10 things about Curacao I’m looking forward to

In 8 days I will be moving back to Curacao. Of course there are many things that I’m going to miss about Statia, but on the other hand there are many nice things to look forward to. Except for seeing old friends and making new ones, these are the 10 things I am looking forward to most of all:

1. Papiamentu

In the years I lived in Curacao I learned to speak the local language and I love it. I hope I will be fluent again soon.

2.  The Cinemas

After two years of watching the same movies on DVD and YouTube… Yesss!

3.  Running after dark

Of course it’s too hot (and in my opinion not healthy) to run during daytime in the Caribbean. On Statia there are no streetlights on the roads where I prefer to run. That means I always have to calculate the exact amount of time I need for the planned running distance and subtract this from the time of sunset. Let’s say I do a 10k run in 1:13 and sunset is at 18:23, I have to start running at 17:10 sharp, when it is still hot. On Curacao there are more streetlights, so I’m really looking forward to running when it cooled down a bit.

4.  A boatride along the Bandabou coast

I just love the rocking of a boat while watching Knip, Jeremi and the other beaches pass by. And a cool dip in the water at the Blue Room.

5. Shorediving wherever, whenever

Shorediving on Curacao is just great. Diving gear in the car, broom broom, jump in the water and hello different world. I can’t wait to see the underwater world of Hundu and Manzanilla again.

6. Horsebackriding lessons for Makeda

Horsebackriding is one of the things I used to “bribe” Makeda (sorry) into  agreeing to the move to Curacao. She wants this for so long and there is only one single horse on Statia. On Curacao she can do lessons with other kids and go crazy about horses. And every now and then we’ll make a trip together. Yeehaa!

7.  The variety of white beaches

Like Grote Knip, Kleine Knip, Cas Abou and Lagun. Picture from Grote Knip here is from Tripadvisor.

8. Brownies at Sol Food

The best brownies ever, in the heart of Westpunt!

9. Shops

On Statia, everything needs to come from St Maarten, the States or the Netherlands. Choice on such a small island is simply not there. Shoes my size? Forget about it. I’m not a shopping person at all, but I know certain shops are waiting for me on Curacao.

10. Watamula

One of my favorite places on the island, on land for a good hike, but especially under water. Packed with hard and soft corals, lots of marine life, shallow and deep. And all that just around the corner!

My bags are packed.

Costa Rica, Pura Vida (2/2)

Costa Rica, Pura Vida (1/2)

3 days and 500$ to go for the Goldenrock Leatherbacks!

As you might have read in my post On our way to St. Croix, swimmers take your mark! we are preparing for the annual swim competition in St. Croix. “We” are the board members and parents of the Goldenrock Leatherbacks in St. Eustatius and especially the swimmers Matthew (16), Mel (10), Marshel (10), Jason (10), D’Seante (10) and my daughter Makeda (8). I’m the coach of this crazy bunch.

Last year in St. Maarten we looked like this:

This year in our brand new uniform we look like this:

Because of some organizational issues (let me not get into detail with that because it will take a week), we all of a sudden have to travel on Thursday instead of Friday, and we have to come back on Monday instead of Sunday. This is going to be a looong weekend. No problem, because we love long weekend on new islands, BUT….

* We have to pay for 2 more nights hotel, transportation and food

* We leave THIS Thursday, June 12!!! That is three more days to go to get the funds together for these extra costs. We already harassed all our friends and family members, so things are really getting tight.

If you would like to help us out and give a little donation, please contact me on vfraukje@gmail.com and we can do this via Paypal. I wanted to add a Donation button, but apparently I do not have the right account type 😦

Also if you don’t like to donate, all crossed fingers, toes, prayers, positive vibes etc are more then welcome!!!

GOOOOOO LEATHERBACKS!!

Infinite happy days

On January 30 I started the 100 Happy Days challenge. Two days ago, on May 11, I reached my day #100 with a LOVE egg for Mother’s Day.

You can check out my other 99 happy days right here.

