Day 21: Pokopoko

A friend once told me that the human mind needs 21 days to restore its batteries. Another one said that, if you do a thing 21 days in a row, it will become a habit. I am not sure if these things are scientifically proven or if they both just mixed something they overheard with a nice sounding number but I know that I am now traveling for 21 days.

Until this day a lot of cool things happened. I have been very lucky for ending up with people I could connect with and, even though there were days that sucked, it was a good decision to just leave for some time. I´m not sure if I reached my goal of emptying my head or if I actually filled it but I like the way it is now. Lets see how things will be when I am back home.

Jana used to joke around that I will turn into a hippie and after todays events a part of me wants to. A local family picked me up to go to the beach because if there´s one rule everyone in curaçao obeys to its: Sunday = Beachday! During the week the beaches are filled with white (or mostly red) dutch people but on sunday you see a lot of locals, bringing ghettoblasters, having barbecues and dancing.

So Jesse, his wife Kadesha and their son Jaden picked me up from the hostel. In the car I also met Andrea and Lea. They are from Hungary, currently live in Berlin and are mother and daughter. I put my stuff in the back of their pickup truck and squeezed into the front. This car clearly wash´t designed for 6 people but intensive body contact with strangers can be a good conversation starter so at least we had something to laugh about.

Since it was very windy there already were a lot of kite surfers on the beach when we arrived. I even ran into one guy from yesterdays party. We set up on a little hill, drank beer and rum and had brunch. It was too windy to swim but there were plenty of other things to do. On a hill behind us people set up a hippie market in an old container. They sold handcrafted jewelry, prints and soup. Inside the displaying area children were playing with dogs and climbing on everything. After some hours we drove to another nearby beach that was the most accurate interpretation of surfer culture I ever whitnessed. Some people built a shack our of drifting wood, painted it and put old vintage furniture in it. There were surfboards stuck in the ground with "Beach rules" on them who basically all said: "You better be smiling". 

Then there was a very long pier built from stillages and that ended with a platform. In the middle there was a swing. A group of young people with more tattoos than I could eve pay for drank beer, surfed and rode jet ski. I got the chance to learn how to drive it by acting brave and just asking if I could do it. Best decision ever and it turned out that I am natural. I just really wanted to know how fast this thing could go and ended up doing jumps. I need to get rich so I can buy one. That will be a major life goal from now on. 

Chris and his two children Dylan and Dasha joined us. We hopped on the pickup truck again- Lea, me and the children this time in the open back and drove off road to an illegal racing track where young show offs were entertaining the local crowd by doing drift stunts and racing with their motorcycles. I swear is was like a scene of Fast and Furious: Tokio drift. Also because most of the cars belonged to asians. A few drivers fell but as far as I know nobody got really hurt. You could buy snacks and beer and we had a lot of fun.

The last activity of the day was driving to mambo beach, a club on the seaside. We took the kids with us (because none on curaçao cares about age restrictions) and just danced. Jaden, who ia actually 5 years old, has some of the sickest dance moves I ever saw.

Back at the hostel Isolde was packing her things- she will leave tomorrow morning. She gave me a thousand hugs, told me to "not dress like this in Baltimore" and then left me her email address. Weird but in a very nice way. Two more days on Curacao for me. I should start looking for places to sleep during my last week.

Day 20: Felis cumpleaño

Earlier this week Dodi invited me to his 50th birthday party and tonight I followed his invitation. Going there by public transportation seemed confusing but was actually very easy. Once you find the main bus station you wait for a car with the number plate "bus", ask where they are going and if they say anything that could mean "yes" or sounds like a place you recognize you get in, pay 2 gilders and hope for the best.

Dodi lives in a luxurious reservoir on the outskirts of Willemstad. It´s a very nice villa with sea view. As I arrived Dodi, Angel, Eva and Franz already sat at the balcony preparing decorations and food

I helped setting everything up and soon came to the realization that this will be different than I thought. At the end we were about 30 people, everyone very rich and very well dressed. I´m positive that I was the the only person under 40 and without kids. We drank expensive champaign, ate tapas and sushi and everyone asked me when I am planning to start my own family.

