Guus Bosman

On Monday, the third day of our stay, we made a trip to the other side of the island, to "Westpunt". I thought that Westpunt was something like a small village, so when we asked for a bus to that village in the hotel that caused some confusion: there is no village, it's just the name of the west-side of the island.

We wanted to visit the national park on the island, the Christoffel park, named after the highest mountain on the island, Christoffelberg.

At 9.30 am there was a bus from our hotel, a small mini-van, and we were the only passengers. Although the park was not the official destination the driver dropped us of at the entrance of the park. It was warm and sunny, so we had brought water, some snacks and a very good sunblock -- which we would need badly later that day.

There were a number of trails to walk in the park, and we decided to climb the Christoffelberg itself. It was a beautiful hike, but we had underestimated the effort a little bit, and it turned out to be a four hour trip under the warm Curacao sun. It was good we brought our supplies, especially the sunblock.

We made some nice pictures of our hike.

We were back around 3.15 pm, and our van came to pick us up. We were glad to be back in the civilized world and I'm proud to say that I have climbed the second-highest mountain in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the highest being the mountain on Saba).

Saturday morning we woke up very early, after a short night we took a cab to the airport at 5.30. I routinely told the driver "Dulles airport, please" but luckely Sasha corrected me and told the driver to go the Reagan instead -- I was still asleep.

Check-in was smooth, I am very glad we were flying American Airlines so we could use the priority line, it was busy at the airport.

We flew to Miami first, and after an hour on the airport there we went into our plane to Curacao.

When we landed on the island we had to close the shutters of the plane because of the heat -- it was so warm outside! Wonderful weather.

Today I am in Puerto Rico again. I arrived this morning, after spending a few days in Arlington, where it was snowing this Sunday and it was pretty cold.

I am not sure if it's the temperature difference or not, but Sunday evening my throat started hurting and sure enough I have a cold now. Feeling better than on Monday though, and at least I won't be cold in Puerto Rico.

It's high season here, something I didn't really take into account so it was a bit difficult to get a room in our hotel and all rental cars at the airport were taken.

I really enjoy being here, and the work that we're doing right now, but I am much more looking forward to next week... Sasha and I are going on vacation!

When we I left the office in Puerto Rico I thought it it will be my usual routine.

First put the luggage through agricultural control, check the suitcase in and get my electronic boarding pass printed. With a little bit of luck the lines for security are not too long and I have some time to get dinner, followed of course by a visit to Starbucks for an espresso.

The flight to DC used to be at 5:40 last year, but it was moved to 7.10 pm and we left the office around 5. Rather late, and the traffic was very bad. At one point I was rather sure we wouldn't make it, but we arrived at the airport about 45 minutes for take-off. We were running for the the check in counter.

It turned out that our plane had a delay, so the rush was not necessary at all and we had plenty of time for dinner & Starbucks. We were told that the aircraft we were taking had a mechanical problem on its original departure point, St. Thomas, and it was not until 10.40 pm that we left Puerto Rico. I was home around 2.00 am.