Day Five, Bat Caves!

It was time for a little break from swimming, so we decided to start day five off with a tour of the Hato Caves.  These are very old caves that the slaves used to hide in and the natives lived in.  The caves are now home to bats, so we got to see them flying around, which was really cool.  Our tour guide reminded us not to open our mouths when looking up to see the bats.  Anne and Ryan thought the idea of bat poop was really funny.  

If you've never been to a cave, they don't allow photography in them, because light is the enemy of the cave.  In these caves, there is one room, called "The Cathedral," where they allow photography because the room has a hole in the ceiling and natural light is already facilitating the growth of algae.

Seriously the tallest cactus I've ever seen.

View of the airport and the ocean from the mouth of the cave.

Our tour guide explaining the damaging effects of light.

The hole that let's the light in.

After the cave tour, we spent some time exploring the grounds near the cave.  The property has some indigenous carvings, which were hard to make out, but the walking trail was great for my kids to find lizards and see lots of different birds.  

Now I'm going to pause this trip report for some commentary.  Our tour group for the caves was people on an excursion from a cruise and us.  While we enjoyed our time at the Hato Caves, if you are on a cruise and stop in Curacao, an excursion to the caves is not the best use of your time.  I recommend a taxi to Mambo beach. Or if the beach isn't your thing, get off the ship and just walk around.  The area right by the cruise port is interesting and you can walk to the floating bridge and have lunch at the Iguana Cafe.  If you HAVE to book an excursion, then look into Shete Boka.  I checked a few cruise lines, and most of them have a Shete Boka and beach day combo.  Do that.  We worked the caves in because we were there for 2 weeks.  Not worth it if you only have a few hours on this amazing island.  

And now, back to our trip report...

All that exploring left us hungry, and we had a great idea for lunch.  Here's a hint, I've blogged about it before.  It's something I'm on the lookout for.  And this one was the best one ever.  No clue?  Then keep reading.  

But first, our drive brought me to tears.  No, not because of Rob's driving on the narrow, windy island roads. We travel a lot and I've seen some amazing things, but my focus is always on the kids having new experiences and making their world as big as possible.  While we were driving to our lunch location, Rob said "when we cross this bridge, look to the right and there are always flamingos."  Ya'll, I didn't know wild flamingos existed.  In my world, flamingos are in zoos, here in Curacao, they are in the water on the side of the road.  Rob stopped and I got out to stare teary eyed at them.  A flamboyance of flamingos!

Back in the car and ready for lunch, we got there fast and then we took it slow.  That's right! Kokomo!

Time for a life regret from Kristina.  I really wish we had put the beach bag in the car. This beach looked like paradise but we had to content ourselves with lunch at the restaurant and an ankle soaking.  Lesson learned, when on a tropical island, always put the beach stuff in the car!!!!

A Blue Lagoon the color of the ocean.

French Fries, Dutch style! Little fork to eat with, ketchup and mayonnaise!

There was a little playground here, Ryan was captain of the ship.

Heaven.

On our way back to the hotel, we saw another amazing sight, a halo around the sun.  I looked it up, there is something about ice crystals and 22 degrees around the earth.  Even if you don't know the why, it was really cool.  Of course, I took this picture out of the car window and it isn't the whole circle.