We arrived in Curacao at dawn.

We signed up for an "ecohike" excursion.
Here we are waiting outside the ship for the tour guide. Grandmom Ruth wanted more photos of us, so here we are!

I am wearing my stylish new sun glasses that I bought in Miami. We were going out to walk around South Beach, and I forgot to take the ones I brought. So I bought this lovely pair, actually they were the cheapest pair I could find. My children usually wouldn't be caught dead in my sunglasses! Once in a while I buy an acceptable pair. :-)




Bob is wearing his Red Sox shirt. The woman behind us to the right told us she was from Cape Cod. She lives in Dennis.


We were taken by a small bus to a scrubby area along the coast and a guide pointed out all the interesting plants and shrubs, and how they were used. One was used in shampoo, one for medicinal uses and another for dishwashing detergent. It was not as exotic as we thought it would be, but we got a good long walk out of it. The guide did not speak English well, so he was hard to decipher. We always get more information when we go on these little excursions than we would if we went out alone. For example, this hotel (below) is the tallest building on the island, and is very close to the water. It is the only building in the world that is insured if a ship crashes into it.


The capital of Curacao, Willemstad, is by far the cutest little place we have visited. It is part of the Netherlands Antilles, as is Aruba, so it has Dutch influence in the building style. It is working hard on marketing for tourism, so they are now making a serious attempt to attract tourists. It is a much nicer place that Aruba, so I expect it will be busier with tourists than Aruba soon.


I took the photo above from a bridge, which is really high because the oil refinery is farther into the harbor, and tankers have to be able to get back and forth from the refinery. Below is a photo of the bridge from Willemstad. If you look hard, you can see the oil tanks down in the harbor.

 

Here is the low bridge over the harbor, only for pedestrians. It swings open for ships.





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