Our Fishy Tales : Curacao 2007

CURACAO, Netherlands Antilles, Southern Caribbean
(Sarah & Shanice come to visit)

March/April 2007:
(Sadie)
Just when we thought we had the seen the last of our visitors, I get an e-mail from my good friend Sarah asking if we’ll still be in Curacao for Easter…

Originally we had planned to leave ‘the rock’ by February, but lack of funds and exciting diving opportunities kept holding us back, so we said “ Why not?” and hence our last visitors booked their tickets.

All was going well with the planning until however we get a fateful call from our other mad mate Jesper (Andy’s Sailing to British Virgin Islands entry) and there ensued a week of tense ‘discussions’ about how we could possibly juggle Andy’s adventure of a lifetime with Sarah’s pre arranged visit.

Not least of my worries (apart from him drowning at sea) was the fact that I still can’t drive (I know embarrassing at my age!) and therefore would be unable to meet Sarah and her daughter Shanice from the airport or show them around the island while they were here. Also the fact that he has a bit of a track record of doing sudden disappearing acts when faced with a weeks company of loud drunken females!

So a compromise was reached in which I reluctantly gave him my blessings and he delayed the start of his trip so that he could at least meet Sarah at the airport and get her insured to drive the car in his absence. And so started a white knuckled but hilarious week of ‘team driving’ around Curacao.

The fun and games started on day one when we had to go back to the airport to collect their baggage which had unfortunately been delayed en route in Amsterdam. Not quite sure of where the lost baggage office was, we circumnavigated the car park 3 times narrowly missing the security man in his hut each time. Sarah was not exactly confident about driving on the wrong side of the road, and being unused to such a big car as our ‘beast’ wasn’t too good at judging distance. So we soon settled into a routine which involved Sarah driving, me giving directions and Shanice yelling out every now and again from the back seat “Mummy – kerb!”

Still I was very impressed by, not to mention grateful of Sarah though as she managed to get us all to work and back every day without incident. However we decided to stop short of going out too much at night until Andy got home, as the addition of alcohol in the mix may have been a bit too dangerous.

Of course that didn’t stop us having way too many drunken nights at home where we laughed 'til we cried and Shanice constantly had to remind us that we had had the same conversation the previous night – no wonder Andy did an escape act!

After one such evening we tried to close the French sliding doors onto the patio and somehow managed to push the whole thing out of the frame. By some amazing feat we managed to hold onto the glass as we staggered outside and stopped it from smashing on the ground, however we weren’t so lucky as to get it back in it’s frame so we spent the night with the door simply propped back in place. Why do these things always happen when there isn’t a blerk around to fix them? Luckily my saviour JJ came from work the next day with some tools and common sense and put the door back for us.

In amongst sun bathing swimming and banana boat rides Shanice also managed to complete her PADI open water course at the tender age of 13. She was really good fun to teach and took to it very easily…in fact a bit too easily and having known her since she was 2, I now totally understand the apprehension parents must feel when their kids learn to dive – I didn’t want to let her out of grabbing reach for 2 seconds! Sarah on the other hand wasn’t to be persuaded claiming that she needed to spend as much time tanning as possible instead…..next time Sarah!