Familie Martes: 2011

Sharlon and I spend 2 weeks on the island of Curacao, where he was born and grew up. Everyone who knows me, knows that I like it rather cool and therefore needed a few days to get used to the heat. We had 27-32°C (80-90°F) every day. People told me, it cooled down a little, because it was the "rain season". There are only 3 seasons in the Caribbean - the dry season, the storm season and the rain season.

We had a very good time and I could see where Sharlon went to school, where he lived and met some of his old friends. We even ran into one of his old teachers when we walked through one of his schools.

Life on the island of Curacao is quite different from the life I am used to here in Germany. I ate mangos from the garden instead from the supermarket, had watermelon in November and sometimes felt like I was in a zoo when we went for a walk, because we saw a lot of animals that I only knew from books or the zoo. I was amazed how many lizards we saw. We also saw a deer, a goat, turtles, lizards, different birds and different kinds of fish. I am sharing a few pictures with you and hope you enjoy them.

The ocean really is that blue! It was from a house from one of our friends there!

A cactus - a plant you see a lot on Curacao.

A view to the "skyline" of Willemstad.

The people of Curacao used to be taken as slaves and had a hard life. Sharlon and I found out that some of his relatives were slaves! We went to the National Archive one day to find more of his ancestors and we were happy to add about 10 new names to our ancestral file. We are looking forward to do their temple work. It touched me and we could feel that someone was helping us finding those people. Slaves usually were not allowed to marry and so did not appear in the normal archives of the country. We looked through lists of slaves hoping to find more names.

The statue in the picture is a reminder of the freeing of the slaves. It took place in 1795 and Tula, a very famous slave was the leader who made it all happen.

One of the birds we saw.

We in front of the city of Willemstad. The houses all over the island were painted in bright colors. It made me realize how colorful the world is because of all the different people that live on earth.

Here is a bus stop. You would just go to the bus stop and wait for the bus - the buses do not follow a certain schedule and when the bus comes, you could see where it goes. If it is the direction you need, you would get on or just wait for another...

One of the houses the slaves would live in. That house was for 2 people! It was appr. 4-5 square meters...

We during one of our trips on one of the many forts they used to defend the island against intruders.

The ocean!

St. Christoffel (375m), the highest mountain on the island. Even though Sharlon is afraid of heights, he went up there with me, because he knew I love mountains and I like to hike! Almost to the top it was a bit of climbing and we were happy that the rocks were dry!

Some left over from one of the forts.

Sunset at the house of our friends.

A turtle. We just saw this one in a cage. This is for you, Daphne!

View from St. Christoffel! You could see over the whole island and the view made up for the hike up there! I am glad we went in the early morning when it was not quite as hot.

Sharlon and I in the St. Christoffel National Park.

Because Curacao used to be a dutch colony, you can still find dutch road signs on the way. The speed limit on the island by the way is 80 km/h... on those roads I would not dare to go any faster anyway.

Sharlons side of the family. On the very left, his brother Sherwin. On the right his mother Mathilde and his father Erwin. They took us to the airport and we spend some time with them. And yes, we were standing between christmas trees! They were all over the airport. I liked it, even though it was hard for me to imagine Christmas when it was that hot.

Sharlon and I after we jumped in the ocean for the first time!

People are getting baptized outside! It is warm enough all year to do that!

The ocean again from our friends house.

Our pilot on our flight back had is very last flight before his retirement. He got permission to fly around the whole island before heading out to Amsterdam. We were lucky on that flight! I just wish we had less clouds, but you can still see how beautiful this island is.

It was sad to leave, but I was also looking forward to the cool weather in Rotterdam. And it was cold when we were back. Will I come back to Curacao? Definitely! It is worth traveling there!

One week ago Sharlon and I got married! Wednesday (Oct 26th) was the civil ceremony in Rotterdam, a day later we got sealed for time and all eternity in the Frankfurt Temple. Only after the sealing we felt we were really married. Another day later we had the chance to celebrate the start into our life together with friends and family. All of my brothers and sisters had the chance to come! Daphne surprised us by coming, even though my family kept telling us she is not able to make it!
We had 3 wonderful days and I would like to thank everyone who gave us their time and talents to make this event unforgetable to us. We are really blessed to have this family and all those friends.
On Saturday we are heading out to our honeymoon. Be sure that we will keep you updated and will post pictures.
We love you all and are happy to have you in our lives.