Quickly about Curacao.

So at the end of February and the start of March we were blessed to be able to take our visa renewal on the awesome little island of Curacao. Let me tell you, it is unjustly overshadowed by it's neighbor, Aruba. While Aruba was beautiful, Curacao matched that beauty and then some. It was also without nearly as many touristy, run-of-the-mill attractions.
Our trip was a blast. We took a tiny little plane(smallest plane ive evern been on. it had propellers...) form Valencia to Wilemstead, then drove across the island to our fun little house that we were staying at. The couple that owned the place were so help and fun, and their restaurant was delicious as well www.curacaosunshine.com/pages/sol_food.htm check it out.

The island was fun. The language was quite fun to listen to as well. Popiomentu, or something like that. Its a strange mix of Spanish, Dutch, and English...go figure.
One of the first things we found out about the island, we were continually reminded of throughout the week, was that the island is full of goats. lots of them. and they often like to cross the street when it's very busy. Our first meal on the island was Pizza Hut, which didnt have a salad bar, but still provided a little taste of home.
But yeah, it was a blast. we spent a lot of time snorkeling, exploring the island, and watching the sun sets from our apartment. We also got to experience alittle bit of home and cheer on our country watching some of the winter olympics. It was a blessing to be able to relax and enjoy a fun 5 days with my team mates in such a beautiful place. I could probably talk more, but i think i'll just post a few pictures.
Unfortunately i do not have pictures of the awesome fish that we saw. they were really cool.
One of the coolest parts of the week was meeting David and Sunshine, they were such kind and helpful people. They were also from the US, and now living on the island. It was so fun to watch them interact with the local kids too. David had a ton of fun goofing around with them. He also had started a mountain biking club for the kids in the neighborhood which was just really cool. His eventual hope s to find tutors to help the kids with their academics so that they can go on to bigger and better things. Very cool.

While we were in West Punt most of the time, the last night we stayed in Willemstead. It was a great town. Beautiful, clean and colorful. It also had a floating bridge that moved which was neat.

Unfortunately my week ended in frustration. Before turning in the rental car i had to go fill it with gas. With out question i dont ever recall being that frustrated with anything in my entire life. The gas stations were pretty far from the airport, i didnt have cash, and none of the gas stations accepted Visa. So eventually I had to bite the bullet and just turn it in without filling it up and incur the ridiculous cost. but it's all good, i still had a blast that week and was good and ready for the coming month of craziness leading up to Congreso.