Curacao – Greg and Mandy's Travels

The captain had made a beeline for the leeward side of Curacao last night in order to shelter from the wind and swells, so we had a very calm night. Woke up as we gently came alongside the pier in the city.

A large cruise ship, the Zandam, sister ship to the one we took through the Inside Passage to Alaska, was also in town with some 3000 of its own passengers so the wharf area was fairly busy.

Alighted to join our free walking tour which was due to start a few minutes away at the old fort. After sitting there for a while with nobody else turning up, we wandered around to find some wifi, and received a new message from our guide saying that she was cancelling our tour, and sorry. Given that there were some 20 or so walking tours taking everybody from the cruise ships around, we figure she probably decided to take one of them instead.

Oh well, we thought. Back to the ship to grab our maps, then off to the Tourist Information Bureau to get a brochure and suggestions. However, in true Caribbean style, the tourist information centre is only open Monday to Friday. No matter that there are 3500 tourist in town today trying to find out what to do.

So that reduced us to wandering around with the other masses trying to find something to do, actually anything that was open would do. Most shops were shut, even McDonalds was closed. We saw the old Rif Fort guarding the harbour entrance which as been turned to a set of boutique tourist shops. the Jewish synagogue, and the Queen Emma pontoon bridge which obligingly opened on our return to the ship. It’s not a tilt bridge or a lift bridge which are far more common. It’s a swivel bridge, several hundred metres long, with outboard engines on one end to swing the whole bridge across the river like opening a door. Takes around 30 minutes for the full manoeuvre.

Looks like Curacao is having its own Carnival sometime today, but judging by the short course of barricades and low key preparations its going to be much smaller.

Curacao seems far more Dutch than Aruba. Dutch signs, Dutch shops like Delft, Dutch products in the shops. No way of proving it, but it feels like Curacao is far more comfortable with its Dutch heritage, whereas in Aruba it felt like they were trying to return to their native language and culture. Consequently Curacao is far cleaner and more prosperous. It’s interesting to reflect that, whilst everybody values independence highly and struggles for it, there are some benefits to colonisation.

Late afternoon we put on our walking shoes and headed off for a longish walk to a bar that was showing the Superbowl. The captain had delayed cast-off so that the hundreds of Americans on board (and us) could watch it somewhere on shore (as they didn’t have the broadcast rights on-board). Walked through the gathering masses waiting for Carnival in the evening, and some time later arrived at the bar.

Could only watch till 3/4 time if we wanted to be back on board before the ship left, but it was a fun evening.