Second try, Mambo Beach
20 February 2021 | 12 03.520'N:68 51.216'W, Spaanse Harbour, Curacao
NC
18th February
12 03.520 N
68 51.216 W
Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a
Yay today we picked up the hire car once again, not that it was in our original plan to have it again for 3 days but let's be honest it does make life so much easier not having to dash around doing everything at the very last minute and hoping that you didn't forget anything important. So 10 am and we were waiting patiently for the car to turn up, when the delivery guys arrived they made a fatal mistake of parking the car along the line of parked cars and as Gerry was completing the paperwork for the car a couple turned up whose car was temporarily blocked in by the hire car. The man got into the driver's seat and was patiently waiting but the woman began telling the world in a very loud and obnoxious way that we had blocked their car in and they needed to get out of the car park, Gerry explained that he was just completing the paperwork for the hire car and would only be a couple of minutes as it was almost done but that didn't stop her from carrying on like an idiot, she truely was something to behold and had apparently gotten out of her bed on the wrong side today! Meanwhile the man had started up the car and, with room to spare, managed to reverse out and around the hire car. The woman got into the car and slammed the door so hard that I'm sure it must have broken the hinges although it would be hard to tell as the car was a rust bomb to begin with. I hate to say it but they are yachties of the very worst sort, privileged, white and of North American origin - we felt so bad that we apologized to the hire car delivery guy for her behavior! With the paperwork completed we set off towards the city, we needed to find out if the launderette was open on a Saturday morning and having discovered that it was we could make plans around that. We really didn't have anything pressing to do today so we decided to take another trip out to Mambo Beach and see if we could actually get down onto the beach today. We arrived to a car park that was considerably more empty than our previous visit and parked the car with the intention of walking down the alley walkway to the beach and seeing if we could get a cup of coffee there. The place was fairly quiet as apparently all the kids were in school and businesses were working their normal hours today. There was a whole heap of beach resort type of shops selling swimwear, beach toys and souvenirs plus a lot of cafes and bars before you even got down to the beach level. The beach itself was like a private resort with umbrellas, loungers, tikki huts, chairs and tables set up for anyone to use. Lovely white sand bordered a man made breakwater lagoon which was on the edge of the ocean, palm trees were all over the place providing some shade and that "tropical Island" feel. We found a cafe which was right on the sand and sat down to have a coffee, it wasn't quite lunch time but we thought we might as well have an early lunch here in the peace and quiet. When it arrived the sandwiches were so huge that we both left half of our sandwich and took it home for later in the day. We even spotted a couple of the national birds flitting around the trees that lined the beach and I managed to snap a couple of photos. The beach wasn't at all crowded today, we had a wonderful view of the ocean and some awesome coffee, I was so glad we had made the effort to return. The only thing missing were the topless sunbathers - not that I cared but I suspect that Gerry might have secretly been disappointed! When we left the beach we went on a scenic drive around the place once again finding a couple of roads that we hadn't been down before. Once we had done a circuit we headed back to the dock and out to the boat where we did nothing special for a couple of hours before setting off in the dinghy once more to go for dinner at The Pier restaurant - it was cheap set meal night for the yachties, a fantastic weekly event with a good meal for very little cash and happy hour! We spotted the angry woman from the morning in attendance and stayed well out of her way - no one needs that much negativity in their lives! As we always do, we ate and left being the first ones to go. We were back on our boat and watching TV before most of the punters left the restaurant.