Curacao June 20 - July 4 - anyone else?

[Curacao Sunshine]

David and Jude were in Westpunt Bay last night - in front of All West. They saw a very large Spiny Lobster. We've seen Spanish and slipper lobsters but never the Flaming Reef. I looked it up and saw the size is between 3/4 inch and 4 1/2 inches. Maybe we have and thought it was a fat shrimp or hermit crab. I'll look closer from now on.
JD/WWD our recommendations for boat dives would be Watamula, Redhio and East Point.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

The Flaming Reef Lobsters don't grow to a harvestable size (but I'm unsure what rules there are on Curacao on lobster harvesting)

We've had some good encounters & pics of Red Reef Lobsters (who also don't grow very big) on Roatan and St. Croix, just looking to add another critter in our photo safari album.

Maybe we can buy a few decent size spiny lobsters fresh off the boat while we're at All West and grill them up together. I'll have to check out the charcoal selection at Cost You Less and Centrum while we're picking up provisions on our way from the airport to All West. Add a little acacia wood, and it'll be like my South Texas roots - mesquite grilled lobster instead of shrimp! Unless you find a pile of dead acacia nearby where we can just use all wood in the time before we get there.

Now you've got me hungry - off to dinner for me. I need to shed some blubber so I can splurge a bit when we get there on vacation, so light fare for now for reward later.

 

[jd950]

Sunshine, we were planning on Rediho and Watamula for sure. We were going to go last time, but ran out of time.

I was kidding about the flaming lobsters.

I will eat spiny lobster from Florida because I know it is abundant there and not overfished or endangered. I would probably not eat it on Curacao, though, unless someone can convince me it is sufficiently abundant and in season.

It is a drag to pass up fresh seafood on a dive trip, but I try and stick to eating land creatures, due to my environmental concerns.

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

Unfortunately all of the land creatures we eat comes to the island frozen. I tried the first year and bought a locally grown turkey for Thanksgiving. It had to be the skinniest bird we had ever seen, but not a lot of fat in the gravy Besides keeping ahead of the ants, shopping has been my biggest challenge. Ask anyone who has muled down orzo, wild rice or sunflower seeds. Sometimes you can find things and then they're gone for 8 or 9 months. There is great homemade gelato ice cream on the island!

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

The small adult size of the Red Reef Lobsters is what keeps their population at least somewhat intact on St. Croix.

Well, we won't split some grilled seafood with y'all then, but this shouldn't put a damper on splitting a pizza or two at least from our perspective. I don't think I could bring some locally abundant mudbugs nor shrimp to Curacao with us to share there.

For land critters, iguanas were still locally abundant on our last trip to Curacao; we saw locals catching some undoubtably for a meal around the Santa Cruz area. If I remember correctly Jaanchie's and Rancho el Sobrino might offer iguana on their menus. I had goat stew at both those locations last trip and that might have also been local - adding some of the local 'pica' really put some nice seasoning in those goat stews.

 

[jd950]

Sunshine: If you need some stuff brought down, let me know and I would be happy to help.

WWD: Yes Jaanchies serves iguana. It's okay. I'll eat Wahoo and Dorado, so that's always an option.

 

[Curacao Sunshine]

I'll make note on the calandar. Thanks!

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Put us on your wish list too Sunshine - we'll see how close we are on the 50 pounds per checked bag within a week before we depart. No puddle jumper transfers means no extra excess baggae fees for us this trip - NOLA to Atlanta to Hato CUR!

Maybe you'd be able to direct me toward some dry acacia no one else wants to release back to the wild in its carbon cycle when we get on-island? I'm assuming the grills at All West aren't LP Gas fired.

 

[Diver OnLu]

We will probably do one boat dive, maybe two. We go for the shore diving. I don't know what apartment we are in...Andreas heard we were coming back and quickly left for Germany.

I have never seen a flaming reef lobster, but it sounds interesting. Personally, I like them grilled with a little garlic butter.

Hi John,

you will be in apartment "F", right neighbors with the warmwaterdivers.

Greetings from Hamburg
Andreas

 

[jd950]

Andreas:

I guess now I'll have to keep the music down and tell the kids to behave.