Celebrations, Chi Chi’s, and Company

What’s been going? As I think back over the past six weeks, quite a bit has happened. So grab a cup of coffee or something fun to drink, sit back for a few and we hope you enjoy getting caught up.

First word – Celebrations! The question, have the celebrations found us or have we found the celebrations all over the world? Our time on Curacao has had its share of just that, celebrations.

We celebrated our twenty-forth anniversary February 10th with a morning dive and a wonderful dinner at Fort Nassau, a restaurant with one of the best views of Curacao and great food.

The Pastor, John Lont, at our Curacao church celebrated his 65th birthday. Jay and I were invited as his special guests. What an honor to experience a celebration with our Curacao church family. It was an evening of praise and worship music along with stories and entertainment. The children and youth group, called “Gang”, “God’s Annointed Next Generation” entertained us with songs and dance.

At the Punda Vibes Thursday, they revealed the additional hearts to lock your love on. The heart is one of the most photographed objects on the island. The original one has over 10,000 locks (one being ours) and now they needed to add.

With the Karnival king and queen at the new hearts reveal party. See the empty hearts in the background. The same artist that designed and built the first one was invited to build the additional ones.

Karnival occurred the last week of February. Curacao loves their Karnival. Yes, they spell with a “K” and/or “C” here. A week of parades and street closures. Generations of families gather together. They build their platforms along the road to take in the seven or eight different parades. If you are new to the island, be careful not to place your chairs or build your platform where families have built for years. This is big! For six kilometers, hand-built platforms on both side’s of the road.

We just stood in a blank spot for about 45 minutes. I’m officially old-the noise was too much for my ears.

We weren’t sure what we would see, however we were pleasantly surprised the costumes were not as revealing as those we have seen on other islands.

The third Sunday of each month a group of divers gather to clean the reef. I like to call that a celebration as well, “Making our waters cleaner celebration”. So much trash in our waters. Unbelievable! One of the dive shops on the island provides a boat, tanks, and sacks to pick up trash from the reefs.

This is from just one dive – 200 bottles, I forgot how many cans, yards and yards of fishing line, and one old toothbrush. Thank you, Bluebay for providing the equipment for the divers to be advocates for cleaner reefs.

I’m mixing it up a bit, Company – We were privileged to have some wonderful guests again helping make our time on the island even more memorable.

The first was a friend of Jay’s (and now mine too). They met at a Lionfish research expedition in Belize. Noella and Jay apparently had bathroom clean-up duty together when they weren’t counting and measuring lionfish on an atoll off Belize last February. It was a joy to be with her and her sister, Edith. They are both general practitioners in Canada.

Noella and Edith were with us when our next guests arrived, the real Mark and Vicki. We now call them 3-D Mark and Vicki. We were able to have a couple of dives together before Noella had to leave.

Flat Mark and Vicki had so much to tell the 3D’s. It was fun to see them together.

We can call the William’s trip a dive, eat, drink, and sleep week. Mark is a lionfish hunter as well, so I was able to enjoy Vicki, my new dive buddy and sister from another mother, to find all the other fun things underwater with an occasional lionfish, of course.

This is a sea robbin, part of the flying gnard family. This was my first time seeing this particular fish in the Caribbean. The four of us were diving probably the ugliest dive sites on the island. Talking about trash on the bottom of the ocean, I think this is where they dump everything. Unbelievable! Until….Vicki and I were off doing our own exploring and came upon two of these with their wings completely extended. I’ve read since the dive, we must have frightened them for that to occur. A great find and ending to an ugly dive site.

Our lesson – God gives us beauty in the ugly if we just keep our eyes open for what He wants us to see. I call that a blessing.

I had not realized how much I have missed these two until I had to take them to the airport.

But, not until we put our footprints in the sand.

….and they sealed their love on the island with a lock on the hearts and a picture on the bridge as well.

Our next guests, Bryan and Debi, were able to have an evening with the Williams before their departure. We greeted the Miller’s and gave the 3-D William’s a send off with a lionfish taco night while watching a gorgeous sunset.

This month Bryan and Debi are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. So, our three dushi neices and new nephew, Mary’s husband Michael, came as well. We had a great time with the whole family. Not only an anniversary, we also celebrated Mary’s Birthday with a Curacaoeon fruitcake. Delicious!

….And Beka’s first open-water diving after completing her diving certification.

My new dushi dive buddy, Beka.

Uncle Jay taught Annie how to clean lionfish and make ceviche. Annie’s a nurse, so dissecting and seeing what was in the belly became a little biology class. I don’t think it counts toward her CE’s though.

While Jay and Bryan were, yes, lionfish hunting and cleaning,

Beka and I were exploring. What a dive trip for her….and myself. I love showing new divers what there is to see – frog fish, turtles, seahorse, barracuda, big scary green moray eels trying to swim next to me, Ugh!!! (Not the word I used underwater when that occurred) And without a camera working, an eagle ray on Beka’s last dive during our three -minute stop. Oh well, best way to end a dive trip even if you don’t have a camera. Instead, the wise words from a two-year old, “take the picture with your eyes” and heart as you see it swimming along the sandy ocean floor.

By the way, a very long story about the seahorse. When you see us and if you would like to know it, just ask. Jay’s version could be a bit different than mine.

The yellow thing in the coral is the frog fish.

The whole family spent a day on a sailboat snorkeling around the island.

The family also spent some time locking up the love of the 30th anniversary couple along with their two-year married daughter and husband.

The five of us ladies spent some time in Punda painting a Chichi. Chichi – In Papiamento, its first meaning is “Big Sister”. However, chichi’s meaning has evolved refering to older women that young people hold in high esteem. Maybe it’s a favorite aunt, an older sister, your mom, nana, or a female family friend, if you turn to them for advice and guidance in Curacao, then they’re your chichi.

I’m fortune to think back on the many women in my life that I can call my Chichi. Who knows where I would be without those women who have mentored me.

Question, who are your Chichi’s? How about giving them a call and tell them how much they mean to you. Men, that means you too. Who are your Chichi’s in your life? Let them know.

Celebrations, Chi Chi’s, and Company – I think we covered it.

Two and half months on an island that has stolen our hearts. There is so much more to share such as our favorite dive friends. Lisette, who takes an invasive species disrupting our eco-system and makes jewelry from their fins.

Ruby, one of the Dive Shop guys. Ruby has the kindest heart. I will really miss this sweet spirit. Young ladies, he’s single!!!! Uncle Jay has his what’s app number.

Gina, the owner of the restaurant, Purinchi, who buys some of the lionfish Jay spears so I don’t have to eat them everyday. She is a pretty important person in my lifetime on this island. She is so friendly to everyone she’s meets. If we all could have that spirit.

And our newest friend, Captain Andy. Andy has his boat that is basically a rubber life boat. He took us out to a few rarely explored reefs. The beauty is what we remembered twenty-five years ago when we first began diving. Andy calls the reef prehistoric. I don’t think he was calling us old, only the reefs look like they did way back then. Thanks, Andy, for taking us out, the adventurous boat rides, and your great sense of humor you shared each day we were with you.

Curacao, the best kept secret in the Caribbean. Why the best? Hands down it’s the people. You can have island living on any island you choose, however you won’t find as kind and loving people there as you do here. And, with 82 dives each so far this trip and 396 lionfish speared (not including the ones that escaped out of the zookeeper) the diving is pretty good too.

Blessings, Jay and Kelly