I DO have time for happiness, also on the days still to come!

 

Mr. Anansi in St. Eustatius

Wijnand “Mr. Anansi” Stomp is visiting our little island in search for stories. Personal stories about the past and slavery. Together with his team (documentary maker Jean Hellwig and camera man Ewoud Bon) he visited first Ghana in Africa and Zeeland in the Netherlands; to complete the triangle they’re now filming on St. Eustatius, the Golden Rock.

Between interviews and filming sessions the gentlemen took the time to visit the Golden Rock school for a performance. Mister Anansi telling the story how to outsmart Mr. Tiger and the other animals. As most Caribbean people, the kids loved Anansi. What a great way to keep a real African/Caribbean tradition alive. Thanks Mr. Anansi, come back soon!

5 reasons why I love Zeelandia (or pro #8 of living on Statia)

 

#1   TO WALK YOUR DOG

This was last year’s dog walk organized by the St. Eustatius Animal Welfare Foundation.

#2   FOR A STORMY DAY

#3   FOR EDUCATIONAL TRIPS

#4   TO SEE HAWKSBILL TURTLES HATCH

#5 TO SEE LEATHERBACK TURTLES HATCH

***************************************************

More pros of living on Statia:

How to become a Frequent Flyer (or pro #1 of living on Statia)

How to tape your scooter (or pro #2 of living on Statia)

How and where to swim (or pro #3 of living on Statia)

Wedding Witness (or pro #4 of living on Statia)

Statia in Shape (or pro #5 of living on Statia)

Nevis Agricultural Fair (or pro #6 of living on Statia)

Vogelfestival * Bird Festival (or pro #7 of living on Statia)

Y for Youtube

This post is part of my April’s A to Z challenge. Today’s letter is Y.

I was brave enough to challenge my readers to give me a letter-assignment, and Dirk challenged me with “Y for Youtube”.

Thank you, Dirk!

The second last letter of the alphabet is finally an easy one. From the moment Dirk “handed” me the letter Y + assignment, I knew my post.

Let me stop the writing and let Norah do the singing, together with Elmo and their friend Y in “Don’t know Y”.

United forces at CNSI

On April 24 and 25 the Caribbean Netherlands Science Institute (CNSI) was officially opened in St. Eustatius. To celebrate this, many presentations were held pertaining to the reefs, fisheries, marine and terrestrial reserves, agriculture, tourism, vegetation, research studies, archaeology, diving, history, public health and geology of St. Eustatius, the Dutch Caribbean and the Caribbean in general. Scientists and students from all over the world were present, as well as representatives of Naturalis in Leiden, the University of Wageningen and other universities, Carmabi, NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for sea research) and many more.

A local lunch was held at the beautiful Lynch family plantation. The endangered Lesser Antillean Iguana came to visit.

 

 

Governor Gerald Berkel, commissioner Carlyle Tearr and father Raffi of the Roman Catholic Church blessed the new institute, the STENAPA Junior Rangers gave a presentation about the formation of St. Eustatius and the brass band under guidance of maestro Dennis Amajan gave a great show. A big success by organiser Johan Stapel.

Jos Rokx of the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Island Governor Gerald Berkel and Edwin van Huis, director of Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands.

All in all a great initiative to promote and facilitate more research on our little Golden Rock!

Photos by http://www.cnsi.nl

Relaxing en masse on the beach

Due to unforeseen circumstances like moving and not having an internet connection, I missed a few posts in the April A to Z challenge. I already made up the P (Paint it Purple) and Q (Quill).

Yesterday was Easter Monday. On Statia that means: going to the beach en masse, partying, dancing, drinking, dancing, eating, a lot of music. Some people also camped on the beach at night. The shoreline was covered with party tents.

 

Quill

There goes my A to Z challenge.

The schedule was as follows:

Thursday April 17: the letter O for On our way to St. Croix, swimmers take your mark!

