One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to explore different regions of the location. So today, we went to the northern part of Curacao, which is essentially all craters with desert like vegetations. Like what I read on trip advisor, it does look like I landed on the moon. With all the cactus reminding me of being in the desert when I am not looking at the water.
The place we when to was called the Shete Boka National Park, it has several pocket bays. It is so surreal when we are looking down into the bays watching all the water just crash into the walls. We got there early, so we were able to go visit all 5 bays before it got too hot. I loved holding Naomi, but she and I would be sweating so much because I was front wearing her. I find listening to water crash into the walls relaxing.
I also love this pistol boka shete. The power of the water, and the wall just stopping it is incredible.
There are actually two different areas to look at in this national park. There is road you can drive that goes inside through the mountains, however I read that you need to have a 4 wheel drive because of the steepness and the roads being very unpaved. Where I drove around the boke shete it was mostly dirt paths, and I had a small sedan. I’m not sure my car would have done well on more mountainous roads.
We ended up staying there until 11:00am, when it became unbearable for the baby.. We then ended up driving back to eat lunch and just resting in the hotel room.
We ended up sleeping in the room and then coming back out at night. We found a really fun place that was playing hip/hop music called the Tiki Loco. Ended up getting drinks outside and enjoying a date night while Naomi was asleep in the stroller next to us. Nothing wakes up that kid, and it was a nice perk to just hang out with Sherri like we were before we had kids. Because we eat so early for dinner, we had our after dinner drinks early compared to all the locals out there. We sent for drinks at 8pm, and the place didn’t start to get full until 9:30pm.
The next day we tried one of the local beaches (Grote Knip). They are a little farther out to reach, but as long as we got there before 10am, there was plenty of parking, and a good selection of beach lounge chairs and umbrellas. The people come by to pick up money from you usually around 11am, it must have been around $15 american for 2 chairs and an umbrella. I would say that the man-made beaches near the city of williamsted are nice to sit at, but don’t have the sea life that you see in the natural beaches.
One of the things I did look into was the cruise ship schedules, because it kind of helped me figure out when there would be peak tourist time. So during the peak tourist time, I tried not to go to things that were close to the docking areas.
A con of being on islands is that there are not a lot of vegetable dishes. Especially when you are at the beach and buying food from the food stands (They sold carbs or meat like fries, hamburgers etc). So for this day we decided to make ourselves Tuna salad sandwiches, and pack healthier snacks, and fruit.
This beach has a wild free pig that roams around just looking for food from people. I did not see the pig anywhere when I was sitting down. When we came back a lady said the pig had gone through our bag trying to take a fruit sauce pouch. Was only able to get one, but another lady helped us tie up the bag so it was pig proof.
The second time I encountered the pig. I pulled out the sandwiches and opened up the bag, then I pulled out the other food for Naomi and Sherri. Almost immediately, I look up and see that there are 2 dogs sitting next to me and the pig’s snout was right next to my arm. Those animals smelled my tuna salad from across the beach and had come running over hoping to partake in my meal. 🙂 I had to shoo them away because I didn’t want to feed them anything.
Then for dinner we ended up at this restaurant right next to our hotel room. It was called Kome, and on that night they didn’t have their regular dishes but a special tapas night. Sherri and I were disappointed with the menu because it was essential what I would eat at a below average california fusion american restaurant 10 years ago. We had some korean flavors, asian style, and american meats.
The funny (for sherri and I) but sad moment for Naomi was a korean dish that had the spicy gochujang. Naomi saw the sauce and how red it was, she must have thought it was ketchup. We tried to tell her to not eat it, but she started to cry and whine uncontrollably. So we relented and let her try some of that spicy sauce. She ate it and you could see her face change as she realized it was so spicy. We tried to give her bread, more milk based food to help her cool down her mouth. The good news is that I think she learned her lesson and didn’t want any more of that hot sauce, or any other sauces we told her not to eat the rest of the trip. We said it was “hot” and hurt her mouth.
One last side story, Naomi realized she could move the tiny coffee end table in our hotel room around. So she started dragging it from one side to the other, and the floor would make a high pitch squeaking noise as it moved. I eventually just helped her move the table back and forth for half an hour because I could not stand the squeaking noise.
