Throwback Thursday: The Red Sea

SCUBA Diving the Red Sea

This photo represents one of the many sunsets we enjoyed while diving off a live aboard for a week in the Red Sea.  The Red Sea diving is marvelous.  We saw a Moray eel attack a stonefish that was too big for it to swallow, so it wrapped its body around the fish like a pretzel to break it up.  The eel dropped the fish and swam toward our semi-circle of six divers that mistakenly encroached on his space as we watched in awe.  Our semi-circle quickly expanded, and the eel contentedly went back to his dinner.  We hovered there for the last ten minutes of our dive before we had to surface to off-gas. Simply spectacular!

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Dreamtrip: Paradise Island, Bahamas

Where to Stay, Things to Do, and Places to Eat on Paradise Island

I felt like I needed some beach time in the winter, so I booked a trip through my vacation club, World Ventures, the largest private club in the world.  The club provides pre-packaged trips as well as a booking engine for flight, hotels, VRBO, cruises, and rental cars.  It also includes an online shopping mall with virtually every retailer as well as discounts at local restaurants and events.

I didn’t want to have to think about anything for this relaxing vacation, so I picked a four-night trip to the Bahamas.  I flew from Denver while my friend Max came from Dallas.  Miraculously, both of our flights were on time and our bags came off the carousels next to each other in baggage claim, so we were off to paradise quickly!

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whale shark with the sun shining down into the ocean

Super SCUBA Diving in the Philippines!

Getting to the Philippines

What a great trip to the Philippines!  Originally, I told my friend I didn’t want to go, but she asked me once more after her travel partner was badly injured in a car accident.  I succumbed, but wasn’t terribly excited about it mostly because we were going all the way to the Philippines and not going to the most beautiful island in the world, Palawan. Also I have been on a travel spree and was ready to be home to enjoy the summer in Denver.

My trip to the airport didn’t help my attitude.  I missed the 8:12am train to the airport by seconds.  I literally pushed the button for the door to open, and the train departed the station.  So I patiently waited for the next train coming in 15 minutes except after 30 minutes it hadn’t arrived.  Finally, an announcement over the loud speaker stated it would not be coming and shuttle buses would service the airport.

DIVE IN!

Ya Mon…Negril, Jamaica!

Traveling to Jamaica

What a relaxing trip to Jamaica!

The travel started out a bit rough, having to arrive at the airport at 4:30am only to be helped by a grouchy Southwest Airlines ticket agent. This was a bit disappointing to me, as generally the customer service is quite spectacular which is a big reason why I use the company. Not to mention I worked there years ago in Revenue Management and Pricing.

After a weak “hello”, the older woman asked me in a condescending tone, “Do you have your passport?” It was almost like she thought I wouldn’t! Then after I received the boarding pass, I asked if she could reprint it with TSA precheck since I have global entry. Continue reading “Ya Mon…Negril, Jamaica!” →

SCUBA Diving in Turks and Caicos

Getting to Turks and Caicos

The travel day to Turks and Caicos was one to forget, but the island is one to remember. Well, I guess the travel wasn’t that bad…only significantly long. We left the house at 2:45am, took our first flight at 5am after waiting in the long, non-TSA precheck line because it didn’t open until 4am. At 4am, we got in the TSA precheck line only to follow a bunch of people who didn’t want to wait in the other line and got turned away. Then three people pretended not to speak English and cut in front of us as we were waiting to put our bags through X-ray. Next the train on either side decided it didn’t want to accept passengers. But, the flight was on time! As was the next one out of Dallas…so that was a plus!! Continue reading “SCUBA Diving in Turks and Caicos” →

Christoffel Park and Willemstad, Curaçao

Sightseeing in Curacao

Christoffel Park (Mountain Side)

We had to schedule a day on land after diving so we could off gas before flying. As such we planned on spending our morning at another national park called Christoffel and our afternoon in Willemstad, the larger town near the airport.

We thought it would be best to hike and enjoy nature before it got too hot. It’s a good thing we did, the park doesn’t even allow visitors to hike up the “mountain” after 11am for this very reason. Originally, we thought we would hike the orchid trail. The online information suggested this would be a two hour hike and not too strenuous. Continue reading “Christoffel Park and Willemstad, Curaçao” →

SCUBA in Westpunt, Curaçao

SCUBA Diving

Another day…another day on the boat diving! Two tanks with yet another dive master and a trainee. The trainee was one of our divemasters the first day and not from the area. She had only arrived two weeks ago. I still wouldn’t say our divemasters were good, but we had some enjoyable dives at Mushroom Forest and Lagun. The highlights were probably the eels again. We found two next to each other which is somewhat rare, plus we spotted another one free swimming. Continue reading “SCUBA in Westpunt, Curaçao” →

SCUBA Diving and Sightseeing in Curaçao

SCUBA diving

We were back at GO West by 8am gathering our gear and loading it on the boat. We ended up with DIN tanks which is a set up we don’t dive. I found our divemaster, Miguel, who was much more helpful. He fixed the tanks, though one kept leaking so he had to replace it. I didn’t know there were two types of tanks on board, not counting air and Nitrox. Fortunately, we had the kind we needed yesterday as both of us only checked the tank we were diving first. Continue reading “SCUBA Diving and Sightseeing in Curaçao” →

boca ascension

Boca Acension in Curaçao

Traveling to Curaçao

a long day of travel, we finally arrived at Curaçao’s International Airport around 10pm. Slowly and in a sweltering heat, we eventually got our rental car from Sixt. We piled our dive gear into the back of the tiny car, jacked with the driver side door lock, turned the volume on the radio blasting jibberish down to zero since the Kenwood stereo wouldn’t turn off and headed out in the dark to Westpunt. According to the map, we only had to make one turn. According to the rental car agent, we had to go to the round-about and go straight. Continue reading “Boca Acension in Curaçao” →