Friday April 18: the letter P

Saturday April 19: the letter Q

Sunday April 20: RELAX on Easter Sunday

Monday April 21: the letter R

Instead, this is what happened:

Thursday April 17: the letter O for On our way to St. Croix, swimmers take your mark!

Friday April 18: I was off and moved to my new house with two bags of clothes and bed sheets, and my laptop. The internet guy was supposed to come by to check which trees need to be trimmed to get an internet connection in my new house. He did not come.

Saturday April 19: Weekend! I planned to go back to my old house, by scooter, with my laptop to post my P and R. The scooter broke down and the bicycle had a half flat tire. I did not feel like walking up and down between houses with my laptop under my arm. Instead I painted some purple.

Sunday April 20: RELAX on Easter Sunday morning and moved more bags and boxes in the afternoon and started unpacking.

Monday April 21: I was off, nobody available to fix a poor girl’s scooter. The whole island was partying on the beach. I joined them. On a half flat tire downhill, walking uphill.

So, my apologies, I did not stick to my A to Z challenge. But in my defense, I did not plan moving in April. I still would like to contribute with a belated Q, which might be a complicated letter for some of us. But not if you live on Statia, where the everyday life is influenced by the presence of the volcano Quill. I would like to reblog my post about the Quill today: going green inside the crater.

******

On our way to St. Croix, swimmers take your mark!

It’s planning time again! The Goldenrock Leatherbacks swim team is preparing for the annual swim meet in the US Virgin Islands. In the weekend of June 13-15, six swimmers, one coach (that would be me) and two chaperons will be going to the 32nd Dolphins Invitational Swim Competition in St. Croix. All swimmers are between the age of 8 and 16 years old and ready to show the rest of the Caribbean that we are here.

Matthew (16), great diver, good breaststroke and butterfly. Being the oldest one in the team, also a bit my assistant, if he’s not in an argument with his brother Mel. Jason (11) disappeared from the team for a while, but I’m glad he’s back, and stronger. Good breaststroke, good team player. D’Seante (11) likes breaststroke, backstroke, flipping around and talking. Who likes a quiet pool? Marshel (10) unstoppable in every sense, energy overflow, good butterflyer and great freestyler. Kaboom! Mel (10) good in all strokes as long as he stays focussed. Working good on those push-ups. Makeda (8) has a smooooth breaststroke and is getting better and better in butterfly. Keeping up good with the bigger fish.

This was last year on St. Maarten, with some different faces.

The pool in St. Croix is Olympic size (50 m), so no baby races are done here. Freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly are done in 50 m and 100 m races, 200 IM’s (200 m individual medley, 50 m of each stroke), 200 m mix medley relays (50 m of each stroke by four different swimmers, two boys and two girls) and 200 m freestyle relays are on the program for our swimmers. Four days a week they are in the pool practicing and yes, playing and giving me a hard time. Kids! But seriously, I love my little team and I’m looking forward to spending a weekend with them in St. Croix!

No Olympics yet, but On our way to St. Croix.

 

 

Insanity

Today was cookie and flower day!

Some called it insanity day or cookie madness. But whatever you called it, on cookie and flower day the sun was always shining a bit brighter and the air seemed light and playful.

Today the village square smelled like vanilla and cinnamon. Three cases of big, perfectly round cookies were piled on Gaia’s table. Right next to it a basket filled with fresh fruit and bouquets of hibiscus, white lilies and Bougainvillea in all colours of the rainbow. Under the table pots of aloe vera (for a good skin) and a chocolate-brown labrador receiver. Today would be a good day.

When Gaia first came to the village, four years ago, people were afraid of her. They called her insane. A mad woman. Nobody knew where she came from and nobody knew her real age, but Gaia acted as if she were a 10-year-old girl. When she was in the park, she acted like a puppy and played with her labrador Chocolate until they fell asleep in the grass. She was talking to herself and played with stuffed animals. She loved nothing more than baking and eating cookies, and sometimes the neighbors heard her sing out loud in the middle of the night when she was trying a new recipe. Her skirts were purple and orange. Nothing like the other women on this traditional Greek island.