It was weird but I got used to it and ended up talking with Franz for most of the night. He works as a navy captain and had the most amazing and cruel stories to tell. Up to this point he has travelled the whole world with his ship. He loves the job. "We bring the soldiers where they need to go and they fight, sleep in tents and eat shitty food. As for us, we get a decent meal every night, sower warm and have a personal cabin. I nearly died a few times but I see so many things that I sometimes have the feeling I´ve been alive far more than some people would be within a 100 years." He does´t like humans too much but he loves the sea and everything in it. Also he does´t eat fish because fish are friends.

Day 19: Bermuda!

Laura begged me to join them in the car. I didn´t want to spend another day with Isolde but I went. 3 hours of driving and waiting as Isolde decides that every diving spot here is ugly and not worth its money. Then she insisted on going to one of the biggest resorts here just to stand on the beach and telling me that all the people who live here "have no sense for beauty because it is not natural to live here and she enjoys her travels more than those people blabla". Lady, what did you expect?

I then decided to just go home. For the first time since I´m here I had the hostel to myself so I played ukulele in the big living room which sounds a lot better then in my room. After a few hours Pedro arrived from Brasil, he will stay here for two nights, is 30 years old and teaches computer science at an University. We decided to go out at night and as always Isolde wanted to join- not liking anything. Laura had to be home early because she needed to sleep so she brought Isolde home. Pedro and I walked through the city, searching for a crowded place but it was very hard to find young people. After an hour we ended up at Bermuda, the only night club on the island. It was kinda cool. Beautiful Club concept and different floors. Maybe not the best music. There has been the Rihanna DJ, the one that only played Sean Paul and one that played Salsa. 

We only had to pay 2 dollars for a beer and if something is that cheap you should drink a lot. We did. And we danced. As I was already getting really tired the salsa DJ suddenly started playing DMX. I was awake and 100% gangster again. This way we stayed until 4am and I am actually very proud that we made it home because on the way back we had to cross Queen Emma bridge. It´s not really a bridge but a big boat that floats on the sea. Imaging your head is spinning and then add a moving ground.

Day 18: Roadtrip...

After 3 days of Isolde explaining to me that I would be a happier person if I would eat breakfast I finally gave in. We all met at the big table in the backyard and it was actually nice. After breakfast Isolde let herself into my room again to "talk about something serious". She was thinking about inviting Alexandra and Svenja to come to Westpunt with us but wanted to make sure I would be fine with it. I was and we decided to drive to "Boka Tabla"- a sea cavern on the northern shore.

It was very impressive. The most awesome one for me was probably "Boka Pistol". The water shaped the cliffs in a way that turns approaching waves into loud and huge explosions.

We then got hungry and found a local cafe. I ordered the dish with the funniest name and ended up eating barracuda steak. On the picture you can see there´s a part of the fish missing, that was me. Isolde didn´t like her food, the other people in the cafe and the packaging. As she was finished eating she stood up and told us that "we can´t wait for everyone to be finished because we have a schedule planned". Basically she expected 3 people to leave their half full dishes in the cafe. And that´s really one of the least rude things she does. I could write pages about her. And she always smiles when she does these things. It´s really, really weird but also very funny.

Isolde wanted to go to the St. Christoffel National Park but it was already closed. Of course she didn´t accept that, knocked on the offices door and demanded to speak to the manager. No chance. And then the real nightmare began: Isolde deciding to walk through the property on her own. In Curacao there are a lot of land houses from rich settlers that tell the history of slavery. Isolde let herself in and started to talk about everything she saw. It was like an audio commentary of personal opinions you don´t wanna hear and can´t turn off. Also she has a very high and scratching voice and then there´s still that racist thing she´s probably not fully aware of.

Alexandra and Svenja wanted to go swimming. On the way to the beach Isolde found 2 more land houses and an open church. At some point I just stayed in the car reading. After snorkeling at "kleine Knip" we went back to the hostel. Laura and I wanted to go to the city and drink some local rum. Alexandra and Svenja joined. Isolde too- but "she won´t be walking home alone so someone has to come with her". The young man from the couple had to bring and pick her up. He doesn´t even know her and he clearly didn´t want to but you just don´t stand a chance when she decides on something like that. 

