hardware and grocery stores…actually fabulous supermarkets, with the IGA a real standout! The islands have a more diverse population than we’ve experienced anywhere on this voyage. A blend of European, Indian, African and Latin people, most speak English, although Dutch, and a local language, unique to the Netherland Antilles, Papiamento, are the official languages. They call Aruba, One Happy Little Island, and even though the people are not as overtly friendly as the “B and C” islands, they are good people, and we felt comfortable everywhere.
It was one of those harbors you could get “stuck” in as you quickly make yourself at home. I found a hairdresser, a jeweler to make these coin charms I’d been imagining, a great spa for a much needed massage, computer experts, and doctors for a variety of maladies. And restaurants! The resort hotels and highly advertised restaurants are several miles from Oranjestad, but we wanted to walk so we chose from the myriad of other little, non-chain places in town. One night, a ‘Date Night’, we were out on our own and we discovered “Cuba’s Cookin’ “- it’s in an old farm house in the heart of town with lively eccentric Latin art on the walls, a charming staff, great food, and interesting fellow diners. A Cuban couple were playing guitar and drums and singing old 1950’s songs in Spanish. Guests would take turns helping out on the bongo’s, and Placa (I think that was her name) interacted with everyone, making us dance and laugh like we were all regulars and they were happy we were there.
We also found a place popular with the locals “QuePasa?” and it was also really great - interesting Dutch waiter there on an internship, and the food was I guess, Mexican/Aruban fusion with a European touch. The “Paddock” right down from the marina was also great for happy hour. With dinners on each other’s boats, and long days sightseeing there wasn’t enough time, or calorie capacity to try all those that looked enticing, so we’ll just have to go back. One thing we didn’t get to do as a group that we’d wanted to do, was go dancing to some good old rock ‘n roll.
So, for our final night we enjoyed the company of Susan and “T” (Phantom), and then set out for, I am embarrassed to say, good old gringo touristy Senor Frogs! Hey, you can ALWAYS dance at a Senor Frogs even at a sedate 9PM. So we did. It was fun as usual and this time, my gentle sister Dottie, calmly agreed to try the crazy water slide….I do not know what she was thinking…or if she was (she really doesn’t drink that much and she had only sipped on a fun rum-type drink all night). But she gamely followed a girl, who had the good sense to be wearing a bathing suit, up the stairs over the bar and onto a long waterslide that traversed the restaurant. She took off her shoes, hiked up her dress mid-thigh and climbed in and took off. The look on her face as she came careening to a stop on the balcony showed that somewhere on her wild ride, she’d had second thoughts. But did we laugh, it was priceless. So, what do you do with a wet girl at a restaurant? Find her a tablecloth to wear, tissues for mascara and help her finger comb her hair. Typically, the other patrons didn’t bat an eye. And I thought I was the wild one, turns out she is our daring Mother’s daughter!
We say goodbye (for now) to Aruba with her stellar resorts, restaurants and facilities. I guess this one I would call Mama Bear, she’s all glossy and shiny, the locals a little cool, and you could get soft sitting in the marina, (beds, porridge…stay with me on this okay?)
Another overnight passage to Curacao, a rocky one at that, but perfectly timed for an early morning arrival so we were able to navigate the narrow entrance to Spanish (aka Spaanse) Water and anchor just outside the Seru Boca marina while waiting for the staff to arrive and give us our slip assignments. It’s a lovely new marina in the Santa Barbara development which will soon include more high end homes and a deluxe Hyatt Resort. We were tucked way in and while secure, it also meant that it was quite still and hot, and had the unwelcome presence of mosquitoes. We didn’t use the A/C much as we had to have the generator on to run it. They run on 120V and 50 cycle electricity and it causes our 60 cycle units to overheat…not that I understand that, but know it to be true as we quickly burned out a portable fan. We found our screens and opened all windows and doors. Dug out citronella candles to burn all day and covered ourselves in bug repellant. I mention this because we’ve been in the “tropics” for over a year now and this is one of the first places where it’s been a real problem, pretty lucky aren’t we?
We are quite a ways from Willemstad, and the car rental we’d organized didn’t materialize, so we had the marina drop us at the gate (5 miles away) and catch a local bus to town. We find the Customs building and dutifully check in, then hop the ferry across to Otrobanda to find Immigration and the Port Captain for an anchoring permit for Dreamweaver. And then went on a nice walk about thru town with stops at ATM’s, a courtyard pub and fantastic cheese shop, a farmers market along the quay and a great spot, Le Bistro, for yummy local fare in another tree canopied courtyard.
Over the next several days we did it all. We spent a day in the water. There is a great guide for snorkelers and divers, and we discovered several of the best spots were just outside the harbor. We found a spectacular wall with abundant sea life and the “Tugboat” spot and dove the shallow wreck; there is an underwater gallery that was obviously different and beyond anything we’d seen before, it was great treat for all of us to be in the warm clear blue water together.
We were finally able to set up a van rental and took off for our Circle Island drive; we made a figure eight as always and went lighthouse to lighthouse and from mini peak to mini peak to take in the views. Old Plantation Houses are scattered over the landscape and one we stopped at was an old Salt Plantation that now houses a Nena Sanchez gallery. Everything is brightly painted and a joy to visit. We found Ft Nassau, the old fort/restaurant that Ade and I hiked up to waaay back in 1980 when we took a small cruise ship from Florida to California via the Canal.