Not long after she settled in the village, Gaia started selling her cookies and flowers and fruit from her garden. She set up a table in the middle of the village square, with a simple red tablecloth. Not on the regular market day, but any day when she felt like it. It could be 6 in the morning, it could be 8 at night. With Gaia, you were never sure what happened.

In the beginning the people were a bit sceptical about her spontaneous sales techniques. But Gaia didn’t seem to mind whether the people bought her cookies or not. She just sang en laughed and played with Chocolate.

The smells of cinnamon, chocolate or vanilla were stronger than the people’s distrust. The colors of the flowers were flirting with the people’s fear. The old man Drakos was the first one to buy a cookie. He started to dance. Soon after that, everyone wanted a taste from the crazy lady’s cookies. It brought a smile to everyone’s face. The people’s hearts felt lighter when she sang the sweetest songs or frolicked with Chocolate.

The lady is insane, but so what? It’s cookie and flower day!!

The letter I in the A to Z challenge

 

Freedom: from Marcus Garvey to Jack Sparrow, from Chocolate Milk to Narnia and back

My mom challenged me with the letter F in this A to Z challenge. The F for Freedom.

My mom knows me well. She knows I must have many ideas and thoughts on the concept Freedom. She kind of unleashed a stream of thoughts that is so big and thick it can hardly put into words in a single post. I decided to make a picture collage (+ one  commercial from the 80’s) of what Freedom means to me. Disclaimer: it’s just a glimpse of my mind. And my mind only. Freedom of Thought. Freedom of Expression.

 

 

 

What does Freedom mean to you?

Desire

Today’s letter for the A to Z challenge is

and my letter assignment is DESIRE. Thanks Damyanti! A great assignment, because I never really thought about the concept desire in depth, I always just simply… desired. Without thinking.

😀

According to my friend Wikipedia “desire” is a sense of longing for a person or object or hoping for an outcome. The same sense is expressed by emotions such as “craving” or “hankering”. When a person desires something or someone, their sense of longing is excited by the enjoyment or the thought of the item or person, and they want to take actions to obtain their goal.

I guess I would get a lot of “likes” if I posted something about this gorgeous, jaw-dropping Mr. Muscle and my uncontrollable desire for him. Like

or

But sorry. I’m being boring. I mean, not that I would send either one of them home if they showed up on my doorstep…

I think my Wikifriend is not complete here. For me, personally, desire mostly doesn’t relate to a someone or a something (those who know me, know I don’t care much about a Ferrari, iPhone or fancy dress), but rather to a somewhere. I’ve had quite some Somewhere-Desires in my life. I desired to become a dive instructor on a sea-gipsy island,

I desired life in rasta-country,

 

I desired, and still desire, to travel and see the world. I desired to scuba dive for a living instead of a “real” job (because carrying 200 tanks a day and risking your life on a regular basis in not considered a real job). I desire to learn things the hard way and take the road less traveled. Luckily I have a companion.

My current desires and cravings? Waterfalls and Rainforests. Uran Utangs and Bengal Tigers (I can’t believe someone wrote Life of Pi before I did). The Aurora Borealis. The Natural Life. And of course a fat Julie Mango.

What are your desires?

 

 

 

Boven. Another Adventure of the Golden Rock Adventurers.

It was very early, but already hot on the island of Golden Rock. That Saturday morning, not long since the Golden Rock Adventurers came back from their quest for the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain, there was not a cloud in the sky. Only the moon was looking down mysteriously.

 

The Adventurers decided this was the day . They were going to reach the top of Boven, where no man has gone before. In their previous adventures they already learned the secret language of the island, so they knew Boven meant Upstairs or Above. In any way, Boven was high up!

So off they went. After the first narrow passage…

… they followed the curly flowers…

 

… until they found the Tree Witch hidden under the roots of the giant 150 year old tree.

