Days are rolling into weeks, as we sit in our quiet anchorage in Spanish Waters, CURACAO ....... So named, for it was in this backwater that the Spanish first built their settlement back in the 1600s, while further down the coast, the Dutch took possession of the other narrow harbour entrance and first built the NASSAU fort to protect their settlement of WILLEMSTAD ...... That harbour opens into a huge deep water area, where today there are the oil refineries, the cargo docks and all the trappings of commercial trans-shipment of goods to Venezuela and other Caribbean islands. .............. Needless to say, the Dutch took final possession of the three islands of BONAIRE, CURACAO and ARUBA ............
Whenever a vessel approaches this narrow entrance at WILLEMSTAD, the foot bridge swings away and a vessel enters like this one, assisted by tug boats ...... A very careful maneuver with not too much room to spare ...... The fly-over bridge is so high, that even cruise ships pass easily beneath this four-lane traffic bridge ......
We took another drive around the island with Peter and Jutte from the yacht "FREYA" before they left, and came across one of the few swimming beaches available on CURACAO ...... Good swimming beaches are few and far between and this one was really crowded ..... Most of the shore line is rocky with significant cliffs ........
That's not necessarily bad, for it is always a thrill to jump from a cliff ......
Couldn't help but stop again to take another look at these wild flamingos ....... Just beautiful, in their pink and crimson regalia ....... Totally absorbed in their shovel-nose feeding routine ..... You have to keep your distance though, because they frighten easily ...... I would too, if I had to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with my head underwater ......
Must hurt their eyes to be underwater like that, in water that is so much saltier due to the evaporation, for these areas are former salt ponds and the edges are lined with salt crystals ..............
Back in the 'Spanish Waters' anchorage, there is an impressive mountain to windward of us ...... Now when we say to windward, we mean TO WINDWARD for it blows constantly at least fifteen to twenty knots, and always from the same easterly direction ...... This mountain is made entirely of limestone and is being mined and exported on a grand scale .... We have lined up that excursion for yet another day ..... Part of the open-cut quarry is visible on the right, if you do a double-click on the photo ...... Most of the island is limestone and marine fossils are clearly visible wherever you go ....... The bird-life is also beautiful despite the absence of significantly large trees, for most of the vegetation is acacia thorn-tree scrub, with cactus ........ And dry as a bone ...........
The few coconut palm trees that are found are all planted, and the birds seem to delight in picking at the young fruit, thus guaranteeing that few trees will ever naturally regenerate, unlike this one that is well protected ........
CURACAO turns out to be a huge European holiday destination for sun-baking, fishing, diving and other water sports .......... Our anchorage is daily filled with flying wind-surfers, kayaks and other sailing dinghies ...... Fun to watch, and to realize that people from Europe are in heaven here, with the constant blue sky, the warm clear water and the tropical ambiance of the island life style ......
Very close to us on "ARITA" is a delightful couple who sailed from Europe to CURACAO and then extended their stay by settling and building a house-boat alongside their yacht " BLUE MARLIN " ...... Now surely, that is the best of both worlds ..... Annemieke, is an artist and she does incredible aqua oil paintings, while her husband Timo, is a boat builder and has his own workshop, also on a floating platform ...... He is Antillean born and bred ..... And between them they have a golden 'Labradog' and a rust-coloured 'Cocker Spaniard' ...... O.K., .....Just checking to see if you are really reading this ............
Some time ago, TIMO and ANNEMIEKE decided to build this incredible nature trail to the top of one of the nearby mountains ..... Mostly to do with taking the dogs for a daily walk, and over time this trail-making has been extended, so that numerous beautiful nature walks now exist for all to enjoy ...... Trail-making tools hang on a branch as you arrive in your dinghy .....
We went with them last Sunday to climb the mountain, and one of the first things Timo pointed out was the 'Brazil' tree ...... This is the tree from which a very red dye is produced that the Indians valued as face-paint ..... It is the tree for which 'BRAZIL' is named ..... The other tree with its branches going in all directions was highly prized for making wooden donkey 'saddles' on which the bags of salt could be carried ....... This is one of the few trees that is adapted to 'breathe' through its bark, and not its leaves ......
Just look at the way the stem of this 'Brazil' tree inter-twines with itself .... Do a double-click on it and see this freak of nature or perhaps there is a reason for it ........ This 'skin and bones' tree ...... There used to be a prison in AMSTERDAM, Timo told us, that was known as the 'rasp-huis' in which prisoners were forced to rasp the bark of the imported stumps of the 'Brazil' tree to obtain the 'red dye' material .... The tree stem is already near bone dry and incredibly hard, and probably more so after an ocean voyage in the hold of a ship ..... Rasping, day-in and day out ought to make anyone think twice about their anti-social ways, don't you think? ......
A steep climb to see the fantastic views over 'Spanish Waters' anchorage ....... And as we near the top we come across the remains of some goat bones and the magical sculpture of a wooden 'drummer boy' ...... Timo, our tour guide, trail blazer, trail-maker, historian, and breathing-living ecologist, tells us that he placed it here after retrieving it from one of his home-renovation projects ...... He even lights it up with a secretly-hidden battery over Christmas .... Walking up in the afternoon to switch it on, and back up again in the morning to switch it off ........ We will talk to him about getting solar panels 'borrowed' from the parking meters in WILLEMSTAD ......
Even the bright yellow finches make their nests in the hollowed out cavities of the limestone, while certain parakeets dig out little caves in the termite nests ..... The marine fossils are clearly visible in the limestone that make up the island's terraces ..............
But the view from the top is spectacular ............ Just awesome ..... The drummer boy must enjoy it, no end ........ That's "ARITA" with the green sail covers anchored near T & A's houseboat and yacht the "BLUE MARLIN" that they built themselves out of strip-plank mahogany and resin ......... Two very remarkable people ............
You can definitely now see that it's a 'Drummer boy sculpture' because from down below it is not so obvious what he is doing ........ What, with all that arm waving, etc ........
And as we climb down the mountain we re-enter the cactus world, although the trail is beautifully clean and easy walking, and spiky-free ............
Still trying to find out the name of these magnificent orange and black feathered birds ......... Believe it or not, but this photo on the left is the stem of a cactus plant that has to be at least a hundred years old ....... Perfect place for a cactus ..... Dry and hot with an occasional shower .............
We mean, who is going to go near you with defenses like that .......
We did find a dead cactus plant and we saw the woody 'skeleton' beneath the outer thorny layer ........... All very interesting, if you are into this sort of thing .... You have to understand that we have three months to spend in CURACAO for hurricane season, so we need to get out and about ..... But it really is interesting to see a dead cactus like this ....... I mean, have you ever seen a dead one this big .......
With September just around the corner, TIMO gave me a hand with setting out a second anchor ....... This one we will leave behind when we depart in October/November ..... The 10mm chain is secured to an old car chassis ........ Still wondering how that car got there ....... Never mind .......
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the thing about 'TREASURES OF THE BILGE' ..... But would you know it, the other day while looking for some cable ties beneath the bunks I came across some socks with bottles in them ...... And those socks contained none other than two bottles of that wonderful Bahamain Mango rum .... Two whole bottles .... Whatever I said in the last blog posting about being out of 'This nectar of the Gods' was obviously a lie ..... We now have some more .... Should last at least the rest of the hurricane season ........ We put drink bottles in socks to stop the noise when we sail .......Now as to the other photo,..... Well, there is this bar in WILLEMSTAD, that serves drinks ........ Do not ask for a 'shot' or a 'shooter' or you may just get more than you bargained for .............
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