Curacao 11-3-14

We woke up to beautiful skies in Curacao.  This is the only one of the ABC islands that I have not been to.  We go to Aruba frequently, I went to Bonaire a few years ago and today I finally made it to Curacao.  This island is the biggest of the 3 and much more industrialized.  I was really surprised as to how developed it is here over Aruba.  You don’t see the dirt roads at all like in Aruba and there is much more of the Dutch feel here than even in Aruba.  The downtown area with its pedestrian  bridge that crosses the canal and opens and closes for ships looks just like Amsterdam.  I wish I could post the photos now so that you could see them.  We snagged a taxi driver who had a van and was willing to take just us on a tour of the island.  He actually was very good and we all enjoyed the tour.  I got to see Andrew Jones’ house…he was a star for the Atlanta Braves and was from here.  The house was quite nice by the standards here overlooking the Caribbean Sea.  We visited the Curacao liquor factory, the floating market, the fort, saw the refinery (Venezuela influence) and rather large.  My dad worked in a refinery and I was used to seeing the stacks where they burn the excess and the smell.  I loved the architecture here and took many photos of the restorations currently going on.  Its nice to see a country interested in keeping their heritage alive.

Columbian Embassy

Foot bridge across the canal..it moves to let the ships pass

Very European with the sidewalk cafes

Floating market

Reception for a boutique hotel

Wedding Cake House

Curacao Liquor Factory

We had fun with this

90% of the island is Catholic..we passed this church

Debbie and Kay stayed in town to shop more while the driver brought Judy, Sharon and I back.  We walked through the shops here and got back on the ship for lunch.  Debbie and Kay joined us up there too.  We are trying to take advantage of the Curacao free wifi before we leave in a half hour or so.  It is also fun sitting out here watching the late people running back down the pier.  The captain said in his announcement this morning that “you should be back by 4:30 PM if you want to sail with the vessel to Aruba”.  He likes to leave promptly and generally does so.  We have to note also that there have been at least one ambulance at every port we have been to and today was no exception.  In Barbados it was a heart attack, today it was a 77 year old lady who fell on lido deck yesterday and broke her hip.  She is being flown back to Boston today.

Andrew Jones' House

He was home---or someone was.

The view from his house

Other houses in his neighborhood

The colors on these houses near the center of town were all different colors.
The tour driver said it was for when they were too drunk to remember their
house numbers so the would say they lived in the green one or the blue one!

Another view of the pedestrian bridge

 

Tomorrow is Aruba, then 3 sea days and we are in Tampa…it is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the journey.