12 – 30 January 2014

In Curacao I couchsurfed most of the time with a very nice Italian family – a great experience of home away from home. In many ways my host Monica had a similar mindset as I have developed the last decade, so we had countless interesting conversations... The oldest son Joe was 17 and a bright young guy – a pleasure to talk to and we also we worked together placing new plastic under the pebbles in the garden (an alternative to using pesticides against weed). The youngest son Madi was sweet, playful and always had a lot of energy...

Curacao is much more interesting than Aruba with its history, culture and atmosphere. It was a pleasure strolling around the capital Willemstat observing people/street life, admiring the many beautifully refurbished old buildings (and some less so), etc. I also went diving for the first time in almost 3 years since I took my divemaster in Utila island in Honduras. In Curacao diving is from the shore and therefore possible to do without a guide – all it takes is a rental car, equipment and recommendations/directions from a diveshop. I'm priviledged to have dived some of the most amazing places in the world, so at best it was average - two out of three dives had decent corals and fishlife while the third was disappointing (even with low expectations). I really hope it's going to be much better when I go diving in Bonaire afterwards..

Having a rental car for some days also provided an opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing – as it's a fairly small island it was possible to see everything of interest in a long day. The northern coastline is similar to Aruba - rugged, desolete and with big waves crashing against the rocks. There are more beautiful beaches - though on this Sunday they were crowded with locals....

In Aruba it rained a lot – often all night and sometimes durimg the day. In Curacao the weather was better – often cloudy and sometimes overcast but it hardly ever rained... The temperature at this time of year is 35 celcius so the constant breeze was very welcome...