Curaçao

Because I went to bed at 9:30 pm last night I woke up at 6 am without an alarm!  I started walking on deck 3 on the Promenade but found the deck too wet from cleaning to go too quickly so I headed up the stairs to deck 9 and went to the fitness centre to use a treadmill to get a great view of the docking process at Curaçao.  

After a shower I went to the dining room for breakfast while Mom ordered breakfast into the room and LC ate breakfast at the Lido. We had arrangements to meet with the brother of a colleague of LC's and he has lived here for 34 years. We were privileged to tour the island in his private vehicle. 

The island of Curaçao is about 15 km wide by 60 km in length. The eastern tip of the island is owned privately and not open to the public. Our private guide headed through the city of Willemstad and headed West. We stopped to buy two coconuts to drink the coconut water - they cost the equivalent of $1.75 US. 

Because this is Carnival weekend a number of facilities were closed so we kept on driving and stopped at two beautiful beaches - Small Knip Beach and Big Knip Beach!  Small Knip Beach had snorkellers and divers and a few families swimming. 

There were many umbrellas and chairs on the beach available to use.   A local was cooking chicken for sale too - but had no bathroom facilities. We did use the facilities at big Knip - we paid about $5 US for four of us to use the bathroom. 

We then went for lunch at Restaurant Landhuis in Klein Santa Martha. It was perched on the hill overlooking an inlet to the ocean. We ate outdoors, thankfully in the shade because it was 30 degrees Celcius. What a delightful setting for a laid back lunch!  Nothing happens quickly in Curaçao but the chicken stew I had was delicious!

After lunch we were fortunate enough to see some flamingos in he wild. What a thrill!

Cos Abou Beach near Bandabou was our guides favorite beach (24 km West of Willemstad) - it is great for snorkelling and has bathrooms, umbrellas, the works!

As we returned to Willemstad we saw great amounts of  traffic going the opposite direction, because of the Carnival. The parade is taking place tomorrow but people save up their money all year long to put towards this event - costumes, food, drink, buying a permit to build a viewing area for their friends along the Carnival route. 

We then drove up to Fort Nassau to get a great view of the city.  Our private tour drew to a close in the Punda district - the Unesco World Heritage site.  We loved all the buildings with Dutch architecture and the Caribbean colours!  We thanked our guide with a gift of Canadian products and some money in a thank you card. I am sure he didn't want anything but we appreciated his 6 hours of time and customized your just for us!

After a bit of shopping in Punda Mom and LC took a taxi back to the ship and I walked across the floating bridge to the ship. 

A shower and change of clothes was needed from the heat of the day and we were ready to enjoy supper in the dining room. We don't leave port until 11 pm so LC and I are walking off the ship to use the free wifi  to try to post this blog tonight!