Day out in Curacao

Tuesday 16th September

I got up early to write my journal, and Bob arranged for a rental car at 9am.

Today we explore the island.

Curacao has the reputation of being the ugly industrial sister of beautiful Bonaire. The difference is that Curacao has the infrastructure that is missing from most of the South Eastern Caribbean Islands. The bays on the western coast of Curacao have white coral sand beaches and crystal clear water for snorkeling or diving. In fact Curacao is rated as second in the world for snorkeling, even above Bonaire. I intend to ignore all the negative comments I have heard recently about this island, and explore it as if I have heard nothing.

The driver picked us up at 9:20 and drove us to the rental store. Then we headed out around the island. Our first stop was Willemstad, where we parked the car on the seafront.

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1977, Willemstad is the capital of Curacao. Its older area is made up of distinct districts, with their architectural styles reflecting the 17th century Dutch colonization of the ABC islands. Sint Annabaai, a channel linking the sea to the inner harbor, divides the central city into Otrobanda, a primarily residential area, and Punda, the commercial area.

One of the major landmarks in Willemstad is the floating pontoon Bridge, named the Queen Emma, it spans the channel and swings open to allow passage for ships.

We visited a couple of local market gift stalls that were set up on the front, Bob bought me a necklace handmade from coconut. Our next stop was to visit Customs and Immigration, an interesting procedure, with the offices being on opposite sides of the water.

The Queen Emma bridge swings back and forth to let people cross and boats through, while the bridge is closed a ferry goes to and fro from side to side, always full of people. I couldn’t believe how many people cross from side to side continually. We stopped at one of the waterside café’s and had a coffee while we watched all the people and boats.

A man carrying two quite large iguanas on his shoulders, paraded up and down alongside the café’s, stopping occasionally to chat to the tourists. We waited for the floating bridge to reopen then walked across to find the immigration, which turned out to be a tiny booth at the entrance of the cruise ship dock, Bob stopped to ask directions only to find, the booth was it. Once the officer had checked all our documents he directed us through the security gates to the office to get the passports stamped. It was quite a long walk, and uncomfortable in the intense heat, but we eventually came across the offices.

Unfortunately we forgot to visit the Harbor Authorities to get our anchoring permit, but as we will are leaving tomorrow, we’re hoping it won‘t matter. Once we were finished with immigration, we walked back into town, and again stopped at one of the waterside café’s for a cocktail and some lunch. It was quite pleasant sitting there watching all the boats go past, one huge cargo ship passed that was almost as big as the town itself, providing quite a spectacle for all the tourists.

After lunch we visited the Curacao Marina, where Bob is hoping to have the boat hauled out, unfortunately they don’t have room for us until November. The marina was nice, and it looked to be very safe. When we left the marina we drove around for a while before eventually returning to the boat.

For dinner we took the dinghy across to a little restaurant right on the water in the bay. The food was quite nice, and the setting lovely.
After dinner we went back to the boat and played Mexican train…