Photography Tour of Curaçao

We had not been in the ABC Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao for a few years, but we had already seen much of what the tours offer, and knew they would be busy if there were more ships in port.

We only took a walk down the main street in Oranjestad, Aruba and turned back when it looked like we could get a rain shower. It was very busy and we had the longest walk from the port entrance to the ship out of the 4 vessels in town.

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Ticky-tacky tourist shot of Regent Grandeur

We remember this boat entrance to the
hotel from our first trip to Aruba,
probably in 1990

One view of town from the ship

We visited the islands in A-C-B order, so our next stop was in Willemstad, Curaçao. Larry elected to stay on board, but I wanted to get some sketching photos, so I booked the 'Capture the Moment' tour. Our guide, Cris, said they usually called it a Selfie Tour, but as nobody in the group was interested in borrowing a selfie stick, she stuck to the name the cruise line had given the tour.

We began by walking from the ship into the recognizable centre of the town, and across the Emma Bridge, the world famous floating wooden bridge that was the only connection between both sides of town until the big blue Juliana Bridge was built in the 1970s.

Only the emerald green and yellow buildings are
still original dating back into the 1700s.

The Emma Bridge pontoons

The Emma Bridge is opened when ships need to enter into the protected harbour where we were moored. Curaçao was a major trading hub for the Dutch, especially for the slave trade in the 1700s and 1800s, and later on, up until the 1990s was a major refinery for Venezuelan oil. Now the island depends on tourism for almost all of its economy.

We took a short walk in town, passing by the floating market. Here vendors have stalls right on the water's edge with their boats right behind them holding stock. Fish, fruit and vegetables are sold here, as well as souvenirs.

One of the façade painting on the yellow
Penha building. It was originally built for the slave
trade but now deals in duty free fragrances and jewellery

This cute little trio in a small square near
the market

Some of the fruit and vegetable stalls
at the floating market

The market from the other side

We passed through a park on our way to our
bus, and found this. The ultimate in recycling!

We climbed into our mini-bus and were driven across to the north side of the island to Shete Boka National Park. The north side of all the islands is the rougher one, and we got to see that first-hand here. The landscape is very sparse - just lava rock and cactus plants, and the ocean pounds into the shoreline with real violence. I wouldn't want to fall into the water by accident; chances are you wouldn't survive it.

The waves crashed on the rocks and then back into
the next ones coming in, causing some huge sprays
near the viewing area.

This is the very north end of the island. Nothing here
but rocks and cacti.

and geckos and small iguanas

Someone in government has a sense
of humour! We should have signs
like these at home.

During our drive around, Cris gave us some background on the history of the island and taught us all a few words and phrases in Papiemento, the native language. She also told us a story she heard as a young child when she was disobedient, which all led up to a brief stop we made along the way.

The story she heard from her mother told of a time when the trees had legs and could walk around. (Yeah, Mom, sure...) They all got together for a party, but the rule was that they had to be back where they belonged before sunrise. They were having such a good time that the sun was almost up before they noticed it, and they all started running back to their places except one. By the time he noticed the sun it was almost too late. He ran as far as he could and sat down to catch his breath. The sun came up and planted him where he sat:

This is obviously a very old tree, as Cris heard this story about 50 years ago. The 'do as you are told' moral of the story wasn't lost on her at the time, but when she tried it on her own daughter more recently it didn't work at all. 

After driving most of the way back to Willemstad, we made a final stop that I didn't recall reading about in the description - at the Hato Cave. As a rule, I'm not crazy about caves if they are small and dark, so I did a quick Google search on this one and it looked okay.

Here are a few shots from inside. There are 6 caverns all together, but you can only take photos in a couple of them, as there are small fruit bats living inside the cave and light flashes would disturb them. The stalagmites and stalactites form very slowly in the cave, so everything we saw was millenia old, not just centuries.

To give an idea of scale, here's a couple
posing for a photo inside the cavern. There
is a hole in the ceiling where the bats go in and
out at night.

This stalagmite almost looks like the
Virgin Mary. The light is coming from our
guide's flashlight.

That was our final stop on the tour, and the bus drove us right back to the ship. We didn't leave until almost 10:00 p.m. and had a lovely sailout past the town and through the Emma Bridge.

Looking at the Juliana Bridge after we turned around
to leave.

The 'skyline' of Willemstad all lit up

With just as many lights on the Emma Bridge

We didn't have far to go to get to Bonaire yesterday. Again, we had no planned excursion, and although we thought we'd go for a stroll in town, I got busy with the blog and we ended up staying on board. Today is a sea day and tomorrow we'll be in St. George's, Grenada where we have a longer island tour of about 6 hours. It has been quite a while since we've been there, and we'll see how it looks.

Pacific Rim for dinner tonight. I'll have to get some photos for the next food post.