 

The Tree Witch told them to follow the burning leaves untill they reached the never-ending water. The burning leaves were easy to find.

And after a few hours they reached the never-ending water.

 

But something strange had definitely happened here. It looked as if a pirate ship had stranded here!

The drunk captain even left his shoes.

On the beach lay on old treasure chest.

No luck! It was empty.

The Adventurers just wanted to take a break to build some fortune castles…

…when they heard something in the woods.

A lovely little goat was being hunted by…

…a giant goat-eating plant!!

And before they knew what happened, the ground shook and broke.

They noticed dinosaur eggs…

… footprints of a Something…

… and bones of a dead Something!

They ran to the lake…

… where a friendly fairy showed them the way UP.

They finally started heading up the mountain and left the Something behind.

But to be on the safe side, they pushed a big boulder down.

They were fearless.

They passed a field of dry grass. At least that’s what they thought.

In fact, it was a field of hair!

 

And that hairy field was the perfect cover for… the African Lioness!

 

 

They’d better run!

 

But which way?

Luckily they had a compass…

… that pointed them to the rocks.

Higher and higher.

They climbed and climbed.

That way!

They just took a little break when they saw… killer wasps!!

They had to hide in a cave until they were gone.

This is what happened to the last person -a sunburned tourist- that got stung 70 years ago:

Sometimes (but only for a short while) the challenges were a bit demotivating.

But only 10 minutes later they reached Where No Man Has Gone Before:

BOVEN!!!!

They were rewarded with stunning views.

After 7 hours of pure adventure, the Golden Rock Adventurers made it!

 

On top of the world!!

 

 

The Liebster Award

Owww Lord! That would be Owww LauraLord! I met this writer lady in the virtual world of blogging some months ago and I just love her wittiness. Crazy also because she’s the Only Woman in the World that dared to follow me in the self inflicted serious sh*t of “letter assignments” in the April’s A to Z challenge. You should really check out her blog History of a Woman.

She nominated me for a Liebster Award.  I felt something like this:

(if I were a boy and if I had the teeth). Owww YES!!!

Basically, here’s how it works. The person who nominated me gets to ask me eleven questions. I post my responses, along with eleven questions of my own and then choose eleven nominees for the award. The nominees should have under 500 followers (OK, I cheated just a little bit here, don’t kill me), and you need to leave them a message/comment to know they’ve been nominated.

Here are the eleven questions Laura asked me + my replies:

1. What made you choose the title for your blog?

I mostly write about all kinds of stuff happening in my life on St. Eustatius, where I live since almost two years. It’s a tiny little island in the Caribbean (21km2) that’s part of the Dutch Kingdom and unknown to 99,99% of the world population. Because of the rich history in the 17th and 18th century, St. Eustatius (or Statia) is also called the Golden Rock. And that’s how “Life on the Golden Rock” was born.

2. What was your very first post about?

My first posted, last January, was The first salute was fired and it shows a YouTube movie titled “The other shot heard around the world” by Tigers Videos about Statia’s rich past. It’s really nicely done and especially the Americans will be surprised to hear what Statia means in the history of the independence of the US. “The first salute was fired to the American flag” also comes back in Statia’s anthem.

3. What do you think was the best post you ever wrote?

My best post I think was not one where I wrote a lot, it’s a photography post. I tried to copy the picture of the “invisible girl” that went around on Facebook for a while. This is the original one: 

My daughter was trying to hold the mirror in the right position and look cute at the same time, I was crawling into impossible positions to stay out of the mirror, my dogs trying to ruin it all. The most beautiful picture:

and the funniest one:

For the whole post click here.

4. You’re at your computer (where ever you blog most from)… What is sitting close to hand?

Ha! Easy one. This:

   

Our dogs Onai, Rosa and Nelson.

5. Do you always order the same thing when you go out or do you like to try new foods?

I always like to try new things, not only in food. I especially love spicy things. How I wish I could have a Thai dish right now… The problem is, on Statia are not so many restaurants and the variety in food, either in restaurants or supermarkets, is not great. Let’s go to India.

