Back to Curacao

Sunday 14^th November 2010

We left Columbus at 7:30, and enjoyed a trouble free flight to Miami, where we walked straight to our next gate and got the 10:45 flight to Curacao. We were upgraded to first class, OH what a luxury, comfortable seats, a decent (for airline food) meal, a couple of gin and tonic’s and I slept peacefully for most of the flight.

I really have to applaud American Airlines, the flights were enjoyable and on time, the food was good and they didn’t lose my bags, which is more than I can say for Delta, I can’t remember the last time I had a trouble free flight with them, one of the reasons we changed to American Airlines.

Curacao was quite overcast when we arrived.  The island had some bad storms over the last few days, with very heavy rain, leaving the roads flooded in places. The area immediately around the airport is very poor and run down, it’s not the best introduction to the island.

At the boat yard, Daisy was sitting out on the hard with her newly painted bottom (hull).  I didn’t stay out of the car for very long as there were millions of mosquitoes “OH joy”.

We then drove out to Louie’s house where we were staying for the night.  Louie’s beautiful house is high on the hill overlooking Spanish Waters.  We ate at Mei Mei’s restaurant, before returning to Louie’s for an early night.

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…

Bonaire to Curacao

Monday 15th September

EDWARDS 25TH BIRTHDAY

We called Edi at school early this morning, to wish him a happy birthday. Then we spent the rest of the morning getting the boat ready for sail.
We weighed anchor at 11am, a little later than we had hoped to leave, but we should still arrive in Curacao well before nightfall. We had good wind 18 - 25 knots, and the sail down the side of Bonaire was lovely, calm seas and good wind, but once we cleared the island the seas became quite rough and choppy, we continued our sail at a steady 8 knots.

As we approached Curacao the waves became larger and the wind stronger, it was quite a rough sail for about 30 minutes until we had cleared around the island.

Curacao is the largest of the Netherlands Antilles islands; off the coast of Venezuela. We started our approach through the entrance to Spanish Waters, with no buoys to guide us in we approached with caution. We dropped anchor in one of the bays with lots of other sailboats.

Curacao is not what I expected. I had been unsure of visiting this island, having heard so many tales of the high crime rate, drugs and general lack of security. Curacao was after all a center for pirates, in the eighteenth century, as far as I had heard, not much had changed, However, upon approach I was amazed by the expensive villas and houses lining the entrance and surrounding the harbors.

The Curacao yacht club looked very swish and expensive, although it’s only available to members. The craggy cliff face’s that towered either side of the harbor had an almost prehistoric appearance. Other than the cliffs, the land was very flat. The abundance of cactus tells me this again is a very dry island.

So far the island looks beautiful, further exploration will reveal the truth I’m sure. I’m quite excited, albeit with a little trepidation about exploring this island.
I made a curry for dinner and we watched another movie.