Blue Bay

 

those lizard are (mostly) vegetarian. no reason to be scared…

Turning into a dog person

How can I not be turning into a dog person? From day one we’ve been welcomed by the guard dog here (who does take his tasks very seriously, but is also very friendly for people that his boss welcomes in). When we get up in the morning, he jumps up and runs to us to greet us (and to get a little scratch behind his ears) and when we drive through the gate, he’s overjoyed with happiness about our return.
I’ve never been a dog person, but his one… Oh, I’d take him with me if I could!
There is another dog on the premises. A little poodle. A very active little poodle. I’m not really excited about that one. You can’t even pet him, because he never ever sits still.
So how did I end up with more pictures of the little one? Beats me. I guess it’s because the big one always wants to be stroked and scratched when you come near. And that makes it hard to take pictures…

Full moon

In the “back yard”

The swimming pool…
We do spent a lot of spare minutes here, just cooling off in the middle of work.
It took me a while to realize that the guy in the corner isn’t just being lazy under that tree. It’s a slave and he’s wearing chains. That has to do with the history of this place. Some bloody fights took place here during the Slave Riots of 1795. The wall in the front of the property (iou can see it on this picture) is from that period.
It’s not a nice part of the history of this island, but this is how most people here handle that (I mean… a picture like that next to a swimming pool?). It’s not to be forgotten (there are a few slavery museums too), but they’re not really making an issue of it either.
The rest of the murals are much happier.











I love how they made the underwater scenes 3D by placing coral and shells in front of it.
And I like that fish behind the shower too. Wish they’d done something like that to the inside shower also. That’s just old and beige…

Adventurous cooking

Though most supermarkets here have lots and lots of food our Dutch supermarkets have too, I'm trying to find some things I've never eaten before too.

This week: jambo (okra) and kouseband (garter bean).

 

View from Fort Nassau

After some comments on my Dutch blog I’d like to say no, I don’t think all that industrial stuff is beautiful (though it’s fun to try and capture it), but this is the reality of Curaçao. Willemstad is built around a big oil refinery and the harbour that allows tankers to transport that oil. It’s often ignored in photos and tourist campagnes, but when you’re here, you can’t ignore it. It’s visible from most places in town.

Some people would like the refinery to go, but that would be bad for the economy and leave a lot of people (over 2000 on a population of 150,000) without a job. They are working on a solution for the environmental problems though, so that’s a step forward (but only if they can find a buyer…).

Sunrise and sunset

Flamingos

Fishermen

We had an unexpected day off yesterday, so we drove around the island wondering where we might want to live. At Westpunt (literally the west point of the island) we watched some local actvity.  They were bringing in the fish, weighing them, cutting and selling them to local restaurants. It was fun to watch.









My dreamhome is right there, facing the sunset.

Laundry

Shortly after I took this picture of our improvised drying rack, the landlord came out and brought us a nice, big drying rack. But this worked too ;-)

The beach

After a week on the island we still hadn’t seen the beach. Work was crazy, mostly for Theo, but for me too (some final editing on my new novel). But yesterday we took the afternoon off. Bliss!

Spiky

No need for barbwire on the outside wall…

 

In this garden

I love looking at gardens when I travel. Different plants, different colors. And lots of cactuses. I like those too (reminds me of the big cactus bed my parents had in the house I grew up in).