Curaçao is a small island that belongs to the Netherlands
Antilles. The Netherlands Antilles (Dutch Caribbean) are a combination of several
islands located in the Caribbean Sea. I’ve been there several times and I can’t
address enough how much I regret for not have taken advantage of the beauty of
this island.
A few month ago, I still wasn’t aware of the beauty of photography; therefore, it wasn’t important for me to capture moments in pictures. I thought it was enough with my memories. It wasn’t very fun for me to take pictures of landscapes and objects. In my mind, pictures were for people to be in there, but at the same time I was embarrassed of posing for a photo.
In one of my visits I had the opportunity to visit several beaches there and I wish I had captured more and better pictures. Here you will find some of the most beautiful beaches of the Caribbean. Although you have to be very careful because some of them are very deep from the side, you will enjoy their peculiar cave style.
In my last post I mentioned certain points in relation to the South American country Guyana that I would like to address with this videos. In the first video you’ll see a beach called 63. Regardless of the color of its waters, this beach is a popular tourist destination.
The second one, is a still images video that will show you the best places to visit in Guyana.
Three
years ago, I had no idea that Guyana existed. Guyana is located in the northern
mainland of South America. It is the only English-speaking country of South
America. Guyana is bordered by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname, and it is one of
the smallest countries of South America.
There are
areas that consist of the Amazon River, and in certain regions several indigenous
groups can be found. They have a diverse population, which includes Indian,
African, Amerindian, among other multiracial groups.
Even though
English is their official language, the majority of people speak Guyanese
Creole, and English-based Creole, as a first language.
I knew about
its existence when I moved to Aruba for my training as a flight attendant. The airline
had a flight from Aruba to George Town, Guyana. I would always hear my
co-workers speaking of their different experiences. Most of them described it
as a creepy place. Everyone would inspect every corner of his/her room before
going to bed. The reason for all these seemed to be the fact that in several occasions
crews found tarantulas, among other insects in the rooms.
After so
many rumors, I didn’t want to go there at all, but … I couldn’t escape. I went
to George Town for the first time on a Halloween night (it couldn’t be a better
place to expend Halloween). The area where we were was jungle like. By the time
we got there it was already dark. Before living the plane, everyone took
bottles of water, so did I. The driver who picked us up was trained by “Toreto,”
plus they drive on the left side, opposite to us here in the U.S. I prayed for
safety the whole way.
We made it
to the crews’ house, a very nice house with several rooms. Obviously, the mean
I got to my room I starter my search. I didn’t find anything, so I got ready to
sleep. I say I went to bed because for different reasons I couldn’t sleep at
all that night.
Honestly,
I didn’t open the shower or the sink until the morning. For my surprise, the
water coming out of the sink and the shower was light brown. It was dirty
water. I had heard rumors about it before and I thought they were exaggerating.
Now it makes sense why we carried bottle waters from the plane right??
Next day,
we finally went back to Aruba and the nightmare ended.
My intention is not, under any circumstance, to undermine this country. I just wanted to share my experience. I have also seen some interesting places to visit there. The only thing is that you have to go prepared for this time of eventualities.
That’s Aruba, one happy island. I had the privilege of spending three months of my life in this place, and I can tell you that it has been one of the best experiences of my life. I had to go living in Aruba for my flight attendant training. It was love at first sight. I still remember when I step out of the airport, it was around 8:00 pm, the sun was gone and there was a lot wind. This place has clear skies, bright sunshine and cooling trade winds practically the whole year. I had never been to an island smaller than mine, so it felt weird learning that you can go from one end to the other in approximately fifty minutes there.
In Aruba rarely rains, so you will find a lot cactus all over the island. Also, this allows people to enjoy its breath-taking beaches the whole year, since the weather is warm throughout the year as well. Though it is small, Aruba has a lot to offer.
Some of the places to visit when in Aruba are: Zeerovers (for sea food lovers), Arikok National Park (natural pools, restaurants, horse back riding, etc.), Palm Island, Renaissance Island, Natural Bridge, Paseo Herencia Hall, Dutch Pancake House and ALL the beaches.
“Esa Parte” is my cousin’s new song video. Yashua Camacho forms part of Marc Anthony’s music label. This video was recorded in my beautiful Quisqueya. Check it out!
This is the song beautiful by Buleria, which is my favorite group from Aruba. This song is mostly in Papiamento, which is a dialect spoken in the islands (Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, St. Martin, etc.) It is called “ritmo combina” or combined rhythm due to its mix of genres, as it possesses a bit of bachata, salsa and merengue.
The Round Mountain or Montaña Redonda , how it is known in Spanish, is a mountain located in Miches, Dominican Republic. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the island at this time. If you love nature, you most visit this place one day. It is surrounded by the nature of the countryside, so you will enjoy a beautiful view, where the reflection of the lagoons combine with the sun rise on the beach and sunset with the green of the mountains.