6. What was the first blog you found online that you fell in “blog love” with?

HACKER. NINJA. HOOKER. SPY. The perfect mix of humor, 007, awkwardness, sex, real life drama and all you’re looking for in life. Furthermore: Rarasaur and of course Laura mentioned above.

7. What’s your most favorite piece of clothing you own?

Hm. Think. I guess that would be my pink St. Louis firefighters T-shirt, that I got as a gift from one kick-ass firefighter lady I met in Negril, Jamaica and later again in Curacao. It’s too short, it has holes and stains and I really can’t wear it anywhere outside my house without people giving me that look (What. Is she. Wearing?), but somehow it’s my favorite T-shirt and somehow it’s my life. So.

8. If you were trapped on an island and could only have one book with you, what book would you bring?

Something with dragons, quests, (rain)forests and a lot of adventure. Like ‘The Brothers Lionheart‘ by Astrid Lindgren. It’s a children’s novel. Maybe I’m childish, but hey. Kids have a greatly developed fantasy. If no children’s books are allowed on the island, it would be a work by Roald Dahl (children’s books for adults) or something with a lot of blood, murder and mystery (Stieg Larsson, Nicci French).

9. What’s something new you have learned recently?

Pff. A lot. I like to learn. I recently started a bachelor study (nature & environment) and just did my first exam for that. I downloaded a free try-out version of Photoshop, there is a lot to learn. I keep on learning about blogging since I started in January. I learn a lot in my current job as a policy adviser for the island government (something completely new for me). I also learn a lot there how things are not supposed to be going. I try to learn more about photography. Who I learn most from in my life though, is my daughter. I read somewhere that kids ask their mother around 200 questions a day. I don’t know the complete answer to many of them, but I try. Not only questions like “Why does that puppy have one brown eye and one blue eye?”, but I many times I also have to question myself. I love it, she keeps me sharp.

10. Who is your favorite author?

Roald Dahl

11. What’s the corniest joke you know?

Ay, I’m terrible in jokes. It is green and descends down the slope? … a skiwi…

***

Now, here are my eleven questions for my eleven nominees:

1. Why and when did you start blogging?

2. Do you write (for the writer-bloggers) or shoot (for the photographer-bloggers) for a living?

2. What is the weirdest comment you ever received on a post?

3. Which blogger is your greatest inspiration?

4. If you could start your life from scratch, what would you do?

5. What’s your favorite song for when you need energy?

6. Which place on earth is #1 on your bucket list and why?

7. What do you do when you have a writers block?

8. What scares you, a lot?

9. What’s your real age and what is your mental age?

10. What kind of people give you the creeps?

11. Tell me about something embarrassing that happened to you 😀

***

And here (pom pom pom poooooooom), my eleven nominees:

If you’d like to participate: Awesome! If not, no problem!

1. Being the memoirs of Helena Hann-Basquiat, dilettante

2. Uncle Spike

3. Running on Healthy

4. Cee’s Photography

5. The Indecisive Eejit

6. Writer B is me

7. De Wets Wild

8. Walking with the Alligators

9. 50’Lux

10. Perpetual Plot Hole

11. Today, on earth

GOOD LUCK!!

Wedding Witness (or pro #4 of living on Statia)

Last month I decided to make a list of 25 advantages or pros of living on Statia. In case you missed pro #1, #2 and #3, click here to find out how to become a Frequent Flyer (or pro #1 of living on Statia), how to tape your scooter (or pro #2 of living on Statia) and how and where to swim (or pro #3 of living on Statia).

Statia is a 21km2 island with around 4,000 inhabitants. It’s a municipality of the Netherlands, but located in the Caribbean between St. Kitts and Saba. Not in the last place because of our ‘special’ status, the government is the biggest employer of the island, next to NuStar Energy.

