In the fair month of August, my dear friend Carina and I betook ourselves on a vacation. Not a strange thing to do in August, by all accounts and purposes, yet this one had a twist - as most of my vacations do. We decided not to go camping or up north, but rather to head out on a Caribbean vacation (is it Caribean or Caribean? or is that like tomaytoes or tomatoes?). We were headed for the island of Curacao... Curacao, you say? Where in the world is that? Is that like beside Africa? Nope, my geographically ignorant friend (said lovingly since i formerly only had a vague knowledge of its location as well), it is off the coast of South America, about 40 kms away from Aruba (the most well known of the former Dutch holdings!)
Who goes on such a trip in the summer? After all, it's already hot and sticky at home, why do you need to travel far away to get that kind of weather - you'd be better off to go in the middle of February when you need some sun and a tan to make everyone else jealous. Well, as i've seemed to spend most of the summer inside at work or such and since it's been relatively cool and not so sunny when i was off, a tan was a welcome side effect of the trip!
Mind you, we did crispify ourselves several days - whilst snorkeling about the reefs - forgetting that salt water probably magnifies the effect of the sun's rays on parts of our bodies which had up til then had limited exposure to the damaging effects! Hence i ended up burning the inside of my arms and a little strip down the back of my bathing suit where the top rode up without my knowledge. Suffice it to say, we walked like little old ladies as we stepped off the plane in Buffalo! But we were grinning from ear to ear as we had had a wonderful time! We had enjoyed some of God's wonderful creation, we had had a lot of fun doing lots of new and exciting things - learning about Curacaoan history, going snorkelling in azure blue waters, poking around the capital city of Willemstad, and absorbing local island culture and life. Altogether a truly worthwhile experience and well worth the hours of peeling when we got home! I've included a mishmash of pictures to give you a little clue as to our adventures there!
Watching the waves crashing in at Boka Pistol on the northern coast
Two very hot and sweaty girls in some very hot temperatures!
Watching the waves crashing in at Boka Pistol on the northern coast
Two very hot and sweaty girls in some very hot temperatures! 
We were blessed with a couple of gorgeous sunsets
At the floating market in Willemstad, there were some pretty big knives! Wouldn't want to make this fellow angry! We think he was cutting up a tuna!
That's huge!
Pity you can't snug up on this picture because it shows our little rental car, totally abandoned in the middle of the wasteland between the coast
and the mountains, the ground was just too rough for good old gutless Speedy!
Curacao is very arid and desert like in it's vegetation, there were cacti and prickly bushes all over the place to be avoided at all costs to
avoid nasty encounters!
The back porch of our rental home - where we spent hours just chillaxin' and reading and writing journals (nope, we still aren't home yet Carina!)
One day, we tried to get to the ocean - you wouldn't think it would be a very difficult feat on an island but all the beaches seemed to be pay-as-you-go
or inhabited by creepy men asking for money - in our desparation to
dip our toes into the sea, we strode through the casino and resort as if we
were guests there and managed to finally locate the elusive sea!
Here's Carina looking posh!
One of several iguanas who chose to inhabit the backyard of our rental house - we fed them lettuce and tomatoes and watched them in some wonder -
what large lizards but oh so skittish!
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