Playa Lagun in Curacao

There are worse places to be shipwrecked than Curacao.

I don't think anyone aboard Celebrity Eclipse would have been particularly upset to learn we were going to spend a week on the Dream Isle of Curacao.



We weren't shipwrecked, but Julie and I awoke delighted to know we would spend a second day here because of the scheduled overnight in Willemstad.

From experience the day before, we knew exactly where and how to catch the bus, and Julie had already charted our route on Bus 3C to Playa Lagun, another great snorkel beach.

After about an hour on the bus, we arrived at the bus stop for Playa Lagun, which was less than a hundred yards from the beautiful little cove.

Julie had read that the best snorkeling could be found along the right side, and while at first glance it wasn't as good as the snorkeling had been at Playa Kalki or Boca Catalina, there was great visibility for viewing a nice variety of fish.

As I swam toward shore to take Julie's place lounging on our towel in the sand, I saw a very cool spotted eel wriggling along the coral with a rather nondescript fish hovering behind him.  I watched in fascination as this duo moved around trying to find some treasure that I couldn't discern.  Despite having watched a lot of Disney animated movies with my children, I don't have an exaggerated predilection for anthropomorphism, but the more I watched this eel and fish, the more I thought it was like an underwater mismatched friendship along the lines of Timon and Pumba. After watching for ten minutes, I headed in and told Julie to look for them.  She never saw them, but when I returned a half hour later, sure enough I found them again.  What a rare and unexpected show these unlikely friends put on.

After taking my turn guarding our valuables on the beach (the ostensible reason we take turns snorkeling), I was tempted to return again to find the eel and his friend, but I decided to try the left side of the cove.

Julie had read that side wasn't as good, but what the heck?  It wasn't that far to go to discover something new.

It turned out those reports were wrong.

The coral on the left side was more vibrant than the right side, and the narrow passageways through the coral funneled fish into the tight space with me.

There weren't quite as many fish, but it was great snorkeling.

While we thoroughly enjoyed our day, we didn't want to cut it too close for getting back to the ship, because no matter how nice a port may be, we took a cruise instead of a land trip for specific reasons, not the least of which is checking more ports off our bucket lists.

We caught our bus and arrived back in Willemstad with time to make another search for a small bottle of Blue Curacao we'd failed to find the day before.  A nice gift shop in the Renaissance Mall had several on a shelf, so mission accomplished.

I also bought a new baseball cap at what had become my new favorite Caribbean island.