2015-4-27  Curacao (8-6) Blue Bay

Another new island for us.  I was surprised how modern both Bonaire and Curacao are.  I imagine Aruba would be, too.  They're known as the Netherland's ABC islands.  Definitely see a land trip out to this area in our future. 

 I really had a hard time figuring out where we should go in my research ahead of time---not that it really mattered since we didn't do what I planned at the last 2 islands.  I had read the best snorkeling was quite a distance away so I reserved us a car.  Once we got there, Ken decided he didn't want to drive---especially since it was a holiday there (the King's birthday).  So we walked to the tourist booth and were told Blue Bay is where we wanted to go.   I knew this is where the ship's Beach Express Excursion was going, but didn't have much luck convincing the taxi drivers we should go to Porto Marie or Pirate Bay or Porto Lagun (which was where I wanted us to drive to).  So for $50rt for the 2 of us, we went to Blue Bay.
There were signs saying $8/person entrance, but noone was there collecting money, so we took our stuff to a tree and left it there.  We don't rent chairs because we're usually not out of the water very long.   The cruise ship customers had not arrived yet.

 It was a pretty bay, but again we had our doubt about the snorkeling----the bottom of the bay was obviously sandy which isn't good for snorkeling.

 But we were here, so we were going in!

 off to the right side we found some rocks.  Surprisingly it wasn't bad.  Here's a Jack.

 and some squid swimming about.

 Then we went around the point of the bay to the right and found some great coral and lots more fish.

 and other critters like these Christmas Tree worms.

 another fish I hadn't seen before!  I always find that exciting.

 these 2 wrasses were sparring nose to nose.

 another filefish

 There were even a lot of cleaning stations where fish like this Parrotfish were being cleaned by these small yellow cleaning wrasses.

 A Parrotfish with markings I've not seen before

 I've also not seen these tiny toby-like fish before and there were hundreds of them here.

 The water was super clear again.  Colors were so vibrant!

 Another large Cowfish---this one was blue.  The one we saw in Bonaire was green.

 Lots of types of Parrotfish.

 Another wrasse.

 More schools of fish.

 Don't know what was going on here, but this grouper kept swimming on top of this eel. 

 Then we swam across Blue bay and into a bay on the other side.  Spent quite a while there.    The restaurant in the above picture is on the left side of Blue Bay (looking out from the beach).

Lots and lots of coral and fish in this other bay.

 not sure if this is a parrotfish or a wrasse.

 saw a few large yellow head wrasses here.

 More groupers with different markings.

 another flounder

 Even came across another Lionfish.

 This Lionfish was quite small.

 a type of Damselfish

 another colorful Parrotfish

 a grunt or snapper.

A nicely marked yellow cleaning wrasse.

 Another colorful Parrotfish

 Another type of wrasse.

 A male parrotfish---they have the longer tails.

 Under the dock by the restaurant.

 Glassy slippers under the dock.

 another colorful fish marked like I've never seen before.

 a Leatherback Jack.

 A Blennie

a toby

 coral

 back around to Blue Bay and looking back towards the beach from near the dock by the restaurant.

 Lots of these guys over the sand.

 After about 5 hours, we decided it was time to get out and dry up.  Sat at a pic nic table and watched the above ground critters for awhile.  Never seen a bird like this before.

 or like this.

 We enjoyed the shade awhile

 enjoyed the views of the bay.

 Then I took a walk to take some more pictures.   This was the right side in the bay where the squid were.

 there's the restaurant to the far left.

 One of the many flowers.

 The bay to the left of the restuarant where we spent a lot of time snorkeling.

 another view of the bay to the left from the restaurant.

 someone's creation in the sand.

All too soon we were back at the port.  It was then we noticed the free Wi-Fi signs.  Our room was facing the port, so when we got back on the ship, we checked to see if we could connect from our room.  Much to our delight, we could and spent the next hour (until the ship shoved off and our free Wi-Fi dropped) catching up with the "kids" and uploading a couple pictures to Facebook.  It's pretty hard being "disconnected" for almost 2 weeks!

 Turned out to be well worth going to Blue Bay.    Good Bye Curacao.   Hope we meet again!