Curacao Day 4: Iguana Nibbles

Mike slept in the next day until about noon. I spent the morning reading and enjoying the quiet view. We decided to drive to the other side of the island and check out a dive site called Playa Lagun. However, I decided that I was going to stick with snorkeling, no diving for me today. It took us about 30-40 minutes to drive to Playa Lagun, a small beach where locals like to hang out and barbecue. Condos, dive shops, and restaurants sit atop the tall cliffs that frame all sides of the bay.

Before getting in the water, we decided to grab some lunch and a drink at the Bahia Grill overlooking the bay. I had a salmon salad sandwich and Mike had a ham and cheese tosti. During lunch, we were bombarded by iguanas. These guys were obviously fed by the bar because they had no fear of humans at all. As a matter of fact, one of them kept nibbling on my toes! My toenails were painted yellow and I believe he thought they were mangoes.

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After lunch, we went back to the car and Mike suited up in the parking lot. He had a problem with the o-ring on his tank but was able to fix the problem fairly quickly. Then we headed into the water.

I stayed behind to snorkel while Mike took the camera diving.

Anemone

Crab

Trunkfish

Brain coral

Ocean surgeonfish

Various corals

Tube sponge

Blackbar soldierfish

Blue tang

Stoplight parrotfish initial phase

Various types of parrotfish

The usual reef tire

Anemone

Barrel sponge

Spotted moray eel

On my snorkel, I started along the left side of the bay and followed it around the corner, outside of the bay, along the rocks. I then came back across the bay to the right side and circled back to the beach. It was a fairly shallow snorkel with lots of fishlife and coral. I saw squid, trumpetfish, an eel, drumfish, and much more. It was the best place I snorkeled in Curacao.

We drove back home and then headed out to dinner to Mundo Bizarro, a colorful, Cuban-style restaurant across the bridge from Willemstad.

Mike continued his sampling of the island's carpaccio by having the smoked ribeye carpaccio.

I had a pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese and spinach with hand-cut fries.

Both dishes were outstanding and the atmosphere of the restaurant was relaxing. After dinner, we went back to our house and downloaded all our photos we'd taken so far then called it a night.