Being 1 of the 4,000 residents, it happens to be that I am working for the island government too. And if you happen to work for the island government, you might just happen to work in an amazing place like this:

This is the view from my office in the historical Fort Amsterdam. Not bad, huh?!

And then it happens that the colleagues of Civil Affairs are looking for two witnesses in a wedding that is going to be held in the Fort. Sure, no problem! Where’s the champagne?

So on an average Wednesday afternoon, this is what happened 😀

Me doing the signing business here for two happy complete strangers

Cheers! Pro #4 of living on Statia!

****************************************************************************

More pros of living on Statia:

How to become a Frequent Flyer (or pro #1 of living on Statia)

How to tape your scooter (or pro #2 of living on Statia)

How and where to swim (or pro #3 of living on Statia)

Statia in Shape (or pro #5 of living on Statia)

Nevis Agricultural Fair (or pro #6 of living on Statia)

Vogelfestival * Bird Festival (or pro #7 of living on Statia)

The Experiment

Today my mom and I started an interesting experiment. She posted a letter in Leiden (the Netherlands) to me in St. Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean or better Caribbean Netherlands) with only my first name

Fraukje

and the name of the island

St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean.

No last name, no street address, no nothing.

The situation is a little confusing if you’re not Dutch, but St. Eustatius is a 21 km2 small island in the Caribbean, situated between Saba and St. Kitts & Nevis, around 50 km from St. Maarten. But it’s a “public entity” within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, just like Saba (an even smaller island) and Bonaire. Confused? Check Now let’s get this straightened out to get even more confused…

To receive mail on this island is not always easy. Since many computersystems don’t know St. Eustatius, but only

Bonaire St. Eustatius Saba

(as if the 3 islands are 1), or

the Netherlands Antilles

which seized to exist on 10-10-’10, St. Eustatius is hard to reach. To make things worse, the capital of St. Eustatius is

Oranjestad

exactly like the capital of Aruba! So never, and I repeat NEVER write

Oranjestad

on a letter if you want it to reach

Oranjestad, St. Eustatius.

It will without a doubt end up in Aruba, which is a long swim.

But, although I do not have a lot of faith in the Dutch Post, I do have a blind faith in the Statian post office. Once a letter reaches the right island, the employees of the Statian post office can find anyone of the 4.000 inhabitants anywhere, either at work or at home. I’m pretty sure they can even track me down in the swimming pool or in the crater of the Quill.

Usually the mail, if it arrives, takes around 3 weeks. So sit back, relax, take a drink and check back in a few weeks to find out if my moms letter made it to the addressee:

Fraukje, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean.

 

The Golden Rock Adventurers and the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain

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It was a warm day in the beginning of eternal spring on the island of Golden Rock. Two adventurers started their search for the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain. It was not an easy road.

But they did not know fear and started their journey bravely.

They found many challenges on their way. A cactus forest…

valleys and oceans…

and hidden trails.

 

But with some help…

they managed to get back on the right track. Although the signs were written in a secret language.

They barely had time for a drink and a snack…

because they noticed the signs…

 

of a giant beast with hairy claws as big as swords!

Ruuuuuuuuuuunnnn!!!!

 

More spiny challenges were ahead.

 

But a trail of fantasy flowers…

 

were leading the way to the old tree…

which pointed them to:

LITTLE MOUNTAIN SUMMIT (translated from the secret language).

They had to hide for Indians in caves…

 

and keep an eye on the volcano that was about to erupt.

 

In the distance was a strange island that had never been there before.

 

But something told them that was OK.

They finally made it to the top.

 

But when they leaned over they saw…

POISON!! Millions and millions of liters of poison!!

 

Was this the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain?!?! That couldn’t be!

They turned around and saw the Real Beautiful Secret, only to be seen from Little Mountain. It was so beautiful, it couldn’t even be fully captured on camera. It was the WHALE THAT WOULD SAVE THE WORLD!

 

With peace in their heart the Golden Rock Adventurers walked back to civilization, already fantasizing about their next adventure.

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