We did dinghy tours of the Harbor, visited the Curacao Yacht Club for lunch, and had happy hour and dinners on board. Met nice people, in fact, I took a series of photos cruising around the marina as they represented boats from around the world…this is truly an international spot with as many boats from Europe and the So. Pacific as from North/South American. Mel & Jackie on “Feisty” gave us lots of information about Bonaire; they are from New York and also love trying all the local restaurants, so we listened carefully.
The Curacao Regatta was on, so on Saturday night we went back to Willemstad to see the lighted boat parade from Scharloo and mingle with the sailors. We then meandered the colorful waterfront of Punda listening to the various performers and laughter from the waterside diners, and found a row of wonderful restaurants behind the Government Palace and enjoyed an under the stars dinner at “Scampi’s”. We’d been advised to hire a taxi for the night as it is difficult to find anyone to take you all the way back to Seru Boca on a Saturday night, so we had a curfew and had to rush dinner a bit, like Latin America, the service is good but slow and you have to beg for the bill.
So Curacao, spread out as she is, could be Papa Bear, a little too big and hard to get around, although with a perfect anchorage and the charm of Willemstad, yet just a little too far to be convenient, still not a perfect fit…so we move on…
It is an easy hop to Bonaire and we were lucky as Dottie and Ken, who left well before we did, had scoped out spots for us and were there to take our lines and thread them thru the tiny eye hook of the mooring ball, so in no time we are secured, betwixt the reef wall and the beguiling town of Kralendijk. What a life. “Ketching Up” and “Spirit” were moored nearby; we’d not seen them since Panama.
Knowing that a weather window was looming, we realized we’d have to hit the ground running if we were going to get to Feisty’s entire “Don’t Miss This” list. We did the paperwork Cha-cha (we had to turn in Ade’s spear gun to Customs for the duration) and were still ready to make it out to the Happy Hour at the Harbor Village Marina to mingle with other cruisers. Next item on our agenda was pizza at Pasa Bon. It was packed, mostly locals and the wait over an hour, but as Jackie said it was the World’s Best Pizza, we waited. It was well worth the wait, incredible Pizza!
The next don’t miss spot is only open on weekends, and we were told to go as soon as it opened, so on Friday we tried the hole in the wall “Bobbejan’s” and wow, another home run. For less than $20 per couple we had a fantastic dinner of ribs and BBQ and a few local beers. A note of gratitude here for all the tips cruisers pass onto each other, not just about frivolous things like FOOD and FUN, but all the tips on customs, anchorages, parts and service, fuel, etc. etc. It’s a wonderful sharing caring community.
And diving tips too… I’d sort of given up scuba and had only snorkeled for many years. But this is Bonaire with world class diving and if not now, when? Feisty said if I wanted a refresher course for diving I should contact Bruce at Carib Inn - he was the best. We couldn’t find him…only the big glossy operations and I’d checked them out but didn’t feel comfortable with any of them. I knew I needed someone special to ease me back into it or I’d suck a tank dry in 10 minutes with anxiety. We found it way beyond the Cruise Ship docks and beyond the big Divi Divi dive resorts. The little Carib Inn, is home of the first dive instructor (Bruce Bowker) on Bonaire and a wonderful operation and inn for the serious divers who don’t want all the fuss. I am so happy to have persevered, as I said it’d been about 15 years since I did a proper dive and I really wanted to find that confidence again. Bruce had a gal booked to complete her certification with a beach dive and said I could join that for a refresher course…it was only $45 including gear…wow, I took it. I lucked out and found my own Dr Phil of the Seas…I spent the whole day with Gary and the yet to be certified Pam and the elusive man from Poland who also wanted a refresher course. We did the AM beach dive and I was so excited, yet still not feeling 100%, that I told Ade, I want the PM boat dive. What a blast. It all came back and I feel great now and ready to take on the Caribbean. Thank you Carib Inn.
We rented a van and did our Circle Island Drive and found that we LOVE this island. Rincon in the center is the site of the first Spanish settlement; we stopped at the Rose Inn for lunch with a real local flavor. The island has dive sights, suitable for beach or boat dive literally from north to sound on the west (lee) of the island. There is also a lagoon on the east side that is a windsurfer haven with funky beach shacks and ‘resorts’, restaurants/bars, it felt more like a lake resort than a beach, and guess what, it’s called the Lac! And somehow, during the all day drive we’d circled back to Kralendijk and decided to stop at the Bonaire Gift Shop(s) near the marina…what a bonanza. We found the swim trunks Les had been looking for, Dive T- Shirts, and oh yeah, wine. Deepak the owner loves wine and carries quite an assortment from around the world. There were several of our favorite Californian wines…Deepak loves Napa and Lodi wines…and since today was Saturday he was hosting a wine tasting. He opened several bottles for us and offered 10% discounts on cases…so, needless to say, we are now well stocked for our holiday guests due to arrive in a few weeks.
Unfortunately the weather was not great for our last few days and the diving no good (squalls, lots of wind, low visibility), and checks on the weather showed that we had just a few windows to make that last long hop to Grenada via the Venezuelan islands. Darn it, time to go.
So Bonaire, if you are following the story line, is Baby Bear… just right. Great anchorage, great town, great diving, great everything… this is where we could fall asleep and dream happily until forced to wake up and move on!