First stop was "Netto Bar" in Otrabunda, where "Rom verde" was invented. It tastes very bitter. Isolde went home and we walked to Willemstad, looking for some Curacao Rum. Also a very special taste but ok. Alexandra and Svenja had to leave on the next day so we didn´t stay too long but it was nice.

Day 17: Silence.

Isolde has this new habit of coming into my room in the morning to check if I am already awake. Today I was sitting on the laptop to do some writing so she gave me a hug or something and congratulated me on being a hardworking girl. I really looked forward to being alone at the hostel. There´s a line in gravity that describes the whole thing pretty good.

"What do you like most about space?"

"The silence. I could get used to it"

Laura and Isolde went diving, I got back into writing, mostly character charts and a few little monologues. As I wasn´t able to focus anymore I decided to start watching walking dead. The graphic novel and the TV series are very different at some parts. I am not sure if I actually like it. And ukulele playing, lots and lots of it. I finished the first draft of a song and worked on two others.

It was a very good day except for the german couple that would occupy the kitchen. I like people but I also like being alone, and today I especially liked being alone so I couldn´t eat for a very long time because I tried to avoid the kitchen/ smalltalk. 

At night I failed and got myself in a smalltalk situation with two new girl that stay here and are, also, from germany. Alexandra and Svenja, very nice. I share the whole hostel with german people now. They honestly meet for breakfast every morning to make schedules for the day and then pack lunch boxes for the beach. I feel like an alien here.

Day 16: What?

Sometimes people take very easy things, waste a little breath on it and leave everyone involved with an awkward feeling. Isolde managed to nearly get a shore dive for free because she made the diving instructor so mad, he didn´t even want her money anymore. He literally came up to me saying: "Take your grandma and leave. I don´t care how you do it but get the old lady away from me."

But first things first: Laura decided to come to Westpunt with us. After Isolde woke me up in the morning, gave a speech about the importance of breakfast and ranted about the island I was more than happy to have someone joining the trip. Laura is 30, lived in Sydney for the last years and just moved back to Düsseldorf 5 weeks ago. She works as a teacher and spends all her free time traveling famous diving spots. 

On the way to Laguna Beach we found Flamingos and 6 churches that were all closed but Isolde still slammed the brakes every time, shouting "Oh this is nice I need to take a picture." Summarizing our amazing catholic adventures I promise all churches in Curacao have the same outline, color and probably the same interior.

But somehow we made it to the diving school. Laguna Beach was beautiful, I bought snorkeling equipment and stayed in the water for some time. Isolde and Laura prepared themselves for their first dive on Curacao. Isolde has this theory that she ALWAYS deserves to get things cheaper because she usually finds something that´s not ok or could have been better. Yesterday she caused a huge scene at a supermarket because of fixed prices for apples. Naturally she wanted the dive for half of the price.

The instructor didn´t like this idea too much but she usually doesn´t give up that fast and just decided to follow him WHEREVER he went, talking about the discount she deserves. I tried to talk to her, Laura tried to talk to her. She wouldn´t listen. The instructor got very mad so we forced her to give him the money and leave with us. We are allowed to go back, she is probably banned for life.

I then convinced the group to go to Janchies, a restaurant I read about on various travel blogs where you can eat Leguana and "Karko", which is a sea shell. Laura and I shared both dishes and it tastes ok. Eating Leguana  isn´t easy. There are lots of bones and organs and it tastes like chicken. We (and by "we" I mean Laura and I because Isolde was busy complaining about how the salad didn´t have a dressing and how that is a sign of missing education) joked around with the owner and got a dessert + wooden parrot statues for free. I can really recommend this place :)

On our way back we stopped at Playa Kalki and after that went back to the hostel. Dodi and I decided to go to the cinema today and I invited Laura and Isolde to come with us. Isolde didn´t feel like walking fast so we came late and Dodi was already gone. I felt bad. Still, we watched Gravity in OV with spanish subtitles and it was good. On the way home Isolde wouldn´t shut up about how you can´t trust black men and that we have to be careful. First, thats racist and second- how come that she suddenly was able to walk very fast? Continuously talking about how black/poor people are bad. She was driving me insane. I think I got a little bit mean at one point as I told her that "we are the only fucking people on this fucking street so you might as well just chill" but as always she ignored it and kept talking.

