We are up at 7, which is still 6:00 back home. Looking out the window makes the day look pretty nice. This is more or less what looking out the window is like every day here. But I’ll still look every day when I wake up.
We go to Willem’s across the street for the mandatory Dutch Pancake House stop. We meet Chris & Veev there, who we will be spending the day with. The pancakes are thin, more like crepes. We get 2 and split them, and they are good. The Dutch coffee here is about as good as you can find on the island. It’s not great but it’s good enough.
I did not bring beans this trip because I didn’t want to be pulled out for smuggling drugs, potentially. So Dutch coffee will have to do.
We head back to the room to get ready, then go to the lobby and get the jeep, which Chris has rented for the next 2 days. We run through the intro which isn’t very informative then we drive away from the hotel. We stop at a market to get drinks and ice because it’s always hot here.
We head to Arikok National Park and stop in at the visitor center to pay for passes and get a map of the park.
First stop is across the island to Conchi Natural Pool. Usually you can go in but due to the jellyfish people are not allowed in today. The dive over is rugged, and definitely warrants the jeep. There is a small hike down to the ocean and from there, it’s just gorgeous & awesome. The pictures do a better job explaining than I would.
We drive back up & over then across to Fontein Cave, which is cool but small.
Nearby there is an old farm (bananas and something else) with a lot of goats and a small place where the fish will eat the dead skin off your feet.
We then make our way to the second cave, which is called Quadrikiri Cave. Much deeper with holes above to let light in and make pictures much cooler. We also saw 2 bats flying around. Apparently they are in the small hole with the cage over it, shown below.
From there we left the south end of the park and went by the military testing ground & windmill farm. We had ridden up here last year on the ATVs.
We then stop for lunch at O’niel Caribbean Kitchen which was pretty good. We tried to get as much native food as possible but the reality is that it’s more or less a desert island. We ate goat & fish for lunch.
After lunch we walked to Kulture Cafe for a quick coffee.
Then we hit the donkey sanctuary which is a sanctuary for donkeys. So if nothing else you know it’s well-named. There are almost 130 donkeys here and 30 more still roam the island on mostly the south side. We actually saw one of the “free” ones and this all made us wonder how the 30 are allowed to run free while these 130 have to stay here.
Then we went back to the hotel and hit the beach. See yesterday’s commentary on the ocean being mandatory.
We take a quick shower then his Salt & Pepper tapas which was pretty good. But I will say that finding fruits & vegetables on this island is not easy.
We head over to the Sopranos Piano Bar to meet the rest of the work crew for an hour or so, then head back to the room and call it a night.
Traveling Normandy 