Willemstad, Curacao

441 nautical miles since leaving Grenada

7.10am awake, and we were already docked.  Quite sleepy this morning, so lay in bed and read the brochure and LPG about Curacao.  The old down is Unesco World Heritage-recognised, and the island’s colonial Dutch heritage is prevalent.

Dressed and upstairs for breakfast.  Back to our room, into our togs with clothes over top, and off the ship by 9.15am.  Onto a boat that took us 35 mins east down the coast to Van der Valk Beach.  It was very windy, and the sea was quite rough with 1 metre swells, sometimes swelling to 1.5 metres.  Off the boat, and while walking to the beach (5 mins) we saw an iguana.  We were in a hurry to get good deck chairs so didn’t get a photo.  It was a big one, about 3 ft long.  They eat them here – iguana soup and iguana stew – don’t know if I’m that game.  The local market was closed by the time we got to it, so didn’t get a chance to even see any of it.  We got good beach loungers under a coconut tree, went for a walk up and down the beach, people-watched, and read our books for three hours.

Back on the boat, and back to the ship to get out of our togs and change.  Back on shore again, and walked into town.  They have a pontoon pedestrian bridge, which opens (like a door) to let ships through to the harbour.

We didn’t see the pontoon bridge open for another big cruise ship about the same size as ours that had arrived earlier, so the bridge is quite long.  When the bridge is open, there is a ferry that runs as sometimes the bridge can be open for up to 30 mins with the sea traffic.  The bridge was open when we wanted to cross, so we had to get the ferry, but fortunately it was closed on the way back so we were able to walk over it.  The outskirts of the town are very cutesy with pastel painted houses.  Within the town, it’s mostly your average tourist town with the usual buildings.  We had lunch at Indi’s Spice House with fabulous views across to town:

Then had a look around the town, at the markets, unfortunately the fish markets were finished for the day, as had the local markets.  Across the pontoon bridge, and went to the Kura Hulanda Museum, which iis an anthropological museum with the largest African collection in the Caribbean.  It is also known as the slave museum, and gives a good history of the slave trade in the Caribbean.  Although the museum was not well laid out and clearly documented, it was still a very sobering experience.  Bought some tonic on the way back to the ship.  Showers, then gins on the balcony for sailaway.  Wrote the blog, then downstairs to the theatre to watch John Bressner, who is a pianist and singer.  He was excellent at tickling the ivories, and could belt out quite a song.  Dinner with Terry and Chuck again, then home to bed.