Netherlands Antillen.

The journey from the airport to my apartment was shocking: dirty and dusty. I could not find anything attractive as portrayed in any of the pictures I had seen or things I had heard.

The apartment is okay and the flowers in the garden are beautiful with lots of birds, especially the hummingbirds, a delight to watch.

The internet connection is absolutely awful; an old fashioned, expensive dial-up connection, which just stopped working for a week. They were upgrading the system, but didn't tell their customers.

The centre of Willemstad, with the beautiful coloured houses, was very nice and so was Westpunt (West Point). I visited the Dolphin Academy and Sea Aquarium, and did three really nice dives and some lovely snorkelling. That was certainly a highlight as the fish are remarkably tame and it is very easy to observe their natural behaviour.

Also the National Park, Shete Boka, is worth visiting. This includes a turtle sanctuary. It is on the North side of the island, where there are large waves and sea caves.

Another highlight was my visit with Dinah Veeris, who features in my next article with Seed Magazine. She is an amazing woman and has created a beautiful botanical garden in which she preserves many endangered herbs. She has also collected and written about their many traditional healing properties.

Mot much else to write about apart from the fact that it not an island I would visit again.

Hummingbird in the garden!	Another one!

Willemstad - Punda	More view in Punda

Punda Market	Buying fresh fish

Seahorses in sea aquarium	Caves in Shete Boka

Cool or what?	Shete Boka

West punt	More views in west punt

I like this photo

Dive Encounter in west punt	Marijke enjoying the view

Fun!	Dinah Veeris showing a silk plant

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