I will take a day off tomorrow because all my social abilities have been used babysitting a 60 year old. 

Day 15: The day I got myself a travel- grandma.

One of the good things of my parenting was that I basically could do anything I wanted. I could make bad decisions but I had to be ready to live with the consequences and that taught me to use my brain instead of just blindly following what others tell you. Now imagine how I felt when I spent the day with a very nice 60 year old lady that constantly told me to "put on sunblock and don´t dress like this!" 

She also educated me about how tattoos are a bad thing, white skin is often a sign of education and being rude to employes at stores shows them that you know what you want. A strong woman with a lot of strong opinions that starts her day with yoga and sometimes just summarizes what she learned about me by saying things like: "You sometimes eat two warm meals a day" out loud.

Isolde already travelled the whole world, likes to scuba dive and lives in Berlin. Now she is here and lives in the room next to me. We are friends because I can change the language on her digital camera and know how to set up a DVD player. These are two of my best qualities. Still she is very nice and right now I find the whole thing very amusing and a little bit comfortable because she brings me fruit and tee into my room - just in case I get hungry. I found myself a travel grandma today and I don´t know how to handle this yet.

We decided to rent a car for the week and it only costs each of us 10€/Day. This way I can visit Westpunt and St. Christoffel plus get some diving advice by an expert. I just really need to find a way to not be annoyed when she tells me to put on a different shirt because this one will get me raped. It´s a tank top lady and we have 32 degrees outside. 

Apart from that I started to use my go pro under water today. I think it will take me a few days to find the right settings and angles but whatever the outcome may be it will be blue water and fish. 

Isolde already went to bed and suggested I would too because we are starting early tomorrow. Laura, a new girl at the hostel, will join us and I hope this way I can actually have some time for myself at the beach. If not I still have my ukulele, thats a good excuse to sit alone on a stone and be artsy. 

Day 14: I like turtles!

And turtles seem to like me. Maybe thats why, when I first jumped into the ocean, suddenly lots and lots of them kept swimming with me. Wild turtles are probably the most relaxed animals in existence. They just don't care. But it took me some time to understand this important fact so for the first 10 minutes I was caught in a twilight zone between excitement and irrational fear. Snorkeling in general makes me feel weird. On the one hand it´s beautiful to see so many animals and reefs and special things like turtles but then again… sometimes you stop and look back to the shore. There you are, 20 meters away from everyone with a million different life forms under and beside you. If they would unite and decide to eat you, they could. And whats even worse is when you come to a spot where you can´t see the ground because it was replaced by a deep, dark abyss. I can feel my girl balls growing by just staying in the water and pretending to be calm.

"Klein Curacao" turned out to be like a postcard image. Warm water, clear oceans, exotic underwater flora & fauna, excellent food and a huge ship that took us there and back. I made friends with a dutch family that had a 15 year old son and as we got bored we decided to climb the ship and jump into the ocean. A little kid, about 8 years, had the same idea but long before us and decided to make it a competition of who can find the highest spot. Ship´s roof. This could have gone wrong but it didn´t. Lucky us.

Another thing to do and probably my favorite spot on the island was an old ship wreck that lies there for about 30 years now. It´s on the other side of the island and the whole area is covered with ship parts, dried coral, waste and plants. The beaches are filled with dark rocks that produce a loud sound when the waves hit them.

And then there is the light house. Also nice. Like everything, from all the places on earth this is definitely one of the nicer ones or as Conchita, a local I became friends with told me: "I chose to live on this island long before I was born"

Day 13: Morto ta pa sèmper ma bida ta koriku.

Compared to the islands enhanced macho culture I almost feel bad calling the guy from yesterday a creep but who could have known how hard it is for some people to differ between woman and meat. Since wishing I was a guy won´t turn me into one while I´m travelling I guess the only real option here is to keep looking for my inner sassy Latina. Until then I just tell people that I am 15 and hope that this makes most of them leave.

But apart from that the island is beautiful. I walked from Otrobanda to Punda, Willemstad and didn´t want to look like a tourist (as I am one of the few white people there that obviously didn´t work) so I didn´t buy a map and just kept walking until I was where I wanted to be. After some time I ended up on the seaside in the only cafe that was empty. This way I could choose the best table and got full attention by the employes which was important because up to this point I really needed to ask some questions.

