Curacao Family Visit

Seb’s Dad, his wife Rena, sisters Linda and Caroleijne and Linda’s boyfriend Rudolf picked us up on February 12 at the Kima Kalki marina in Spaanse Water in Curacao. We left our Pjotter at anchor before the marina in the excellent company of the Kees and Marta’s big Pjotter. They were off visiting family in the Netherlands while some of ours had come over to see us. 

So we moved from our small and warm boat into a fabulous huge house with air conditioning and with our own swimming pool.  And we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves in luxury and great company for two weeks.  

In between swims we were rather active.  Seb’s Dad and his wife try to visit Curacao once a year and thus consider it something of a second home.  In addition to this, Rena lived in Curacao for four years with her family when she was younger.   It has long been a dream of theirs to bring Seb and his brother and sisters to share this island that has become so special to them.  And now that dream was a reality.  They took us around and showed us some of their favourite places, the wonderful apartments where they usually stay, Rena’s old house and school, the beautiful Christoffel Park at Westpunt, the colourful Punda area, the Queen Emma floating bridge,  and they shared some of their favourite restaurants.   In addition to this, Seb and I (along with Caroleijne and Rudolf) finally earned our NAUI  certification and can now start to hone our diving capabilities.  And most amazing of all, Emma learned to snorkel and swim without her water wings!!!  A very special visit and very sad to see them heading off to the airport and back to Schiphol.  

 The next few days were spent enjoying the Dutchness of Curacao, shopping in the Albert Heijn, chatting with the locals (in Dutch), having dinner with Mike and Deana and Brakkeput Mei Mei (one of Seb’s Dad and Rena’s favourite restaurants) and joining Kees and Marta at Marta’s brother’s school for their annual festival.  This was a great event with many many kids and games to play.  An absolute paradise for Emma and Macsen and a great place for us to have a beer with Kees and Marta and meet Rolf and Suzanne who would be joining them onboard for the passage to Cartagena.