The Round Mountain is indeed, a beautiful place to go, however; my visit was a little frustrating. It’s a safe place too … if you are not pregnant! I say this because when I went I was four months pregnant and the trajectory up to the mountain was scary. To get on the top of the mountain you have to either go up with your own 4x4vehicle or pay them to take you up in a “safari” truck that they have prepared for this purpose. The road up hasn’t been paved, so it is not only curved, but also kind of rocky. There is a lot movement and jumping in that safari before you can finally get to admire the beauty of this place.
But the fun part is that before I went up the truck, I asked the driver, “Ay! Is the road too tough for a pregnant woman to get up there? Because I am pregnant.” He goes, “No … it is fast and smooth, don’t worry.” Next thing I remember is my two friends and husband’s worried faces and me jumping, holding myself as tight as I could, trying to stay standing so I didn’t hit the seat too much. Once on top of the mountain, the view and the freshness of that place helped me to forget a little about that bitter moment, but not for much, because then I was very concerned about the way back, which luckily was less dramatic.
Long story short, we got back down and my friends, my husband (whom was visiting D.R for the first time) and I continued to our final destination, Punta Cana. That night, we had planned to go to Coco Bongo, a disco or amusement place, because it is more than just a disco, which only exists in Mexico and Dominican Republic, so we went. In the middle of the night I started to feel my lower belly shrinking a little bit. Since it wasn’t that intense, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to ruin the moment to my friends; we were all together, staying at the same hotel and all. After a good amount of time there, we headed to the hotel. That night I barely slept due to the discomfort, and we still had to go back to Santo Domingo the next day, which was like a 4 hours drive.
We went back to Santo Domingo and the next day my husband and I were flying back to Miami. Things got worst and the pain expanded to my lower back with a little bit more intensity, my husband tried to take me to the doctor, but for some reason I wanted to wait until I got back in the U.S. That night I cried the whole night, I didn’t sleep because I was very afraid of losing my baby.
We arrived in Miami and the first thing I did was go to the hospital to see my doctor. They did an ultrasound and all the pertinent procedures to figure out if something was wrong with the baby. Everything came out perfect, for what I thank God every day. They just told me to have some rest and gave me something for the pain, which I did.
At that moment, I blame it on the driver, I thought it was his fault for not being as regulated as he should’ve (they should not allow pregnant women), but later I realized that it wasn’t even his, in any case it was the business. At the end the only truth is that he didn’t force me to do it, so it was my fault. I should have used my common sense to assume that it wasn’t the best moment to go there. But anyways, thanks God today my son is a very smart and healthy kid.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Since I was a little girl, I started to develop a curiosity for meeting new places. I used to watch a lot of telenovelas from different countries, which awaken in me the desire to learn about new cultures and visiting different countries. For me, materializing such desire was an unrealistic dream at that moment since I come from a poor family and we didn’t have the resources to go on vacation to other countries, or even to qualify for a tourist visa; However, I had hope that one day that dream was going to come true. My mom was been claimed by my grandpa to come to live to the United States, and even though the process lasted 17 years, the time to travel for the first time finally arrived, yey! When I was 18 years old, I had the chance to step on a plane and sight a different landscape beyond my beloved Dominican Republic for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, that was a bittersweet moment for me and my two brothers because we were leaving behind my beloved dad, who was very sad for our farewell and whom died of depression two years after (but that’s another story that I might be sharing later on).
In the wake of my limitations to travel, I developed a huge desire to become a flight attendant since it was the only realistic opportunity I had back in that time. I never tried to do it in D.R. because I thought it was more complex than what it really is. I know that as I did, a lot of people think that it is necessary to go to school to become a flight attendant or that it costs a lot of money to become one. That does not necessarily need to be like that. It is true that there are a lot of schools trying to fish unexperienced boys and girls dreaming of flying around the world for free, to spend their money in their schools, but the airline that hires you will train you on their planes and regulations. You will have to go to school and study a lot, but they will pay you for that.
I learned that, when a friend of mine that has been a flight attendant for many years hooked me up with an airline from Aruba that was hiring cabin crews to start operations in Miami. At that time, I was working as a store manager for a women’s store at the Dolphin Mall in Miami, and even though, I liked my job and the people I was working with, I couldn’t miss this opportunity. The bad part is that I couldn’t give my boss the two weeks’ notice. Reason why until today, I still feel bad for the way things happened. My ex-boss was a very comprehensive and good human being, and I know that I didn’t leave in a very good moment.
But anyways, my dream came true. I became a flight attendant and I had the opportunity to live in the amazing island of Aruba for a couple of months. While I was in training, I also had the opportunity to meet people from different places, such as Holland, Curaçao, Colombia, and obviously, Aruba. I visited different countries such as Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, etc. All beautiful and fascinating countries.
In Aruba I met the love of my life, I got married and today we have a beautiful and healthy almost three years old boy.
Flight attendants have a say, “once a flight attendant, forever flight attendant.” And it is true that it is difficult to run away from that field… I mean, come on! Who wouldn’t enjoy getting paid to visit different countries? But for me, family is first, I am very attached to my son, so after I had him, I decided to stop flying and dedicate myself to him.
It was a beautiful experience that let me with a lot of wonderful memories, so who knows if one day, after my child or children grow up, I go up in the sky again.
My Own Little World 