Dodi, the owner of the café, decided to sit on my table and we spent the next 4 hours talking about the island and his backstory. Guess this is one of the things I enjoy most about the vacation: I keep quiet and they talk. Suddenly we go from holiday stories to what really matters to a different person, that lives a different life that I do not understand but value and it builds a connection. Even thought you are most likely to not see a majority of this people again you care. I didn´t care for many people during the last years so it feels good to see that I actually still can. And it pays off- first because it got me free brunch and second, because I will join him and his (Lady)friend from London tonight going to a (or THE) club, then probably crash at his place and tomorrow we´ll take a ferry to "klein Curacao"- finally going to the beach!

Because I´m actually running late I´ll just post a few pictures here. Need to get fancy and find the courage to walk nighttime Curacao and his testosterone filled streets. If I should die I will make it easy for the police and just add a picture of the guy I´m drinking with tonight. That should work.

Day 12: Bon bini!

Curacao. I am finally here and, as far as I can tell, I love it. The hostel is a very nice house with a fully equipped kitchen, a living room and 5 guest rooms. Right now we are 3 people here- me and a german couple. On sunday another guy will join us. Art, the owner, is very easy and I got a special price which makes the spontaneous ticket-buying thing suck less!

As you can see from the pictures I already decided to get comfortable. 10 days are enough time to pretend that you are living here and I like looking at pretty stuff. Still, the prettiest thing in this hostel is a neighbors cat that decides to spend most of her time here. I would like to rent this room forever!

The flight was very interesting, as the man next to me turned out to be a hostel owner at Bonaire, decided to paint me a map of the island and told me what I should´t miss out on. This took about an hour but then I could finally start to read my new book. Soon after I started reading something weird happened. Someone threw a piece of paper on my book basically saying that I am cute and he wants to know my name and telephone number. He actually wrote it in a very nice way but I didn´t see who it was and it didn´t make me feel comfortable at all. So I decided to not lift my head again until this plane lands at the airport. But soon the guy, who was a flight attendant, started to talk to me. He just would´t stop and the flight took 3 hours. So when we were landing I wrote down what I wanted to say and left- but he came after me asking, again, for my name and number. I told him that I left the sheet on my seat and thought this would set me free but no, after I got my bag he was waiting for me at the exit. I am a person that appreciates personal space and he just crossed a line. So thankfully my hostel owner was there to pick me up so I could just leave this whole thing.

Also, I just found a lovely piece of paper telling me that "my bag was along the selected objects for physical inspection" so they basically searched my stuff. Explains why there was such a mess in it. And there goes my privacy for this day! Still the hostel somehow makes up for everything.

Tomorrow I think I will visit the floating market to get some food, walk through Willemstad and maybe visit a beach. I got a bike to borrow for free so that should be easy! 

Day 12: Airports.

Every time I try to check in at an american airport everything works completely different than the last time. Today it almost seemed like things would start to make sense but then the nice lady at the counter informed me that "in order to leave the United states you must have a valid ticket back to the United states". I tried to explain that, as you can see from my passport, I am not an US citizen and already booked my flight back to Europe but no chance, I had to buy a ticket back to the States. Now. Or I wouldn´t be allowed to board my flight to Curaçao.

Obviously I wasn´t very happy about this and I didn´t want to pay more than I had to. So instead of booking a ticket at an American Airways counter I set up a little office in a corner, purchased 24h internet and looked for the cheapest random flight back to America between the 28th and 30th of October. I ended up buying a ticket to Baltimore on the 29th. So I will spend halloween there. I know nothing about this city but it´s near New York, I eventually have a place to sleep and Nina Simone wrote a song about it. Maybe not the most encouraging one but if someone takes the time to dedicate a song to a whole city there must be something interesting about it.

And if someone dedicates a page of his book to airports not being pretty he must have a valid reason. After visiting many airports during the last two weeks I finally fully understand this paragraph from "The long dark Tea-time of the soul" by Douglas Adams:

 It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk Airport is the only exception of this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs.

Anyway: I am pretty exited about Curacao :)