Cruising - Curacao

After a day at sea we arrived at the Dutch Antilles and the island of Curacao (pronounced Kurasow). As usual the cruise dock is close to downtown but Curacao had done a better job than most in creating a very pleasant walk, (past the shops of course), through an old fort, across a floating bridge to the pretty, pastel downtown area.

On all the islands we were greeted by a pilot boat. The pilot jumped on
board (they opened a hatch just above water line) and guided us in. The reverse
occurred when we left.

Our first "selfie", just to experiment with the timer on the camera.

The shops, bars and restaurants inside the old fort at the entrance to the harbour.

Our first view of the floating bridge and downtown Willemstad.

Willemstad is a World Heritage Site and a lot of money has been spent on sprucing it up in the last 10 years. The results were well worth it. It is very attractive while still being very livable. We walked across the bridge and explored the ocean front and government buildings first.

Part of the government complex.

The old fortified walls are now inhabited by restaurants and bars with views along the coast. After walking through this area we headed back towards the harbour, through the back streets and came across what, I learned later, was the "floating market".

Small boats were tied up along a wharf just off the main waterway.

On the wharf beside the boats

On talking to one of the vendors we found out that these boats leave Venezuela (less than 35 miles away) every morning with their loads of fresh produce and fresh fish and set up on the wharf for local shopping. The fish are sold right off the boats and people were buying whole fresh fish, none of this plastic wrapped fillets on a Styrofoam tray.
It was a warm day (and the sun was over the yardarm) so we stopped at one of the pretty harbour side bars for a beer and I sketched one of the buildings.

While sitting there a boat needed to enter the harbour so the floating bridge was opened. It disengages at one end, is hinged at the other end and a motor pushes the bridge, on pontoons, to the side of the waterway. While it is open small ferries take pedestrians back and forth.

Half way there

Nearly closed again. The motor is run from in the little building.
The people on the bridge at the time get to go for the ride.

We went back to the ship for lunch, sun and siesta, dinner and then returned to Willemstad in the evening. This was the only island that we stayed on into the evening. We returned to the harbour and had another drink in the same area; people watching as it was a Saturday night and the place was hopping.

Downtown from the floating bridge.

We left Willemstad at about 11pm for the short hop to Aruba.

 I wrote this post a week ago and never got around to uploading it. It seems a life time ago as George died suddenly on November 27. I need to try and keep to familiar routines so plan on continuing to write on the blog though not sure how much travelling I will do for a while. This blog will be a constant reminder to me of how many wonderful times we had and what a great friend, husband and partner he was.