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November
(Sadie)
Was a busy month for us with our next visitors being Andy’s sister Joyce
and Dad, Ian, coming to visit for 10 days – unfortunately the same ten
days as a large group of Canadian divers came to dive with the Dive Bus!
November also saw the return of our friend Jesper, a crazy and likeable
Dane who used to work for The Dive Bus when we first arrived on the
island. He was back to lend a hand with the dive group but more
importantly to buy a yacht! He’s never sailed a day in his life, but has
just sold all his worldly possessions back in Denmark and is now
planning to sail off into the sunset and to new adventures. (There’s
more to come on Jesper later, together with some photos which prove that
he and Andy were separated at birth!!!! See also
www.calbo.dk)
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Jesper and Andy
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Anyway back to the
Canadians…..it was a really good couple of weeks, There were 40 divers
and considering the Dive Bus (the dive shop where Andy works) only has 6
sets of gear, no compressor of their own and a small bus that holds max
9 people it was amazing that they managed to pull it off.
I went back to work for them for
the week to help out and we hired a couple of coaches to ferry them
around the different dive sites. By the end of their trip we felt more
like a tour reps from Thomas Cook than a dive masters with ever present
clip boards and cheesy smiles plastered on our faces! It made a nice
change from teaching on the same reef everyday though and when I
instigated a competition between the four teams to see who could spot
the most interesting stuff it all got quite fierce!!
As a result we didn’t get to
spend as much time with Joyce & Ian as we would have liked, but we did
get to go out every evening with them, which was some times no mean feat
on top of long days. Joyce was brave enough to drive our car though and
spent the daytimes ferrying us to and from work and then being tour
guide to her Dad who is 75 and ABSOLUTELY refused to wear shorts or take
off his shoes and socks despite the blistering daily heat of 34c.
Needless to say they spent most of their time in air conditioned bars.
It was nice to see them all together - prob the longest time Andy has
ever spent with his Dad since he was a teenager. We all have some happy
memories of the visit, the Curacao Liqueur Factory, The Caribbean Bar
and The Iguana Cafe to name but a few......and some fab photos for the
record!
Some sight seeing first...........
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Time for a new hat
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Beers at Playa Canoa
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Ian and Sadie on the North Side
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Joyce Paddling
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North Side Wind Farm
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Punda Market Stalls
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......and more social......
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Cruse Ship at Otrabanda
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Time to Go
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Freewinds leaving
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Curacao Essentials!
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Punda Waterfront
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Another Beer Joyce?
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Lazy afternoon at the Iguana Cafe
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Happy Daze
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Punda
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Ian in the Caribbean Bar
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Andy's Dad Ian
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Caribbean Bar Cocktails
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The Ingredients
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Sadie....
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Punda at Night
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Walking Bridge
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Gouvernor Restaurant
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Caribbean Jazz at the Avila Blues Bar
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......finally.....Curacao Liqueur Factory.....
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Not much has changed here in 200 years.....
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.....except the workers now have a uniform
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....the final product....
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Our friends Graham and Hes also
went to New York for a week and asked us to house and dog sit which was
no great hardship since they have a gorgeous big house with swimming
pool and all mod cons (inc hot water - a rarity on the island) and it
gave us a well deserved break between visitors.
NEXT UP..................more welcome visitors from back home,
festive
parties and some diving photos.......
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