Just trying out some Papiamento on you – the title means “Fun aquarium.”  Matt and I decided to visit the aquarium since we had not been snorkeling in a few days.  Ha, kidding.  We just wanted to check it out since we heard it was pretty amazing and very different from other aquariums.  The Curacao Aquarium is located near Mambo Blvd. and Mambo Beach which would make it really convenient to have lunch on the beach afterwards.  We could have taken the bus, but we decided to walk through the salt flats since they have good trails and it would give us some exercise.

We packed our back pack, headed into shore, and hit to the trails.  It should be a relatively short walk, about 3 miles to the aquarium.  We explored a few new trails, met a few people along the way and arrived one hot sweaty mess. Unfortunately, I did not bring my bathing suit so I could not jump in the beautiful water, but Matt got a free shower for the day.

As Matt was showering off, I headed to the little girl’s room and spotted an ancient machine still in use – do you remember these?

As we walked up to the entrance of the Aquarium, before we paid, we heard a little show going on so we ambled over to the wall and could easily watch the entire sea lion presentation.  They gave the presentation in both English and Papiamento with great enthusiasm.   The really cool part of this Aquarium is that it is all salt water fed from the ocean!

Once inside, we paid, got a map and schedule and were on our way.  The first stop was an exterior area that had several quadrants where you could have an animal encounter.  What type of animal you ask?  Well, we happened to arrive as two women were in the water with two trainers.  In the main area there were a half dozen fairly large sting rays and large tarpin.  Then you move to a quadrant and there were sharks that you could feed.  One had a lemon shark and another area had another type of shark.  The ladies had snorkel gear on and would go under water with a fish and shove it in a hole through a large piece of plastic that separated them from the shark. I  imagine it was a huge thrill as they were giggling and laughing the entire time – of course the sting rays would want some food too and they would swim between the ladies and the plastic barrier giving them a big thrill.

As we continued down the path we came across the dolphin area where they were training 7 dolphins basic commands.

We enjoyed the dolphin exhibition so much we decided to go see the actual show which happened to be starting in 20 minutes.  So we walked over to the dolphin presentation and learned that they actually train their dolphins to leave the aquarium and go outside in the open water.  As we were sitting there, they had two dolphins doing flips just outside the aquarium wall – pretty cool.

Next we walked around the main aquarium area which was a bit small, but they really focus on their presentations, training, and underwater observatories.  We sat in on a Lobster presentation which to my astonishment was really informative.

The last presentation was a flamingo feeding and to my great surprise they allowed everyone to come in and feed these majestic creatures.  It was really smelly, a bit messy, and wet but a true joy!

After our long walk and the aquarium exploration we were hungry so we headed to Mambo Blvd. to find an eatery.  They have a ton of bars, shops and restaurants here – at some point we will have to stop playing old people and come here at night to enjoy the festivities.  We landed at the Lion’s Dive Beach and saddled up to the bar where we enjoyed a pretty yummy meal.  Matt had a cheeseburger in paradise and I had shrimp skewers.

Now that we were fed we had a choice of catching the bus back or walking – we looked at each other and decided to walk the 3 miles back to Fisherman’s Harbor so off we went.

After a very busy day, Matt made me pork chops and we settled in for the evening.